DailyPost 2845
SUSPENDED!
Whenever suspension happens one thing is for sure, that it is the culmination of suspended governance for a long time. Like the transfer being weaponized, suspension is often an escape route to get rid of ticklish situations or take action when left with no choice. This is a standard tool in the toolkit of post incident or a post disaster response, as the case may be. It has run fine so far, given the depth of understanding of governance of the common man. It assuages people’s feelings and gives us a feeling that the government means business and would not tolerate any irregularity.
In the same scheme of things recently, the UP government suspended 6 officials for ‘negligence’ in the Hathras stampede. Had there been no stampede with the similar mismanagement, there would not have been any suspension. The Baba in question has never been negligent, whereas in all likelihood crowd mismanagement would have been the order of the day in his events. How many times do we find total chaos in political events, road shows, public rallies et al.? And how many times do we find any action of this nature. Do we even give it a thought that a small district like Hathras would even have the wherewithal to handle such crowds?
Why is there no suspension for the political executive? They shoulder even bigger responsibilities and should be squarely accountable both on account of reckless decision making and negative lateral entry into governance at all levels. Leaving that aside, there are a variety of other ways the officers land in the suspension soup; corruption, indulging in criminal activities, official misconduct and whatnot? If you do any research into the posting track record of these tainted guys, you will be amazed to find them in an amazing series of postings.
Everything is condoned or rather appreciated by the system, till the time it is caught and cannot be hushed or camouflaged. When outcry is such that the normal mind will not be able to digest it, leading to an impact on votes, political following and popularity, such desperate actions are actions. It is negligence for one and saviour for the other. To beat the outlash, at times suspension is done with a tacit understanding to get over the tide and then it is back to business again. The general impression is that everybody is doing the same thing, the concerned person was just unlucky. Suspension leading to drastic things like dismissal etc with a stipulated period of time, does not happen, the way the scheme of things are operated, it is not destined to happen.
GOVERNANCE HAS FINALLY BEEN REDUCED TO A GAME FOR THE GALLERY.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.