Anti-drug crusader seeking public mandate
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 19, 2021 -
KNOWN for her anti-drug crusade, MPS officer Thounaojam Brinda has made a striking entry into electoral politics when she and her supporters not only had a fierce showdown with the police as the latter foiled a planned election rally on Sunday but her scathing remarks against the alleged existing rot in the system of governance should prod the conscience of the policy makers as well.
"As we all know, we don't get government jobs, we buy them instead. The government sells jobs and we purchase them. Fresh graduates have difficulty fitting in such a situation. Thus, the first and foremost thing we need to do is to uplift the youth and poor of the country," were one of the notable comments made by the woman police officer when she addressed newspersons minutes after the rally was forced to be shelved.
Brinda had every reason to vent her angst against the authorities for denying permission to take out the rally and the proposed public meeting for similar election events had been going on for the past few days in the twin capital districts as well as on the same day as there has been intense campaigns aimed at wooing the adult franchisees and drawing attention of those who would be allotting election symbol to the intending candidates.
Whether or not she wins the election only time will tell but her no-holds barred remarks that securing government jobs is not necessarily based on merit of the employment seekers validates the perennial suspicion among the public that the white-collared jobs are already tagged for only a handful of candidates out of the thousands of applicants.
The establishment may not subscribe to her assertion over commercialisation of government jobs but the fact remains that ahead of any recruitment drive some leading newspapers run out of space in publishing advertisements notifying publicly sale of homestead and agricultural lands by the landedgentry of the society while for those families without much assets to part with the few options left are either to mortgage ancestral properties or seek loans from financial institutes to remain in the recruitment race.
Moreover, had some ordinary citizens made the same scornful remarks as Brinda did against the government then it is obvious that he/she would have been pulled up and thrown into the jail on the charge of denigrating the establishment's an in-service officer Brinda is liable to be reprimanded and stripped of her official status for alleging flaws in the system but it is unlikely that she would face any harsh action as she must be fully aware about the possible consequences and is prepared to counter any punitive action initiated against her by the government.
Nevertheless, to the commoners, Manipur needs more women like Brinda who wouldn't be intimidated but fight against injustices and cleanse the system.
As the saying goes 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', many would be looking forward to the police officer-turned-politician to maintain the same fierce characteristics, if electors of Yaiskul assembly constituency stamp their approval, and not get assimilated into the same system which she is so convinced of being the greatest threat to survival of the indigenes.
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