Ideally, a functioning, inclusive democracy brooks no discrimination and preferential treatment for the citizens in terms of anything from caste, creed to status with equality being the fulcrum of such a governmental foundation. However, things on the ground proves that some are more equal than others when it comes to the State dealing with the people.
For instance, different treatments as regards two incidents of the same nature, the only difference being the status of the persons concerned. The massive State apparatus aside from wings of the Armed Forces being pressed into service to rescue Abida Manzoor, the daughter of a Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Shahid Manzoor who was swept away by the current of Ganga near lakshman Jhula, Rishikesh stands in sharp contrast to the initiatives taken by the State Government to rescue two youths from ordinary families who reportedly drowned in the same river just a day before Abida drowned.
After the incident came into focus, the State administration with Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat being in the lead plunged headlong in the rescue operation. With CM’s direction, divers from Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and civil police of three districts Haridwar, Dehradun and Tehri have been conducting rescue operations round the clock since Sunday morning when the incident happened. But in case of the two youths drowning around the same place, the State was lackadaisical in rescuing them. “The differences in the treatments are too glaring to be missed. Around 40 persons died drowning in Ganga over the past one and half year. Did the State show even a faction of activism that it showed for the unfortunate AbidaIJ said an observer accusing the Government of VVIP racism.