vaneet-kaur

By Dr. Vaneet Kaur

The stories, the spell, the yells and the bells, all seem to be tapering off. The fizz appears to be fizzling out. All around the town, now there are mumbles that the charisma and charm has all began to crumble. What started with a boom, is nowadays turning into gloom. The Rath seems to be on the brink or as a matter of fact has already started to sink.

The season of the state has quickly shifted away from Basant and the winds have started flowing in the opposite direction. The realization of the plummeting magnetism has translated into dwindling numbers of social media posts. Kindred, the quantum of reactions on these too have taken a plunge. The only exception being the summoning of police jeep which much to the disappointment of masses turned out to be just a jape.

Shift of the personage to valley has got back all the traffic tumult. The disarrayed parking and commotion on Tawi bridge on religious occasions speaks volumes about the same. It may be the inner rowdyism of masses to play the religious card and block important roads and bridges without being questioned but they succeed in that fairly well as traffic cops turn a blind eye towards such happenings so to avoid paying any price with punishment postings.

Mega violation of traffic rules is being done with conscious volition. It is all back to square one. Helmets have been removed and so have been the seat belts. Bullets are buzzing aloud and matadors are hitting the brakes at the discretion of the driver.

To top it all, office bearers have once again stopped paying any heed. The degree of seriousness of the cops is well evident in the unwillingness of men in blue themselves to follow the decree. Well they are just following suit, one sows what one reaps. If their boss does not listen to his superiors, why should they?

Abusing the admirers and followers made the once favourite Rath misbalanced on the roads. Left over damage has been done owing to pig-headedness, the unnecessary challans and exploitation of poor. It is exemplary of how one can utterly fail in embracing and cherishing all the love showered by the people.

Irresponsible statements of encouraging people to overload and break the rules after he is posted out have only added fuel to the fire. A true hero promises ‘happily ever after’ so things cannot be allowed to be back to a sad state after his egress. The true gift to the people of J&K would have been to remove the problems from the grass root level that ensure good system on ground irrespective of presence or absence of Rath on the roads.

Basant is an individual, he need not need run himself everywhere to bring about change, as it is not going to work long. The need of the hour is to establish a smooth traffic system, just like on roads of southern states of the country, where nobody dares to break any law even in the absence of men in blue from the middle of the action. Breaking of red lights should invite a hefty fine and automation of the systems is a prerequisite. Centralised monitoring of systems is another much needed step in this direction for effect to be omnipresent.

Establishment of such an effective system is what should have been the focus of the top cop  rather than smashing few bikes or push carts. Writing much needed letters to various departments to repair roads and check religious turbulent would have been the righteous approach. A luminary of this stature should make his effect be felt even after he is gone, else it will open the floodgates for indiscipline to run wild on the roads.

Perhaps his own department is playing the waiting game – waiting for his departure and again let the ruckus rule! Unless the masses realize their crucial role in streamlining the system nothing is going to change. The corruption will return, the state of the traffic will be sad once again and it may take ages for people of the state to feel another effect. The opportunity is here and now to save the Rath from sinking so that the effect lasts even when the panjandrum is gone and the traffic system runs smoothly on its own.