More equal than others

RS Dalal   

THE open display of differences between the CJI and four senior SC judges created a division, both for and against their assertion of the right to be consulted and counted.

It took me back to my college days. Our professor of English, while teaching Julius Caesar, passionately proclaimed the principle of ‘primus inter pares’, i.e. first among equals, as the Romans’ gift to humanity. The Asian society is ever-prostrating, he often lamented.

The great Caesar was accepted as the first among equals by the Senate, but his autocratic actions brazenly flouted the lofty principle of governance. The Senators hatched a conspiracy and stabbed him to death to protect the guiding principle of the Republic, as our professor fiercely believed. In bureaucracy, many an officer have asserted this ‘right’ time and again, despite the ‘code of conduct’ always yoked around their neck.

When I was SP, my boss, the Range DIG, for no reason, transferred one of my Sub-Inspectors heading a police station to outside my district. I appreciated the SI’s work. It upset me that I was not even consulted. I refused to relieve him and sat on the orders despite reminders. The DIG angrily summoned me to his office and gave me a dressing down. I politely explained to him how the order had undermined my position in the force. Consequently, I had to pay the price, at least in terms of nerve attrition, of a running Cold War with the boss for long.

A decade later, I was Staff Officer to the DGP, a mild-mannered officer, but sensitive about his professional dignity and status. The Chief Minister was a strong-headed person. One ill-fated morning as he was sitting in his front lawn, about to leave for a game of tennis, the telephone orderly handed him a newspaper flashing transfers of several senior police officers. The DGP had no clue about it. He paced up and down the lawn with rage. The game was cancelled. The die was cast. He called for a notepad, wrote a letter and put it in an envelope. He put on his uniform and left to meet the Chief Minister. ‘Sir, you transferred some officers last evening,’ he confronted him. ‘Yes, I did,’ the CM remarked with a straight face. ‘But, I wasn’t consulted,’ he said impatiently, ‘that’s my prerogative.’ 

‘I don’t have to consult you,’ asserted the CM. ‘In that case, the state doesn’t need a DGP,’ he said, handing him the envelope. 

‘What’s this?’ the CM asked, a bit stumped as he opened the envelope. ‘It’s my leave application.’ 

The right to be consulted and counted was demanded. The Caesar scene was enacted in quite another way, and in a different era and setting.