India Against Corruption

Register

  India Against Corruption > INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION > DISCUSSIONS > NEWS & VIEWS

Lessons from Palghar

Lessons from Palghar By Prem Chandran Let’s give the devil its due. The government deserves a pat on its back .....




  #1  
12-25-2012
Senior Member
 
: Oct 2012
: Adur, Kerala, India
: 70
:
: 109 | 0.03 Per Day
Thumbs up Lessons from Palghar


Lessons from Palghar

By Prem Chandran

Let’s give the devil its due. The government deserves a pat on its back for the speed with which it sought to effect a significant change the Information Technology Act. It’s rarely that a government here wakes up, walks fast or works straight. No one expected of the Centre to even take a serious note of the reckless Palghar arrests -- as administrations are generally insensitive -- despite the anguish the police action has generated among the more civilized, or computer savvy sections of the society.

Clearly, this response is indicative of the winds of change that are blowing over the public life of late, albeit with low intensity. The anti-corruption movement over the past over a year has, in the minimum, shaken the powers that be to a level they can no more afford to keep looking the other way when major issues are thrown up. More importantly, the rise of social activism over the web, drawing hundreds of thousands of the educated youths to the social media on a daily – if not hourly — basis, has politicians already scurrying for cover. No news today remains on line without several thousands of the citizens making an instant, often harsh, comment over the way things are shaping up – mostly in the wrong way.

The instant rapport the social media activists and the anti-corruption campaigners have established, which was but a natural effect, has energised both the sides; or more precisely, each has supplemented and complemented the activism of the other side. And this growing synergy is what might send a shiver down the spines of those who have made business enterprises out of political engagement and built empires for themselves mostly from scratch, or the ones like the Palghar police officials who danced to the tunes of political elements.

The angry response of the civil society against the Shiv Sena mayhem in Palghar and the objectionable way the police and administration officials in Palghar arrested two girls – and a boy later— has served its purpose. Yet, the issue is far from over. It concerns the progressive degradation in the code of conduct of the men manning the nation’s administrative and police machinery. Prima facie, there was nothing uncivilized about the comment that one of the girls posted, and which was only “liked” by the other. In simple terms, it was a simple exercise of a citizen’s democratic right, namely to register his or her protest over a disturbance to public life -- the city shutdown in the aftermath of the Bal Thackeray demise. That the Shiv Sainiks, sensitive as they were, made a complaint to the police is just one part of the story. The worse part was the police response to the complaint. Did they, as officials, use their sense of judgement as regards the seriousness of the alleged crime before they effected the arrests of the girls? If not, why?

The progressive demoralisation of the men and women manning the nation’s administrative services, matching with the degradation of the political process in the country, is a matter of serious worry for the civil society. That officials act as puppets in the hands of politicians is a fact reinforced yet again, and prominently, in Palghar. In the process, and starkly, the civil rights of the citizenry are seriously threatened.

If the Sena men went overboard, that was only to be expected given their proclivities, and the general inefficiency that bedevil the state and central administrations today, thanks to the demeaning of the political process – a process that sees riff-raffs hijacking not just the political process but also the social environment, village to village, city to city, and state to state.

The street-smart lot they are, the Sena men never let go of an opportunity to cock a snook at the ones they were not comfortable with, and more so in this case, especially as the girl who posted the comment happened to be a Muslim. It is not in them to brood over the long-term repercussions of their acts such as these; and the nation is already paying a heavy price for the growth of the divisive tendencies that have come to mar the social life here for the past two decades. This, starting with the Ayodhya offensive, following up with the Mumbai and Gujarat mayhem on communal lines, and culminating in the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Have we bargained for such a scenario is a debatable point.

The end of Bal Thackery will, however, not be the end of the socio-political aggressiveness the western metropolis has over the recent decades acquired a reputation for; something that has undercut its all-encompassing nature and fast-paced progress into a mega city status. The Sena has, to its credit, already got onto a broader platform as distinct from its earlier pro-Marathi, anti-South Indian, anti-Gujarati and anti-North Indian base, by skilfully latching on to the Hindutva bandwagon. So much so, it is now positioning itself as the main guarantee to the majority community in the metropolis against machinations of the Pakistani/Islamic agencies (if not agents), and the Don Dawood-inspired offensives. The fact is, there indeed are many takers to it today among the wider Hindutva platform in Mumbai, and more so after 26/11. Dawood’s gift to the Shiv Sena?

The government’s positive gesture in respect of the IT act, by way of issuing new guidelines in respect of future arrests, is but a small measure considering the overall gravity of the situation. That the activities in the cyber world cannot go unchecked is without doubt. But, where should the buck stop is a serious question. In the minimum, it should enjoy the same rights as the established media in this country currently do – the freedom to criticise the establishment or to caricature an individual in authority (like a Mamata Banerjee, for instance) included; and that too without fear of favour. The regulations that evolve thus could just be the beginning of a new engagement between the government and the governed, which could be perfected as time passes – rather than waiting for the rest of the world to set their houses in order and then for us to follow suit.

 



India Against Corruption
India Against Corruption is a PUBLIC Forum, NOT associated with any organisation(s).
DISCLAIMER: Members of public post content on this website. We hold no responsibility for the same. However, abuse may be reported to us.

Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0