Have mini-states with parallel systems come into being within the state, with their own codes of law and diktats? How else do we explain a situation where two state governments have to be put on red alert, the Army, the paramilitary forces deployed, just so that the court can pronounce its verdict in a criminal case? That too, 15 years late. Way back in December 2002, an anonymous sexual exploitation complaint had landed on the desk of the then Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The CBI took till 2008 to frame charges against Dera chief Ram Rahim Singh for sexually exploiting two of his female devotees. On August 25, when he was finally convicted, two states had to be turned into security fortresses with their chief ministers on their toes, curfew clamped, electricity and internet disconnected. The Dera followers nonetheless were on the rampage.
How did this controversial cult guru with a yen for outrageous flamboyance and acting in kitsch DIY films come to command such authority? The ordinary citizen had to watch him drive to the CBI court in a cavalcade of SUVs. Because, we have had politicians of all hues going to his durbar for votes. Ram Rahim could swing elections in Punjab.
His influence stretched to Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. So we get a ludicrous situation that matches, or surpasses, the spectacle of a judge on the run. Unfortunately, in both these cases, we also see a genuine caste story gone awry.
If the judge played on his Dalit identity, there’s no denying the Dera chief’s supporters are mostly from the depressed sections, in a sense expelled by the caste hierarchy-driven elite religious orders. Yes, the state failed in Haryana on Friday.
But the state had already failed millions of ordinary citizens. It’s when they have little hope of belonging to or identifying with—forget seeking justice from—the established order that the vulnerable turn to extra-constitutional set-ups. Yes, this is a mockery of law and order and the justice system, but also a clear sign of an existing void within the state.