In democracy it is often said, “You get the leaders you deserve”. But is it true? Most of us keep wondering about the truth in this phrase. Are Indians across the country so bad? After being subjected to so much tax scrutiny and being dutiful in terms of swachchta (in real terms), do we deserve the netas who (mis)rule us by their conduct irrespective of region. In behaviour, they stand UNITED!
If Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad could misbehave and assault a 52-year-old Air India staff, he found company in Trinamool Congress’ Dola Sen who stoked controversy by delaying a Delhi-Kolkata Air India flight by 30 minutes last week. The staff of the same airline were verbally assaulted by Dola Sen, who created a ruckus aboard the flight for an emergency seat at Delhi airport.
While both raised the decibel count on the aircraft, thankfully Sen did not show off her footwear on national television to “treat” Air India’s staff. Gaikwad still stands one notch up in this regard.
In the Gaikwad episode, the matter was messier and it was also asked, “CMD ki kya aukaat hai ki social media par ek saansad ka apmaan kar rahe ho?”
If the aukat (position in the society) of the Air India is in question, let us clear the air. The Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani, holds a Limca Record for having four “engineering degree equivalents” in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering and Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from Institution of Engineers, India; a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for successfully running the ‘Fairy Queen Express’, the world’s oldest working steam locomotive. He also served as DRM, Delhi Division; Director, National Rail Museum; Chief Administrative Officer, Rail Alternate Fuels; Commissioner and Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation and Chairman & Managing Director India Tourism Development Corporation.
He is a Mechanical Engineer; as part of Railways training he has attended workshop in Mechanical, Electrical, and Telecommunications at IRIMEE.
If you thought these were two isolated incidents sample these: In January this year, Maharashtra PWD Minister Eknath Shinde’s bodyguard allegedly misbehaved with an employee of a toll plaza at Ghoti village on the Mumbai-Agra national highway and broke a window pane there, in which the former suffered injuries. The incident took place around 2 am, when the minister and his convoy was passing through Ghoti toll plaza, located around 20 kms from Nashik.
In December, 2011, then maverick BJP MP and former Test cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu allegedly pushed a security guard at a toll plaza and forcibly took him away in his vehicle leading to protests from the guard’s family and villagers who demanded action against Sidhu was on a tour of Nellore. It all began when the guard allegedly hurled a stick at Sidhu’s car which whizzed past the Venkatachalam toll plaza at Tallampadu village in Doravarisatram mandal without showing any ID proof or payment of toll fee. This led to a crack in the windshield. An enraged Sidhu came back to the plaza, overpowered and bundled them into his vehicle!
In fact, MPs and MLAs consider the country as their extended akhara (wrestling arena) and so they probably display the same behaviour all through. Power corrupts. But power also makes one brazen and boorish?
For long, we have wanted more civilised leaders but that wish has not been fulfilled. It is high time they realise that they are public servants and represent their Assembly or Lok Sabha constituencies. Netas must not play with public patience which is already running thin. The day it snaps, only God can say what will happen.
