Friday, February 10, 2012

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Good intention but wrong method) that was published in Newsband


Good intention but wrong method
Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS), which is the youth wing of the MNS, turned vigilantes by floating a 'flying squad' to check school buses in Navi Mumbai. The move has raised the hackles of bus operators who are questioning the rationale behind a political outfit taking up the role of officials. The questions that arise are whether MNVS possesses the right to play RTO and whether a political party has the right to check school buses? The party workers of MNVS displayed the daring of attacking school buses and threatening drivers in front of RTO officials. Is this another case of taking law in one's hand? This is the work which RTO officials or the government have to do. Why are workers of MNVS doing the work?
But there are some people who defend this act of MNVS. According to these people there is nothing wrong in doing social work. They say that MNVS is just doing something that is good for the society. Even some parents of the children who travel by school buses are feeling relieved that MNVS is doing something which they were expecting RTO to do since a very long time. According to them it doesn't matter whether MNVS is taking law in their hands or whether they are displaying their criminal powers. What matters according to them is that MNVS is ensuring safety of their school-going children.
One way MNVS is assisting RTO by taking the school bus safety seriously and by showing deep concern for those students who travel by school buses. They not only raided the buses but also passed on the tip-off about buses flouting norms to RTO which in turn checked the buses, found some buses flouting norms and immediately issued memos. RTO also found that the emergency exit door of one bus was jammed and a few buses were not carrying the list of students they were carrying. Now RTO would never get to know about all these offenses if MNVS had not taken the initiative of personally checking all the school buses.
In fact, MNVS formed a squad to ensure that safety measures introduced by the state government are implemented by school buses. They have planned to keep a vigil on buses from time to time and inform the RTO. Now what's wrong if they assist RTO in the matter of school buses? They're indeed doing a kind of social work.
On December 14, MNVS activists had roughed up the principal of DAV school, Nerul, and blackened his face. The reason was his school was not following the bus safety norms. The incident had led to anger among parents and teachers of all schools in Navi Mumbai, who protested. Now attack on principal was certainly not the right thing to do. This was a case of taking law in the hands and MNVS had no right to do that. Had they adopted some legal methods in this matter also they would have received huge applauds from all the quarters. But this particular act has tarnished the image of MNVS and people are questioning as to what is the difference between MNS and Shiv Sena which too would adopt such illegal methods in the past to put forward their demands? The intention of MNVS is undoubtedly good but the method adopted is wrong.

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