In the recent past, India has thrice witnessed the unity of the nation in raising its voice against an infirm political system. Coincidently, the epicentre of these unanimous ‘uprisings’ has been a single hero. After Gandhian Anna Hazare and nation’s daughter Nirbhaya, it is daring Durga Shakti Nagpal who has been swaying every media debate and protest for the past couple of weeks. Here, a question arises: How is it that some cases come into the limelight while others remain hidden in the entrails of the system.
The enormity of many cases before has been no different from those we read about in the pages of newspapers.
As claimed, the incredible courage of Nagpal to stand firm on her decision to pull down an illegal wall of a mosque calls for a courteous bow. But, is she the only one who has defied the conventional ways of bureaucracy?
Overtly, bureaucracy and politics go hand in hand. Those who break this coalition are thrown out of the circuit. Be
fore Nagpal, there were many IAS and IPS officers who couldn’t make it to the headlines, but the pleas on their matter still hang fire in some courts. Their only fault was that they ruffled a few feathers while diligently carrying out the duties assigned to them.
Jaisalmer Superintendent of Police Pankaj Choudhary, who was transferred for reopening a case against the father of a Congress MLA in Rajasthan, managed to share a little space in the news amidst the nation’s uproar in Nagpal’s favour. Ironically, hardly anyone noticed then.
Himachal Pradesh’s SDM Yunus Khan was fortunate enough as the incident with him happened at the right time when the nation was boiling over Nagpal’s suspension. He too happened to raise TRP of a few news channels and dailies for some time.
The outburst by IAS body in Nagpal’s support clearly indicates that the eruption of their frustration in this matter was a result of ongoing victimisation of IAS officers by the political honchos since ages.
Many IAS officers go through this anguish like Durga every day, but we chose to make Durga Shakti Nagpal a hero. She was no less than any other bureaucrat ready to be slaughtered in the dark dungeons of politics.
The powerful ministers must have had some fear that their unlawful dominance on civil servants may end someday. But, it would happen through Durga Shakti Nagpal, they weren’t sure. The people of the nation chose to pick ‘Durga’ out of the suffering lot and carved her into ‘Shakti’ in no time.
While commencing her fight for the right, even she would not have thought that she would come to represent IAS officers’ sufferings.
When Anna began his crusade against corruption, he wasn’t a single Indian fighting for the cause. Several people, in the past, have been seen fasting for days on the pavements of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. For most of us it is a usual sight. With partially-torn placard and banners and text inscribed on them in various lingos, these people fight battles everyday against corruption. None is a hero. None is chosen by us to appear on the small screens or in glossy pictures of some magazine/newspaper.
Was Nirbhaya the only girl who was brutally raped and lost life? Hundreds of rape cases have been reported in various police stations before and after the Nirbhaya case. They’ve proved incompetent to draw the masses for their justice. They are not chosen to hold any candle march for.
Is it media, common people, youth or some divine power that randomly chooses such people from the list of similar incidents and places them on the dais from where they give a new direction to the new India? But, is this question important enough to pay heed to? Isn’t it sufficient that these chosen ones have united the nation long after the freedom struggle? No, the former question is important.
Sadly, none of these chosen ones could fulfil the purpose for which they were chosen. Whosoever’s choice they were, they could not really transform the system. Anna couldn’t make India corruption-free and innumerable rape incidents continue to pile up over Nirbhaya’s case file. Durga Shakti Nagpal’s story, which was fresh till last week, seems to be losing its sheen amidst Pakistan’s aggression.
PS: Durga Shakti Nagpal is still deprived of justice.
The birth and death of these chosen ones remains mysterious even as the search for another ‘chosen one’ begins...
