In a video going viral since a couple of days, the dynamics between the general public, a government officer and a politician is laid bare to see. This video is reportedly from Patna where TET qualified teachers are protesting against the incompletion of the selection process. A few days ago these students were lathi-charged and made to evacuate the Gardanibagh protest site. This video was shot on 21st January when Tejaswi Yadav, former vice Chief Minister went to meet these students and called the District Magistrate in front of everyone.
The call starts with Mr Yadav asking the DM to make arrangement for those students as it is their basic right to peacefully protest about any issue. He asks the DM to allow them to protest peacefully in one of Patna’s many parks. He says, “I’ll Whatsapp the application, you make sure to give them permission for protesting”. The DM, who is on loudspeaker this whole time tells Mr Yadav to WhatsApp the application and “he’ll see”. Mr Yadav then asks the DM, “When will this be done?”, to which the DM who seems audibly outraged, and says, “first you send the application then I’ll be answerable to this question. You haven’t even sent the application and are asking me about the time!”
Mr Yadav at this point senses the humiliation kicking in the atmosphere and would now have to do something to counter it. He then goes on to say, “I’m Tejaswi Yadav speaking DM Saheb”. Now that the DM knows this is not just some random person from the streets but one of the biggest politicians in the state, his demeanour changes 180 degrees. The DM now says, “Achha sir sir sir”. At this point, even a single “sir” isn’t enough to right the wrongs. The crowd erupts as if it’s the last 15 minutes of a Bollywood movie and the hero has started to single-handedly beat the sh*t out of the villains after getting shot 5 times and his hand cut off.
The crowd sees it as their win while in reality, it is a compendium of the system that the leader in front of them have helped create. A system in which the most important entity, the public, who pays for everyone’s salary and luxuries is given no respect. A system that is not answerable to the very people who pay for it to exist. In hindsight, Bihar is currently the way it is because the normal public seems more overjoyed by a Bollywood-esque name reveal than for their government to listen to their issues.
