Need to discipline bureaucrats after Hathras blot
Well begun is half done, goes the saying. Whether this proverb will hold true for the Hathras rape and murder victim’s family is too early to say, but the Allahabad High Court’s order after its first hearing in the matter definitely holds out hope. While the victim succumbed to a vicious sexual and physical assault, the family has since been subjected to an enormous amount of emotional attack.
The humiliation of not even being allowed to see their daughter’s face before she was cremated in the dead of the night has been exacerbated by attempts to cast doubts over the victim’s allegation of rape. The court has, quite correctly, pulled up government officials for this wholly obnoxious attempt.
The judges appeared to be surprised that Hathras district magistrate Praveen Kumar Laxkar’s role has not even been probed. Although there is video evidence of him threatening the victim’s family to change their statement, the government seems to have turned a blind eye and the DM still sits pretty in his position.
As does Additional Director General of Police Prashant Kumar who, perhaps in his eagerness to please the government of the day, announced rather dramatically that the victim had not been raped. His statement was based on a dubious forensic report. These two insensitive and blundering officials are prime examples of what a bureaucrat and a police officer should not be.
Their style of functioning resembles that of the bureaucracy in the colonial days, which was to rule and control the people they governed. Such officials do not serve and protect the public they are under oath to do; on the contrary, they are only subservient and obedient to the powers that be. They would rather serve the raja than the praja.
They would rather rule by the law than ensure the rule of the law. Such officials are a blot on the bureaucracy. Perhaps it is time to introduce changes in the civil service rules so that any stricture or censure by a court of law against such bad apples automatically attracts punishment or punitive action. Only then will such high-handed officials be reined in.