The suicide of an IPS officer Mr Puran Singh in Chandigarh is deeply disturbing and problematic. It is a reflection on both our bureaucratic and social systems. Caste, feudal, and bureaucratic hierarchies are all part of an overlapping system that demeans individual rights and dignity.
This denial and stripping of individual dignity, after 75 years of the republic and constitutional guarantees of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice is a testament of the failure or at least the subversion of the national project.
The officer and his wife have leveled charges of harassment, caste prejudice and abetment to suicide against the senior bureaucrats of Haryana including the DGP of the state.
The incident is symptomatic of the state of the bureaucracy, where there is a total absence of camaraderie among the officers and any visible solidarity is only to protect their privileges.
Even the apex services have failed to develop any organic solidarity. Caste identities and superiority are too entrenched to be upended by the national citizenry.
While the elite educational institutions have been reporting such cases regularly, at the highest levels of the executive, it is also about impunity. This impunity is the biggest attraction of the hindutva ideology.
Over the past week, there has been numerous instances like the lynching in Rae Bareily and shoe attack on Chief Justice Gavai, where the true and bare face of this ideology has been exposed.
While the Muslims are the projected enemies, the true goal of this ideology is to restore the caste privileges. The constitution is therefore its biggest impediment.
