Article - 49 Week 5 Are we not all Popats?

Article - 49 Week 5

Are we not all Popats?

 

Going by the "Sonawane" & "Popat" episode, Popat represents a case of both of being a victim and a perpetrator of corruption. Like the last straw that broke the donkey's back, an exorbitant extortion of Rs 2,00000/ by the government official drove him to douse him with petrol and set on fire. Looking at this from Popat's perspective, he had no recourse to seek mediation or justice, since he himself was part of the murk for his living. He stole oil from tankers. The degree to which Popat  was on the wrong side of the law, does affect his helplessness or moral standing. And therefore, the doors of common justice seem shut on him.

 

If we keep the degree of deviation as a variant in the hands of the state through policies , laws or otherwise, can we  not create many mutations of the Popat? Popat is guilty from any angle you interpret the law and Sonawane isn't. The later was doing his duty and to prove that he was jumping the red line by asking bribe is too uphill a task. We all know that and experience it in every day lives. When the customs official, service tax officials, the municipality babus, the income tax officials, the charity commissioner, and even the port officials demand bribes beyond what we feel is bearable for our livelihoods, do we not wish that we could do a Popat-like act? In a situation, where the state takes away all the opportunities for the people and compels them to jump the red line of law to make a living, the subject becomes a topic of intense debate for its justification or condemnation. In any case, since justice too is vended by the state, the interpretation shall be in favor of the state's employee and against the subject.

 

Thinking from Sonawane's predicament, he certainly did not deserve this sort of end. What he was doing was wrong, if the bribery case can be proved right. Then, in that case the entire bureaucratic machinery is guilty of that. He was just in the wrong place in the wrong time and dealing with the wrong man with the wrong quantum of booty to take away. But you can never know the wrong man from the right, especially when all victims react similar to a cat-act when cornered. And you can never be sure about the quantum. It is always better to err on the higher side and then if you err too much it could be disastrous like Sonawane's fate!

 

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Brgds

Capt Rath

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