Those thousands of men and women, employed by Bihar state corporations, who didn’t get paid for years have suffered in ways that are impossible to document entirely. Subhash Chandra, once an accounts section officer in a state corporation, who spent years roaming from office to office in search of elusive dues. Champa Devi, a sweeper in another unit, who didn’t get her salary for the last 12 years and whose sons lost out on an education. Shiv Narain Singh, a doctor, who couldn’t afford to buy shoes for his child because he had no money.These were only some of the stories from an unending list that this newspaper had resurrected in the series it ran last August, entitled ‘Bihar’s bloodless murder’. But even the most facile writing cannot capture the despair of lived existence and lost lives. That’s why the Supreme Court ruling on Friday assumes such importance. Responding to a public interest petition, it directed Rabri Devi’s state to deposit Rs 50 crore with the Patna High Court towards the disbursal of all unpaid salaries. There is a simple but important principle being upheld here: Accountability is also about settling accounts. By delivering this judgement the apex court was only discharging its responsibility as the court of last appeal, the only remedy available to a group of people, and their families, let down not just by their immediate employers, but by the state government and the politicians who rule Bihar today.Chief Minister Rabri Devi and her husband, Laloo Prasad Yadav, who came to power by projecting themselves as messiahs of the downtrodden, were quick to shrug off all responsibility for the mess. They would have continued to do so if the Supreme Court had not reminded them that as guardians of the state’s fortunes the state now has to pay up. Whether the money will ever be realised and whether it will actually reach the victims of this heinous, state-perpetrated crime are the big questions. The state is already protesting over its inability to pay. An alert media and a pro-active court must ensure that the justice that has eluded an estimated 40,000 state employees all these years is finally delivered.
