Panchkula Mayhem

Unwise because, suggests Barbara W. Tuchman, eminent historian, politicians

cannot admit error. They lust for power and lack magnanimity. They are more
interested in image than in substance. They rarely get the right information let alone
know how to act on it, and all because they are just plain stupid. This neatly
summarises the underpinnings of the mayhem that was created in Panchkula today
after the self-styled godman Ram Rahim was pronounced guilty of raping two
sadhvis by the CBI court. Why did the men in high office acted contrary to the way
reason pointed and enlightened self-interest suggested. Why did the Panchkula
authorities allow (they connived actually) the Trojan Horse packed with the goons
of Ram Rahim inside the city. The supporters always looked suspicious and yet the
wooden-headedness of the government overwhelmed their judgement. Soon after the
judgement pronounced the Dera chief guilty, the dynamics unfolded itself on
scripted lines and the devotees came out in their true colours, the crowd became a
mob in a flash of a second and gave vent to their ire. All hell broke loose soon after,
death and destruction engulfing Panchkula in which 30 people died and 250 injured.
Wooden-headedness is also refusal to learn from experience. On three occasions
earlier the Haryana CM had allowed the state of anarchy to escalate to a point of no
return. As observed by eminent lawyer and a human rights activist Mr. Prashant
Bhushan, the crux of the matter is: over the years, a cult of criminal godmen has been
propped up by politicians, as a matter of expediency, for electoral gains. This Political
expediency has facilitated spiritual supermarket with its criminal underbelly to
prosper under all regimes in post independent India. When ministers and high
ranking bureaucrats prostate before these godmen in full public view, they acquire an
aura of divinity and attract millions of devotees. And, of course, You cant vandalise
gods, not even the synthetic ones, copy being even better than the original,
indoctrination being the dictum. If you do, they will hit you back with vengeance as
retribution.