What Democracy? Whose Republic?

On Monday, August 11 at a glittering gathering in the packed Central Hall of Parliament Prof Amartya Sen...

On Monday, August 11 at a glittering gathering in the packed Central Hall of Parliament Prof Amartya Sen gave the Hiren Mukherjee Lecture on Demands for Social Justice. His lecture was widely reported but what I saw before his lecture was to me more telling about the injustices of Indian society.

In London, I am just an ordinary citizen like the rest of them. In going to listen to important lectures, I rarely get a printed card much less a parking permit unless it is the Queen’s Garden Party which I have never been to. There is rarely security and certainly few policemen if any. When I come to Delhi, life is very different. I am not just anybody. I am somebody. As we got to the entrance of the Parliament building flashing our invitation and our parking permit, a guard explained to us that our hired car was not allowed inside and so would we get out and walk. We were getting late in any case because the VIP traffic going to the occasion had blocked traffic all along our way, so I was not best pleased. Yet, I complied and said to the apologetic guard that I knew he was only doing his duty.

But friends who had the right to go in behind us in the waiting line got out and remonstrated with the guard and told him off for even daring to get out ‘Do You know Who HE Is person’. They were of course being very sweet and hospitable, looking after me. So we did not have to walk the 15 yards to the entrance but had a lal batti car to escort us. Honour saved all around.

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Except for the poor guard. I hope no harm comes to him. He was indeed doing his job properly and should be patted on the back for applying rules impartially. I am saying these things because Assistant Sub Inspector Mohinder Singh of the Delhi Police was not that lucky. He had the privilege (misfortune?) to be on duty when the PM Vajpayee’s car, sorry cavalcade, was passing by. One barricade fell to the ground. As he was removing it and horror of horrors, the cavalcade had to stop. Occupants of the car (not the PM but his more important security staff) had to come out of the vehicle off with his head, this insolent policeman who could stop such a Royal, (sorry I forgot we are a Republic) progress. ‘Great inconvenience and immense embarrassment was caused to the police force by his negligence and carelessness’.

For five years the poor man has been fighting a battle to restore his reputation. There was a probe panel in the incident. His increments were stopped and he was suspended. He appealed to the Central Administrative Tribunal but despite a favourable verdict, the Delhi Police appealed and so he had to go to the high court.

Was Vajpayeeji even aware that he had caused so much distress to a cop doing his duty? Did our founding fathers bear lathicharges and go to prison for years on end so we could have the restoration of maharajas and install a new aristocracy which can crush any ordinary person coming in their way? Under the excuse of security, the ruling elite, including the leaders of all political parties, have been conducting themselves in an arrogant fashion, holding up traffic as and when they pass by, berating those below them (ie anyone without a redtop car). Of course if poor Mohinder Singh had been an MP or even an ex-MP or even a remote relative, he could have shot someone in broad daylight and escaped a trial.

In London, PM Tony Blair’s car was stopped and fined for using the bus lane when he was speeding to catch a flight. But then UK is not a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic.

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But we all loved Amartya Sen’s lecture on social justice, nodded our heads and sped off in our red top cars blocking traffic everywhere yet again.