People are the bosses, can’t push them round

 When elected representatives forget that their prime responsibility is the welfare of the people who elect them to office, the very foundations of democracy are jolted. It happened in a Mahadevapura locality in Bengaluru recently when the local MLA, Aravind Limbavali of the BJP, vent his fury on a hapless woman who approached him seeking help with a sheaf of papers in her hand. A furious Limbavali threatened to send her to jail, tried to snatch her papers and can be seen in a video shouting at the lady as she pleads for a hearing and says she won’t let go of her land. It would be a bit too premature to go into the merits of what the woman was trying to raise with the MLA but what most people found atrocious was the manner in which she was forced aside, and finally bundled away by the cops for taking on the BJP bigwig who was earlier a minister.

Limbavali’s daughter too was in the news earlier when she took on traffic cops for stopping her car. She made her’presence’ felt when the cops asked her to pay the penalty for traffic offences, trying to get away by flaunting her father’s name.

When power gets to your head, there is not much those around you can do and this seems to be the case in both incidents involving Limbavali and his daughter. There is no doubt that public expectations have grown by leaps and bounds in recent years and it’s no easy task measuring up to the demands made by citizens to their MLAs and MPs.There are land issues, uncleared drains, bad roads and a multitude of civic issues which need to be tackled on a daily footing but isn’t this exactly the reason why each citizen trudges to the polling booth every five years to cast his vote for the candidate he feels can best fulfill his hopes?

And from what we have seen around us, there are no poor MLAs-most of them are wealthy enough to fly around in Mercedes cars and live in palatial bungalows besides making sure they make their ‘pile’ to fund their next election when the time comes. So the least they can do is ensure decent behaviour in public and make sure the people who choose them with high hopes, are heard out patiently and offered solutions for their problems.

Any leader who does not have the time or desire to do this, hardly deserves to be in the office he or she holds.

 These are not incidents confined to Karnataka alone; it has happened in Maharashtra a few days ago when three men including a local leader of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) were detained by police after they allegedly beat up a woman mercilessly with a video of the incident going viral.

 And what was the crime of the poor woman? All she did was object to the putting up of a pole for installing an ad in front of her shop in Kamathipura in central Mumbai. The manner in which the middle-aged woman was slapped and pushed around, is enough to prove the extent to which goons have come to dominate today’s politics.

Limbavali, as expected, was given a dressing-down by his higher-ups in his party but should the buck stop there? Leaders who have scant respect for the people or treat them with utter disregard, do not deserve their support either. For the people are the pillars of democracy and the people cannot be taken for a ride-or pushed around either.