बेबाक · Editorial
ধ্বংস, ড্ৰাগছৰ আৱৰ্জনা আৰু এজন কনষ্টেবলৰ মৃত্যুঃ সমান আইনৰ দৈনন্দিন পৰীক্ষা।
আইনৰ শাসন আনুষ্ঠানিক ঘোষণাত নহয় বৰঞ্চ ধ্বংস অভিযান আৰু ড্ৰাগছৰ অভিযানত কৰা হয়; ইয়াৰ বৈধতা ইয়াৰ ওপৰত নিৰ্ভৰ কৰে যে ই শক্তিশালী আৰু দৰিদ্ৰ লোকৰ ওপৰত সমানভাৱে পৰে নে নহয়।
ৰাজ্য, ওচৰতে
এটা একক বাতৰি চক্ৰত, ভাৰতীয় ৰাজ্য ইয়াৰ পোচাকত নহয় বৰঞ্চ ইয়াৰ কাৰ্যকৰী পোছাকত দেখা গৈছিল। দিল্লীৰ এখন পৌৰ নিগমে 217 খন ধ্বংসকাৰ্য নথিভুক্ত কৰিছে
Where law is made
The law in the statute book is majestic and equal; the law on the street can look selective, improvised and uneven. That gap is where legitimacy is won or lost. Enforcement is not optional: a state that cannot act against unauthorised construction, pursue narcotics cases, or stop illegal sand mining has abdicated a basic duty. But the existence of enforcement settles little. What matters is its incidence — who feels the bulldozer and who is spared, whose documents are demanded and whose are waved through. The same action can be the rule of law or its mockery, depending entirely on whether it is applied without fear or favour to the powerful and the powerless alike. That is the test this cycle quietly sets.
The case for enforcement
Take the strongest version of the state's case. Unauthorised construction is not a paperwork sin; it can endanger lives, and the Delhi crackdown rested on documented process — 330 show-cause notices, 151 sealing show-cause notices and 91 demolition orders, not merely sudden action. Narcotics investigations require evidence; the Madhapur action, with urine tests returning positive and blood samples sent to the FSL, followed a stated procedure rather than rumour. Illegal sand mining harms public resources, and a head constable lost his life during an operation against it. A republic that flinches from enforcement risks abandoning those least able to protect themselves. On this evidence, the machinery was doing what citizens are entitled to expect of it.
The case for restraint
Now the equal and opposite truth. Enforcement that falls hardest on the powerless is not the rule of law; it is its costume. A demolition drive must distinguish organised unauthorised construction from a poor family's shelter, or it becomes punishment for poverty. The detention of seven foreign nationals must end only through lawful, documented procedure — not in collective suspicion of anyone who looks or speaks differently. The Tughlakabad arson over a ₹50,000 debt, in which a teenager was apprehended and three adults, Sarita, Niranjan and Rajkumar, were arrested, is a reminder that desperation and disorder live closest to the margins. A state fierce with the weak and tender with the strong has the form of law without its substance.
Who pays below
Consider, too, who pays for enforcement. The head constable in Ramanathapuram died doing the state's dangerous work; the announced ₹30 lakh solatium to the bereaved family cannot disguise that he was sent into an operation against illegal sand mining and did not return. Telangana's approval of 140 additional vehicles and a Disaster Response Force to strengthen HYDRAA for emergency, rescue and monsoon operations is welcome, but it also shows how much enforcement depends on timely capacity. Meanwhile, the directive to introduce facial-recognition attendance in schools and hospitals trains sharp accountability on public employees at the delivery end of governance. The pattern is telling: the system demands discipline downward while it must also resource itself adequately, and asks the constable to risk everything with enough behind him.
Equal law, properly armed
The way forward is neither to romanticise enforcement nor to resent it, but to make it equal, lawful and adequately resourced. Civic bodies should publish, before the bulldozer arrives, the criteria and the appeal window for every demolition, so the poor are not bracketed with larger violators. Detentions should proceed only through documented procedure, with humane, time-bound verification. Enforcement against illegal construction, narcotics and illegal sand mining must carry the manpower and equipment that keeps personnel alive, not merely a cheque to a bereaved family, alongside emergency units funded before each monsoon. And the accountability captured by a camera for the junior employee must run all the way up the chain. Equal law, competently and humanely enforced, is the only law worth the name.
শক্তিহীনসকলৰ ওপৰত আটাইতকৈ বেছি পৰা বলৱৎ কৰাটো আইনৰ শাসন নহয়; ই ইয়াৰ পোচাক।
At stake is whether coercive enforcement affecting property, liberty, equality and public accountability remains lawful, reasoned and non-selective under Articles 300A, 21, 14 and 19(1)(a).
Equal Enforcement Due Process Register
Parliament and state legislatures should require every civic body and police unit undertaking demolitions, sealing, document-based detention, narcotics testing or illegal-mining action to publish an RTI-accessible Enforcement Due Process Register recording the legal basis, notice or emergency grounds, order status, evidence step and available appeal or grievance forum. An independent district-level reviewer should be empowered to hear time-bound complaints on selective or procedurally defective enforcement before irreversible action wherever public safety does not require immediate intervention.
আপোনাৰ সাংবিধানিক অধিকাৰ
এই কাহিনীত সংবিধানে কি নিশ্চয়তা দিয়েNo person shall be deprived of property save by authority of law — a constitutional (legal) right, requiring fair procedure and, in practice, compensation.
ConstitutionalNo person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except by a fair, just and reasonable procedure established by law — read by the courts to include dignity, privacy, health, a clean environment and livelihood.
Fundamental RightThe State shall not deny any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws. Like must be treated alike; the law cannot be arbitrary.
Fundamental RightEvery citizen has the right to freedom of speech and expression — including a free press and the right to know — subject only to the reasonable restrictions in Article 19(2).
Fundamental RightWhat this editorial rests on
Drawn from our live multi-newsroom feed — read the reporting at source.
আন্দোলনত যোগদান কৰক।
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