Skip to main content

Reason why people fear police officials: Govt treats people as subjects, not citizens

By Mukund Maheshwari* 

To be silent is to be ‘anti-national’, believes Kannan Gopinathan, ex-IAS officer-turned-social activist, who has travelled across the country to 60-65 districts (~10% of the country) spread over 18 states, meeting thousands of people from different backgrounds and perspectives, observing agreements and disagreements in different parts of the country. During a conversation with me, he observed how different people think differently within the bounds of their own rationality framework.
For instance, even people willing to vote for a certain caste have some underlying reason to do that. In India, different castes are concentrated in some geographic regions. Therefore, when many people vote for their caste, they want a minister coming from their locality who will look to lead the progress of the area.
Further, he observed that across the country, we fear police officials while we should be feeling safe to see them. The reason is that the government treats the people as the subject, not as citizens. To be called citizens, we should be able to ask questions to the government we have elected, but the same has become difficult over the last few years. Police officials feel that they have the license to officially beat up the citizens, while the same should be considered as assault.
The government has tried to take the path of treating the people of the country as passive beneficiaries rather than active citizens. Questions on the incapability of the government on a particular matter are replied by them by giving an additional subsidy. However, it is important to understand the passiveness associated with such benefits, where we are not expected to actively question and involve in the decision-making process of the government.
The government has been bullying the country's citizens by depriving them of their right to ask questions. It is important to understand that we are a country that does not run-on macro innovations but thousands of micro innovations. For instance, the government's announcement of demonetization was a macro-innovation. However, the same was followed by thousands of micro-innovations as people came up with different ways to outsmart the government.
All of the parties involved are trying to outsmart each other instead of doing their jobs honestly. The problem with bullying is that the moment you stop people from expressing their opinions, you are dumbing down on the entire country and will settle on sub-optimal solutions.
Despite the massive failure that demonetization was, there is no single article that clearly reveals what the government did wrong there. Some sources speculate that the final money deposit in the system was even higher than what it was pre-demonetization because of the deposit of fake currency notes. However, the implications of these events have not been clearly documented.
It is important to understand that ignoring a set of opinions by ‘name-calling’ is not in the right spirits of how a democracy should function
Raising concern and documenting the true situation is important in such cases to avoid such mistakes from repeating in the future. We had a demonetization in 1970, yet the same happened again in 2016. The same mistake has been repeated now by not letting people bring out as to what went wrong.
A thought that often crosses our mind as to what can we, as the ordinary educated population of the country, do? What actions can we undertake to actually bring a difference? Well, the truth is that the impact that we can bring is beyond ordinary.
For starters, more of us can think to enter politics. The country needs more politicians right now, and we need more educated and well-intended people to enter politics and work towards bringing a change. We often complain about the lack of alternatives available to us while voting, but at the same time, we are not willing to enter politics.
It is crucial to understand here that not all the parties in the system are important. It is just a game of adjusting their motives and drivers to contribute to the change you want to bring. It is crucial to align the incentives of the involved parties in a similar way that we talk about aligning the incentives of an agent with the principal.
Secondly, It is important for us to disagree and express our opinions while having day-to-day conversations. We often come across opinions that we might not agree to, yet we avoid saying anything just to prevent those unpleasant conversations. 
Also, a large part of the population finds it difficult to listen to people with conflicting views and try to do away with it by name-calling that set of people. It is important to understand that ignoring a set of opinions by ‘name-calling’ is not in the right spirits of how a democracy should function. Further, a lot of us keep referring back to past events and incidents while discussing current issues.
Expressions like ‘Where were you in...?’ ate used to justify and cover up current mistakes. When not fully informed on the issue, we get angry when we don’t have answers instead of accepting the same and informing ourselves fully on the subject. We should remember that we are the land of ‘Tark Shastra’, and we should actively debate on issues with an expression of our opinions.
Lastly, we should raise our concerns when we feel something happening around us is wrong. We should use whatever way we can to raise our voices, but it is important to do it. Because you are effectively aggreging to something happening around in case you are not raising your voice. ‘To be silent is to be anti-national.'
We are very less informed on what China is doing as nation. Gopinathan learned mandarin in the last one year. Therefore, he created a website called whatchinareads.com. The programme in the website runs across 100+ Chinese media websites and converts the key reported news into English so that we can read and understand what Chinese media is reporting in real-time.
---
*Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. second-year MBA student. Based on an interaction with Kannan Gopinathan, IAS officer-turned social activist

Comments

TRENDING

Reducing emission? India among top nations whose coal as energy source going up

By NS Venkataraman*  The State of the Global Climate report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that the year 2023 was the warmest year on record, with the global temperature of 1.4 degree celsius above pre-industrial 1850-1900 base line.

Lockdown 'total failure' of science more than of politics: Open letter on 4th anniversary

Counterview Desk  In an open letter to fellow academicians, scientists and medical practitioners in India, marking the fourth anniversary of India's lockdown (25 March 2024), the Managing Committee* of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO) has insisted on the need to "repair two years of immense damage to science".

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Magnetic, stunning, Protima Bedi 'exposed' malice of sexual repression in society

By Harsh Thakor*  Protima Bedi was born to a baniya businessman and a Bengali mother as Protima Gupta in Delhi in 1949. Her father was a small-time trader, who was thrown out of his family for marrying a dark Bengali women. The theme of her early life was to rebel against traditional bondage. It was extraordinary how Protima underwent a metamorphosis from a conventional convent-educated girl into a freak. On October 12th was her 75th birthday; earlier this year, on August 18th it was her 25th death anniversary.

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

'Wrong direction': Paris NGO regrets MNC ArcelorMittal still using coal-based steel

By Rajiv Shah  A new report by Paris-based non-governmental research and campaigning organization, Reclaim Finance, has blamed the MNC ArcelorMittal – formed in 2006 following the takeover and merger of the western European steel maker Arcelor (Spain, France, and Luxembourg) by Indian-owned Mittal Steel – for using use “climate destructive” metallurgical coal for its projects in India.

Attack on foreign students: Gujarat varsity's reputation, ranking at stake, say academics

Counterview Desk  Expressing anguish over the attack on international students in Gujarat University hostels, a letter claimed to have been signed by 122 current and former academics has asked the Gujarat Vice Chancellor, Dr Neerja Gupta, to provide emotional support to the attacked students and to ensure their physical safety.  

Poor private sector engagement 'impacting' carbon pricing policy in Global South

Counterview Desk  The joint report by Environmental Defense Fund and Observer Research Fund, "Navigating Carbon Pricing: The G20 Experience and Global South Prospects", delves into the complex landscape of carbon pricing, examining its application within the G20 nations and the potential implications for emerging economies in the Global South.  The report claims to provide insights and recommendations for effective carbon pricing strategies in diverse economies.  A note: The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Observer Research Foundation (ORF) have launched the Navigating Carbon Pricing: The G20 Experience and Global South Prospects” report. The report delves into the complex landscape of carbon pricing, examining its application within the G20 nations and the potential implications for emerging economies in the Global South. The report offers a comprehensive analysis of various carbon pricing instruments currently in existence, providing valuable i