Hear ye! Hear ye!
The Hindustan Times reported yesterday that our Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, and his deputy, RR Patil, will now be greated with — hold your breath — yes! You guessed it! — a fanfare of trumpets, or bugles, or whatever, every time they visit the Government Secretariat. There’s also to be a posse of smartly saluting cops; not our usual ones, but another contingent from Naigaon. Either they’re very big on meaningless ceremony out in Naigaon, or they’ve got bugger-all to do. And this crew is actually rehearsing.
Today’s Midday rightly slams this move, calling it a “slave mentality”. In fairness, the CM disclaims all knowledge of this, and, very likely, he’s right. It’s probably some babu in government who thought this might be a nice way of showing we care. Different strokes from different folks.
But the point Midday makes is, I think, well taken. This pomp and ceremony is all a throwback to a past, and to facets of that past that are, today, abhorrent. This is, I believe, still a democracy, a government by peers. To have one individual, whoever it is, singled out and greeted like a monarch (or, in our case, the Peshwas of Pune) has the stench of authoritarianism, dictatorship, fascism and, yes, tyranny. Like justice, democracy needs a visible face. Let’s hope our CM understands that much.
