Mera Babu Chail Chabeela
The babudom in Kashmir is showing its ugly face with each passing day. Till recently, public transport would be halted only to give safe passage to the army convoys. Since the last few months, the traffic is halted for the babus too, and the public is put at great inconvenience.
It is strange and unusual to see the private and public transport halted at multiple places in the name of ‘VIP movement’. The commuters and the people in general had got used to the halts during the movement of the LG and his cavalcade. Now the traffic police and the CRPF personnel halt traffic even when an IAS officer or a retired police officer rehabilitated for the second, third or fourth time is passing by. This is quite frustrating.
Why do Babus feel so threatened that they need to stop civilian traffic when they move? If that is the level of threat that they perceive, what about those citizens who perform their professional duties at great personnel peril? These committed individuals are humiliated by these very babus on daily basis.
It has been noticed that now, traffic is halted even for the movement of Deputy Commissioners in their respective districts. These same DCs used to humiliate the members of the elected District Development Council, Members BDCs, Panchs and Sarpanches. They would not even give audience to the men and women who face real threat.
This colonial behaviour has no place in a democratic republic. Why should the babus humiliate the elected representatives who face threat and are soft targets? If they ask for security, they are humiliated and subjected to harassment for months together.
It seems that for the babus, the meaning of the abrogation of Article 370 and the annulment of special status of Jammu and Kashmiris this – that the citizens have no rights. LG Manoj Sinha must take a serious note of this culture of humiliating people several times a day. The LG must strictly discourage this culture if he wants to build a serious connect with the people.
