Bhubaneswar: Post the 2019 general elections, the Central, as well as the State government, launched a fresh crusade against corruption. All the newly elected lawmakers expressed in clear terms that corruption, bribery, and negligence of duty by government officials will be dealt with an iron hand.
While this is appreciable, two incidents of the elected representatives taking the law into their hands and publicly humiliating officials have sparked a huge debate across the nation. People have slammed their act as ‘unruly’ and ‘a display of overzealous’.
It all started in Odisha when BJD’s newly elected Patnagarh MLA Saroj Meher humiliated a PWD Junior Engineer (JE) by forcing him to do sit-ups in public.
On June 5, he had been caught on camera while punishing the JE in public for allegedly low-quality work in Belpada section of Balangir district.
In a video that went viral on social video, Meher can be seen making the JE do sit-ups 100 times in five minutes at Gambhari village- in full public view.
The MLA had, however, ‘regretted’ the episode saying he did it to save the official from the mob lynching him.
“The situation could have turned violent. Whatever I did was to save myself and the engineer from the fury of the villagers,” he said.
In a similar incident, Akash Vijayvargiya, a BJP MLA from Madhya Pradesh thrashed a Municipal Corporation officer with a cricket bat in Indore.
As per reports, Vijayvargiya got into a heated argument with the officer during an anti-encroachment drive and thrashed him in presence of policemen and television crews.
He then went on to add that if required again, he will repeat his act of beating up the officers once again.
“This is just the beginning, we will end this corruption & goondaism. ‘Aavedan, nivedan aur fir dana dan’ this is our line of action,” he said.
#WATCH Madhya Pradesh: Akash Vijayvargiya, BJP MLA and son of senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, thrashes a Municipal Corporation officer with a cricket bat, in Indore. The officers were in the area for an anti-encroachment drive. pic.twitter.com/AG4MfP6xu0
— ANI (@ANI) June 26, 2019
While the Odisha Government took swift action and the Patnagarh MLA was arrested, BJP lawmaker Akash Vijayvargiya is yet to be apprehended for his act. It would be interesting to see if he meets a similar fate as that of his Odisha counterpart or not.
Also Read: JE Sit-Up Case: Arrested Patnagarh MLA Saroj Meher Hospitalised
Ms Kalinga