Opinion Attacking the aam aadmi’s swabhiman

The anger in his voice was rising after each sentence he spoke. “I am an entrepreneur. There was a matter in which I was taxed excessively. I contested the claim and,after a long delay,won the case. But the officer who was responsible for making the wrong claim would not give me the refund amount without a cut for himself. It is when I have experiences like these that I feel,with great pain in my heart,that Bharat is not Mahaan. I never had such an experience while working abroad,even though I was a foreigner there.”

My young friend,who was wearing khadi kurta-pyjama,continued,“You know why I wear this? This is for my self-defence. It makes me look like a political VIP. And those in government offices and police stations behave a little more politely,and sometimes quite submissively,with neta-types. I hate this reality in India.”

My young colleague,who hails from Rajasthan,was indeed speaking for crores of ordinary Indian citizens. Elections come and go. Governments are formed and defeated. Yet,the way the government machinery deals with citizens doesn’t change much. From getting a ration card to registering an FIR,interfaces with the government for most people entail a harrowing experience.

In a recent column after 26/11,I had paid tribute to Hanif Shaikh,one of the heroes of the battle with terrorists at Nariman House in Mumbai. After some days,he became a victim of police misbehaviour in a minor traffic incident. He believed that his friend,who was riding the motorcycle,and he,on the pillion,were innocent. But he got a thappad (slap) in full public view for his impertinence in asking the cop what their fault was. The experience was so unsettling for him that he phoned me that night and said,“I decided to tell you about what happened to me because you wrote about me. Seeing my name in print made me feel good,although I didn’t do what I did for recognition or reward. After your newspaper mentioned my contribution,the office of the police commissioner informed me that I would be one of the citizens of Mumbai to be given a certification of appreciation at a special function on Republic Day. But I don’t feel like going for the function after the humiliation I suffered today.”

On my next visit to Mumbai,I met Hanif,who works at a small ice-cream parlour in Colaba,and took him to the local police station. The officer on duty was politeness personified. “If this boy and his friend were guilty of breaking the traffic rules,” I told him,“they should have been duly penalised under the law. But why was he beaten up? Does it do any good to the image of the police? And Hanif is not an ordinary boy. You surely know about the local citizens’ contribution,including Hanif’s,to Nariman House’s liberation by the NSG commandos.” The officer apologised for the misconduct of the traffic cop,patted Hanif on the back,and we left the matter at that.

But such assaults on citizens’ swabhiman are a daily occurrence in India. What an abominable situation it is that we have created a two-class society in India,of VIPs and non-VIPs,the former receiving special treatment from the officialdom and the latter denied even normal courtesies. Corruption,harassment,systemic apathy,and colossal delays and inefficiency are what law-abiding citizens often encounter in their interface with government. Of course,those who are deficit in honesty and surplus in ill-gotten wealth know how to work the system because they know how to hobnob with the VIP class.

Why have we failed to make the system respect the citizens more? It’s a complex problem,but some roots of it lie in the fact that the government has two parts—the democratically elected executive that is accountable to the people and has to seek their mandate; and the ‘permanent government’ of the bureaucracy that is largely unaccountable and remains unchanged even after Party A is voted out and Party B is voted in. It is high time the progressive section of our political class and leaders of civil society paid serious attention to reforming these “permanent rulers” to make them truly citizen-friendly. Good governance is being much talked about in the current election campaign. We can move towards this goal only by introducing radical citizen-centric reforms.

Write to: sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com