GOOD FELLAS
Bonds Beyond the Red Tape
Government officers are heroes too . Recent stories of the public ’ s love for some of them stand as proof .
by Abdul Gani in Guwahati and Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar
IT ’ S a striking photograph , of a young man mobbed by a group of children , some of them crying , others hugging him , apparently to stop their favourite teacher from leaving . If a picture is worth a 1,000 words , this was worth a million . G . Bhagawan , a 28-year-old English teacher at a government school in Tamil Nadu shot to fame recently when the photograph of crying students went viral , prompting authorities to cancel his transfer . In another incident , about a week ago , hundreds of people took to the streets in Kohima , Nagaland , to protest the state government ’ s decision to remove the then police chief Rupin Sharma , who had earned love and fame as the “ people ’ s DGP ”. People with banners and placards marched through the hill town demanding cancellation of the order . Further west , a doctor left an Odisha village in tears when he decided to pursue a degree in orthopaedics after an eight-year stint at the healthcare centre in Tentulikhunti in Nabarangpur district . Photos of weeping villagers hugging an equally emotional Kailash Chandra Das left many with a lump in their throat .
Everyday heroes don ’ t wear capes . Sometimes , they don a stethoscope like Dr Das , have a pistol slung on their waist like IPS Sharma or wield chalk and duster , like Bhagawan . And positive change is
Everyday heroes don ’ t wear capes . Sometimes , they don a stethoscope , have a pistol slung on their waist or wield chalk and duster .
STAY ! Students cling to G . Bhagawan ( left ), march for the ‘ people ’ s DGP ’
seldom flashy and spontaneous , it takes time and will . But bureaucracy has its own time table for things . “ This is injustice to an honest officer . He had really started to work well for the wellbeing of the state … He would regularly interact with the public . He was open to suggestions . No officer earlier did that . We saw a hope . That ’ s why we called him the people ’ s DGP ,” says Kevitho Kera who had participated in a signature campaign against the government decision to remove Sharma , a 1992-batch IPS officer of the Nagaland cadre . Sharma has served the state for 26 years in different positions and is given credit for rolling out various police reforms . He was appointed as acting DGP in November 2017 .
Veteran journalist Monalisa Changkija of The Nagaland Post has a different view on the popularity of Sharma . “ The issue is not only confined to the DGP and police personnel — the larger issue is the disgust and disgruntlement of the public towards the apathetic governance in the state . Perhaps the public hasn ’ t been able to articulate it so far , but the support to Sharma displays a general but deeprooted sense of anger and frustration at the collapse of institutional mores preceded by the crumbling of the clearlyenunciated constitutional ethos and value-systems ,” she says . Changkija also points out that the government could
24 OUTLOOK 9 July 2018