The unedifying spectacle of sports women sitting in protest for their alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Wrestling Federation of India president somehow reeks of political patronage.

OF LATE, the nation has been a witness to the rise of ‘Bahubali’ culture where the high and the mighty appear to have scoffed at the law with gay abandon.

Rule of the law is the principle of governance that mandates its uniform application to all individuals, institutions and entities regardless of their power and status.

Paradoxically, at times, this pristine rule of law rings palpably hollow when it has brush with the influential people who enjoy considerable clout in the corridors of power.

The unedifying spectacle of sports women sitting in protest in New Delhi for their alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president somehow reeks of political patronage.

It is indeed a supreme irony that the wrestlers had to move the apex court to get an FIR registered against the WFI chief who revoltingly symbolises the Bahubali culture.

President of Wrestling Federation of India, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, has roaringly stated with an air of daredevilry that he is not going to resign from his post. What makes it even more sickening is the eloquent silence of the ruling dispensation in such a sensitive matter.

In a country where the slogan of ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’ has reached a deafening crescendo, this callous attitude of the state is agonising.

The slogan seems to sound no more than a political rhetoric. In a highly patriarchal society where the parents are intrinsically wary of letting their daughters foray into the sports arena, such events leave lasting negative impact.

People passionately expect the system to act feverishly to take things to their logical end. The nation that boasts of having full faith in constitutionalism can ill-afford to behave like a deep state.

The recent amendment in the Bihar Police Jail Manual has paved the way for the murder convict Anand Mohan Singh and others to walk free.

Anand Mohan Singh was held convict for inciting the mob that resulted in the lynching of Gopalganj district magistrate Krishnaiah way back in 1994.

The convict was serving 20-year term. The new amendment effected by the state has reduced it to 14 years. The state government in its wisdom thought that the gruesome murder of a public servant is not a crime heinous enough to attract jail term for 20 years.

The government has conveniently overlooked that such developments have the potential to debilitate the morale of the bureaucracy at all levels. Criticism of this amendment by the Indian Steel Frame was too effete to leave any impact.

On the surface, the state government may have its own reasons to justify this amendment, but deep down it seems to smell of some political considerations. In such a political ecosystem even the well-intentioned policies, programmes and amendments run the risk of being perceived as politically motivated.

Equally disturbing is the release of eleven convicts who were earlier sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case in 2002. What was more sickening were the visuals of one of the convicts being publicly garlanded with flowers.

However, it is comforting to note that the court has been made aware of the untraceability of one convict and subsequently the apex court has directed publication of notice in newspaper in this regard.

It is incumbent on the government to ensure that nobody musters courage enough to ride roughshod over the rule of law. Constitutionalism cannot be sacrificed at the altar of power politics.

The culture of immunity has threatened to eat into the very vitals of our constitutional democracy.

The elimination of this culture is long overdue. This noble objective must not be lost in the competitive political cacophony.

What the people cravingly expect is nothing should explicitly or implicitly boil down to opportunistic politics.

The biggest democracy cannot afford to give elbow room to those who plough lawlessness without any fear. Nothing can be more damaging to the health of our democracy than this.

Political considerations must be given the go-by because we need better adherence to democratic values and constitutional principles to catapult our nation to a position where it can truly claim itself a vibrant democracy.

The government must not only be fair and just, it should in fact also appear to be so.

___________

Also Read:

TRUTH VS FALSEHOOD: BBC – Who is afraid?

Mughal Gardens – Name Changed, But Why?

Industrialization versus Environmental Degradation

75 years of hope and despair

Punjab – How a deadly cocktail of Agri-Water-Energy nexus going to destroy it?

North Pole and the ideological conflict of RSS & Hindutva