To expect or to demand respect?

In a country which has one of the highest crime rates, atrocities against women reported not by the day but by the minute, poor are exploited and can not dare to even enter a police station or else they may have to face the ire of the cops, has more than 5 lakh police vacancies, deploys three cops to protect its VIPs leaving just one cop for 761 lesser mortals, the VIPs are now expecting even more!!!

Moving in motorcades, which has more than dozen security vehicles with more than fifty gun clutching security persons in tow, has become a norm for these leaders. Now they want the police to even bow down to them. A top cop in Kerala, Indian state with the highest literacy rate- additional DGP Rishiraj Singh is facing action for not saluting state home minister Ramesh Chennithala at a function of the state police academy. Several newspapers flashed the picture of the senior officer sitting when the minister arrived before the passing out parade of police constables causing much embarrassment to the minister and the government. What was being reported as a show of disrespect, the government expressed its irritation on the officer’s explanation that there was no protocol to stand up and salute the minister.

Elected representatives in India, cutting across the party lines have become too demanding, Rishiraj Singh’s case not being the first one. The minister perhaps expects Singh to salute him, like the others cops on the stage at the venue did as he walked from his car to the dais. Why the minister should not be expecting the same when India has witnessed a cop picking up the shoes of former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati and making it comfortable for her to wear. In September 2014, a picture of an army jawan and security personnel tying Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s shoe laces during his visit to Jammu and Kashmir went viral, the minister and the government remained evasive and the issue was put to rest by media too.

The virus that originated at the minister of Kerala, soon caught up with fellow folks in Mumbai too, where Jayant Patil a MLC created a shudder in the Legislative Council by demanding that police at the entrance of the Legislature and inside its campus should salute all the MLAs and MLCs.

Leaders in India by demanding the respect that they have failed to earn have given ample impressions that they have different parameters for the respect they expect and they display to others. Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners; leaders in India are far away from this moral, perhaps they need to be reminded of the same.