State tyranny has reared its monstrous head again. This time it isn’t against an individual working in the “private sector”–as in the case of the erstwhile Sahib Singh Verma vs Jet Airways case–but one of the government’s own: a senior railway official.

Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav today suspended a railway officer for allegedly behaving rudely with four of his party MPs, including MoS, Communication, Shakeel Ahmad, who were travelling by the Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani last week.
Though Laloo did not name the suspended official, sources confirmed that Additional DRM, Allahabad, A.K. Singh, was at the receiving end of his ire.

This reminds me of a common scene in our braindead Bollywood movies where a dialogue repeated ad nauseam now, goes like this, jaanta nahi mein kaun hoon? mera pehchaan dilli tak hai. is ka anjaam bahut bura hoga, tum pachtaoge! Which also reminds me of a Hindi proverb, laati tooti par bal nahi gayi. I find it hard to believe that Laloo, with all his cunning and experience, could do something as stupid as this–especially at a time when his fortunes have nosedived. Whatever that maybe, this incident only reinforces that our politicians are a law unto themselves. Here goes:

According to railway officials, a travelling ticket examiner (TTE) on April 29 was manhandled by the attendants of four RJD MPs — Devender Yadav, Raghunath Jha, Alok Kumar Mehta and Shakeel Ahmad — in Kanpur, when he asked for their tickets.

‘‘They just kept saying that they were MPs and even refused to show any identity card. One of them said he has lost it (identity card),’’ the official said. Beaten up by the MPs’ attendants, the TTE sent a message to Allahabad. As the matter was sensitive, the ADRM himself came to the station when the train arrived in Allahabad. ‘‘He asked the MPs for their travelling authority, which they either did not have, or did not want to show,” an official said.

But the Holy MPs’ version of this is

Laloo’s party MPs, however, claimed that they were harassed by rude and drunk railway officials.

Predictably, Laloo chose to blame the NDA for this treatment!

Laloo said in the Lok Sabha today that it was a conspiracy against his party MPs. He alleged that some NDA MPs were travelling in the adjacent coach, but they were not disturbed.

So, when his car is stoned, it’s the NDA/BJP’s fault. When the highest number of train accidents (in a year) occur during his one-year-old tenure, it is somehow a conspiracy of the Opposition parties. When his own party thugs MPs behave in the manner that naturally comes to them, it is again the Opposition’s fault.

What we’re witnessing is a slow Biharification of the railways. Where elected goons representatives treat institutions like it’s their private property. What next? If RJD thugs decide to rape/kidnap innocent passengers, they can rest assured that they have the bountiful blessings of their ringleader, Laloo. And he can in turn rest assured that his new-found media friends will whitewash his misdeeds.

Meanwhile, the Puppet Prime Minister is still weak-kneed; coalition politics demands that he shouldn’t sack Laloo.