Satyendra Dubey’s murder in Bihar is not just another wasted life, or even just another statistic. It cannot be. It must not be allowed to be. The alumni of the IIT’s are rightly outraged. The online and other petitions are right and must be supported. But India is nothing if not a wonderland, and I can’t help feeling that Dubey was more than just a little like Alice till he encountered the Bihari equivalent of the Queen of Hearts: “Off with his head!” Tragically, the order was evidently carried out.  

Now the National Highways Authority of India, which is developing the incredible Golden Quadrilateral highway project (“GQ”) — conceivably the most ambitious project of its kind anywhere in the world — and the State Government of Bihar have started a public war with huge full-page advertisements in the press. The NHAI claims that the Bihar segment of the GQ was always problematic, with very slow progress relative to that in other areas, and that this was or is attributable to the general lawlessness in Bihar. The Bihar Government, on the other hand, blames the NHAI, saying that it (the NHAI) ignored Dubey’s letters which pointed fingers at NHAI appointments and procedures; that it was the NHAI and the Centre which exposed Dubey by circulating his name and address to the very people he complained against; and that there is no lawlessness in Bihar.

Which to believe? All this talk about a Whistleblower Protection Act only means that, finally, there is a move afoot to have the buck stop somewhere. Hence the panic in the rival camps. There can’t be any other explanation. Also, if the Act is to be meaningful, it means that someone must take responsibility and accept liability. Is it the Centre, which leaked his name to his oppressors? Or is it the State Government which didn’t protect him?

In its advertisement, the Bihar Government says, among other things, that Dubey was a close friend of a highly ranked officer of the Police but never sought his help. That’s hardly an answer. Dubey worked in an official capacity and his personal friendship with a particular police officer was, evidently, something he kept separate, and rightly so. For the Government to say, as it does, that if he knew that officer personally he should have sought his help is actually nothing but an admission of guilt and an acknowledgement of the very lawlessness that it tries so strenuously to deny; for it says that unless you know someone important, your life is at risk. The Bihar DGP himself says that Bihar is a “playground for criminals and the mafia”. How then can any Government claim that there is no lawlessness?

The question is, does it even matter who is right, the Centre or the State? In a superb article, Sucheta Dalal takes the view that the Centre is to blame for exposing Dubey. But surely that’s one side of the coin; isn’t the State Government equally culpable? Finally, I honestly think it matters not in the least. The only thing that matters is that a good, honest, decent man was shot dead on November 27 — for being good, honest and decent. Everyone, but everyone who, knowing what he stood for, let this happen is guilty.

You don’t actually have to pick up a gun and shoot someone to be guilty. Often, just standing by and letting it happen is as much of a crime.