Not A Legislator's Remit To 'Punish' People
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-06-13 14:34:43
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
View all posts by this Author
Do we have rule of law in our country or do we seek instant justice and mete out public punishment? Will courts punish people or have we given that power to elected representatives?
In a shocking incident, a Shiv Sena legislator in Mumbai 'punished' the contractor given charge of cleaning the drains by making him sit on the road and asking people to dump garbage on him has he had allegedly not done his work properly leading to waterlogging due to chocked drains.
The legislator, Dilip Lande, representing Kandivali, said that since people had elected him and placed their trust in him and since those responsible for cleaning drains and preventing waterlogging were not doing their work, he, along with the local party chief and party workers, had come to clean the drains. That was very good on his part.
What was not good, however, was how he treated the contractor entrusted with the job of cleaning the drains. He made him sit on the waterlogged road and then watched as people dumped garbage on him at his instigation. That was beyond his remit as he acted as judge, jury and executioner.
Cleaning drains, or getting them cleaned, is social service and a legislator is entitled to do it. He is also entitled to find out if the contractors entrusted with the job are doing it properly. But to assume that if roads get waterlogged then the contractors are not doing their job properly is wrong. There can be hundreds of reasons for waterlogging - heavier than usual rainfall, for instance. No one can be punished without proving his guilt.
Then, even if the contractor was at fault, rule of law demands that he be prosecuted as per the terms of his contract and as per law. He could be blacklisted, fined and his payments could be withheld. A case could also be lodged against him for not fulfilling the terms of the contract.
But such playing to the gallery amounts to taking the law in one's hands. Instant justice and public humiliation must not be resorted to as it will lead to jungle raj.
Lead picture courtesy: ndtv.com. The caption is ours.
