Yesterday, I got the third call from boss during peak working hours. I had just finished a rather frustrating discussion with a self styled messiah of the downtrodden and the ringing desk phone left me pretty frazzled. Boss was deeply concerned about the sad traffic situation in the town and was rightly concerned about the take of the police on the same. I took a deep breath to explain certain things and in my mind’s eye, unfolded the events of not so long ago.
The fact is, the traffic situation in the town was nothing to write much about. We made certain half-baked attempts which, obviously, didn’t work out. And then….IT happened. In quick succession, two adolescents lost their lives to rash driving right in the heart of the town. Unfortunate incidents, which catapulted to an uncontrollable law and order situation. Students, egged on by mischief mongers, went on a rampage setting fire to shops, ransacking public property, burning tyres and pelting stones at one and sundry. The normal life of the town came to a halt and the police had to tread carefully since students were involved in this carnage. The situation was somehow controlled but it did leave me pretty disturbed. In a week’s time, we called numerous meetings of different sections of the society to elicit their help and support to put a proper and responsive traffic policing system in place. This, knowing very well, that we had no traffic police station, no designated staff and the massive demands of the district were anyways eating into our existing meager resources. However, the idea was that if people were so aggrieved about a crumbling public service, we must exert ourselves to the optimum to provide for the same and also that we would get immense public support and participation for the same. People came in hordes, spoke enthusiastically, their speeches brimming with ideas and promised us the moon. We, of course, were over the moon. I was, in short, really very happy and was never as motivated before as I was then. In a week’s time, we began awareness campaigns around the town sensitizing the masses about traffic rules and regulations. Then came announcements about the traffic rules and restrictions that were to be followed. After a buffer of 15 days, a well thought out and intensively discussed, debated and popularly welcomed traffic system was put into place. The town looked pretty much changed overnight. It was no longer higgledy piggledy madness on the roads; there was an order and a system and we all felt pretty proud to be a part of this exercise.
How I wish we had waited a little longer before backslapping ourselves! 15 days into the exercise and complaints started streaming in. First, came in the parents of under age children objecting to their pre-pubescent wards not being allowed to ride two wheelers on the roads without a license. One parent even threatened that only heavens help us if his child does not get through to a top notch engineering college just because he really can’t go for tuitions in a bicycle! Then, came in truck and bus associations opposing various restrictions on their movements on the main roads in the peak hours. Their grievance was that their business was getting hampered and we didn’t really need to be so strict. Yes, some serious accidents had occurred, but don’t they occur everywhere. Does it mean that we get so badly psyched out? In quick succession came tractors association, senior citizens’ associations, journalists and any group..you name it and they were there. Opposing the rule of wearing helmets, opposing fines on traffic violations, opposing frequent checks by police, opposing stop boards and barricades at crucial junctures, opposing removal of encroachments, opposing removal of stray cattle from roads..in short..Opposing everything. We were bewildered. Were not these the same people called for our collective idea churning sessions and weren’t these the same people who had so vociferously criticized the lack of order and had recommended a ‘strict’ enforcement of ‘traffic rules’? What had gone so terribly wrong? Was our staff being inconsiderate, lax or just too unconcerned? I frantically asked for this was our collective dream project which we just could not throw away.
A number of discussions ensued and what appeared was that everybody wanted a public enforcement of rules in general. But the clinch was that the exercise must cause no personal inconvenience. The other must be checked, bossed over, made to bend. But..not me.. I should be allowed to do as I feel like and as I have done before. That was the whole idea. I believe ‘walk the talk’ concept was definitely moribund here. And this was definitely not how a society which prides its fundamental rights and values democracy should function. However harsh it might sound, the hypocrisy was all there to see. In a nutshell, it appeared that the civil society was not in the least happy with the implementation of rules meant for the greater good and to secure lives and safeguard public property. Because it curtailed personal carpe diem.
All this was pretty disillusioning..the same people who had criticized us for being lax were coming down on our heads like a ton of bricks for trying to do something good. In no time, all talk had vanished faster than the cheapest perfume and we were not even left with a pleasant scent. I tried to do a lot of reflections wondering that maybe we had gone wrong somewhere. Maybe awareness campaigns needed to be more long drawn, maybe we were admitting failure too soon. Despite protests, till date, we continue with the enforcement of basic traffic rules though we have been forced to relax a number of them. However, the bitter chocolate still bothers. Many a times, our staff is heckled on roads for fining a student racing on crammed roads, detaining women for not wearing helmets, questioning men for not carrying their driving licenses etc. A lady constable was recently manhandled by a journalist of a leading media office for stopping the latter’s vehicle for a regular night checking. However, we soldier on.
I must say that in all fairness, I am not disillusioned really. But I am nonetheless wiser. When that super smart journalist screams on TV that India wants to know why corruption is not being dealt with firmly and similar self righteous verbose, I look the other way. Maybe India does want to know, does indeed talk a lot, but India does precious little. India refuses to look beyond the self-a looking beyond that is such an essential element of a sensitive, sensible, modern society. I agree that one experience is too miniscule to debunk the beautiful concept of public-private partnership and that one has to weather a number of pitfalls before one succeeds in a purpose. But that does not stop one from wondering that if India was actually so desperate for a change for the better, would the response be like this? I again come back to a question mark as I explain all this to Boss and hope that this is his last and final call of the day.
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