Akash Vijayvargiya, the 34-year-old MLA from Indore, and BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya’s son, says he does not feel either guilty or embarrassed for assaulting, in public view, Indore Municipal Corporation officer, Dhirendra Bayas, with a cricket bat. For Akash, the attack was “in the public interest”. There is more than one reason why this incident and its aftermath is scandalous and should be seen to be so. First, an elected official assaulting a municipal officer shows, at its core, a disrespect for the administration, the front-line officials who form the backbone of governance. Second, that the local BJP unit has chosen to brazen out the assault, even celebrate it, indicates a disturbing mindset in a constitutional democracy: An elected legislator can flaunt the people’s mandate to take on the rule of law, hit it out of the park with a cricket bat.
Out on bail, the MLA’s justification has been that municipal officials “dragged women by their feet” from a building that was set to be demolished. While the attack has been caught on camera, Akash’s allegations have not been proved. And even if they were true, a person holding constitutional office must know that it is for the police and the judiciary to investigate and pass judgment on criminal matters. His actions also betray a lack of confidence in his own party — the Indore Municipal Corporation is controlled by the BJP and the matter could surely have been looked into without resorting to violence. The building in question had been marked for demolition more than a year ago, as the dilapidated structure has been assessed as too fragile and dangerous for human habitation. By attacking an official for doing his job, the BJP MLA has further derailed the already fraught exercise of urban governance. In May 2018, for instance, an assistant town planner in Himachal Pradesh was shot dead for enforcing the demolition of buildings flouting construction laws. Now, after the assault, Bayas has received threats and asked for police protection.
