Rule of law in India seems to be getting replaced with gunda raj (rule of might). Two recent incidents illustrate this trend. First, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) disrupted an annual film festival in Udaipur that has been held there for nine years. Second, the demolition of a mazar in the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun by right-wing goons.
On Saturday (November 16), RSS members disrupted Shabnam Virmani’s film Had-Anhad on the second day of the Udaipur Film Festival. Later, the Rabindranath Tagore Medical College administration succumbed to their pressure and withdrew permission for the festival. The RSS members were reportedly upset that the festival had been dedicated to the children of Palestine and the late professor G.N. Saibaba.
The film festival’s organisers and the RSS workers were summoned to the principal’s office for a discussion. While the college administration had given permission for the festival – charging a fee for the use of the college hall – the principal was unable to say anything to the RSS workers in support of his permission. He merely asked the organisers to resolve the dispute by agreeing with the RSS’s demand.
According to the RSS, G.N. Sai Baba was a terrorist. Palestine is also a terrorist entity. Therefore, paying tribute to them is tantamount to supporting terrorism. They ordered the organisers to accept in writing that they had made a mistake by organising a program in memory of the children killed in Palestine. RSS members also allegedly told the organisers that they would have to pay tribute to Kanhaiyalal Teli, a tailor who was hacked to death in 2022, and Devraj Mochi, a boy from the Dalit community who was stabbed by his classmate earlier this year. The RSS workers had brought a draft with them, which they wanted the organisers to release without any changes.
The organisers said that they were against all kinds of violence and murder, but the RSS members were adamant that they release a video based on their draft.
The police too were present in the principal’s office. However, they did not tell the RSS workers that they neither had the right to intimidate any citizen, nor stop a programme from happening.
There were some doctors also present in the office who seemed to agree with the RSS disrupters.
The principal then asked the organisers to seek permission from the district administration. While this was not a prerequisite for organising the event, the principal created this new condition without which the festival could not be allowed to continue.
When the organisers requested that the ongoing film be allowed to finish, the principal forcibly halted the screening.
The organisers spoke to the district magistrate (DM) and claimed that his attitude was no different from that of the RSS. He allegedly refused to give permission for the event saying that the matter was between the college and festival’s organisers.
However, practical wisdom indicates that if a public programme is disrupted and attendees attacked, then it should be treated as a crime. It is also the district administration’s job to prevent this and restrain the disrupters.
The organisers requested security for the festival venue from the administration but the DM allegedly refused.
This is the same DM under whose supervision the administration bulldozed the house of an accused some time ago. In a fight between children in a school in Udaipur, one child stabbed another. The child accused of the stabbing happened to belong to the Muslim community. The administration responded by bulldozing his house. It is a separate matter that the child’s family was renting that house and that some other families also lived there. But did the administration have the right to demolish it? Is this not gunda raj in itself?
Also read: ‘Nothing but Anarchy, Collective Punishment’: Supreme Court’s Searing Remarks on ‘Bulldozer Justice’
The Supreme Court in its recent judgement declared this use of bulldozers illegal and has said that the administrative officials would be held responsible for it. The court said that they will have to bear the consequences of violating the law. The implication of the court’s order is that the Udaipur administration had committed a crime by bulldozing the house where the child lived.
It is therefore not surprising that such an officer is standing with the RSS.
The second incident occurred at the Doon School in Dehradun.
Some miscreants trespassed onto the school premises by jumping over the wall and demolished Mazar located on campus. The Mazar had been there for a long time and the school had no objection to its presence. However, some outsiders who took issue with it destroyed the structure.
The school administration has not filed a report regarding this act of trespassing and vandalism. It has claimed in a letter to the students’ parents that no structure within the premises was demolished. What was removed was a structure which a contractor had built on his own. But the right-wing goons have live streamed their feat and claimed that they had the administration’s permission. Yet, the DM in question denied any knowledge of the incident.
“We did not issue any orders for its demolition. However, we did send a team including the SDM to the place to verify the facts related to the mazar and ensure that law and order are maintained,” the DM said.
That law and order has already been broken did not occur to him.Two crimes have been committed: one of trespassing, the other of demolishing a structure. But the district administration seems to be at peace with these.
These two recent incidents should scare us as citizens.
It seems that India’s administrative officers are asserting that ensuring public safety is not their responsibility. Moreover, they appear to align themselves with the hooliganism of the RSS and other Hindutva groups. The responsibility for upholding the rule of law in India rests with the administration and the police. If they refuse to fulfil this duty and instead join hand with RSS goons, can the rule of law survive in this country?
If police officers start washing the feet of kanwariyas and showering flowers on them, then they will also shut down the businesses of Muslims. It was the Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur police which issued orders requiring shopkeepers to prominently display their names and those of their employees. And it is these officers that silently watch Hindutva goons force Muslims to close their meat shops whenever they want.
We have not given enough thought to the implications of the administration turning into a coercive arm of Hindutva politics. While we often defend them by saying that they are merely following orders from above. The administration can also refuse to obey these orders. If they do not do so, then it is nothing less of a crime.
This is what the Supreme Court meant when it held the executive authorities responsible for the demolition of houses and properties of those accused of crime. It said, “We are of the view that in such matters the public officials, who take the law in their hands, should be made accountable for such high-handed actions.. For the executive to act in a transparent manner so as to avoid the vice of arbitrariness, we are of the view that certain binding directives need to be formulated. This will ensure that public officials do not act in a high-handed, arbitrary, and discriminatory manner. Further, if they indulge in such acts, accountability must be fastened upon them.”
The Udaipur and Dehradun incidents show us that through inaction and non-interference, public officials are aiding and abetting criminal acts, especially those involving Hindutva goons. This criminalisation of the Indian public officialdom is the most concerning development of the last 10 years.
