The departure of Ilma Afros, a devoted police officer of the 2018 batch and Superintendent of Police in Baddi district, Himachal Pradesh, exposes a chilling message: the legislation can usually defend energy, not justice. Known for her integrity, Afros took a stand towards unlawful mining operations in her district — a line of labor dominated by politically linked people. She dared to imagine that her function as a police officer meant holding all, highly effective or not, accountable underneath the legislation.
But that perception clashed with actuality. When her workforce took motion towards a automobile owned by the partner of MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary, Afros couldn’t have foreseen the backlash. The legislator, with entrenched affect in Baddi, took offence and used the Assembly flooring to launch unsubstantiated accusations towards her. Ironically, the identical Assembly shields him with legislative privilege underneath which no motion may be taken towards him for what he says within the House. The younger officer, one of many few Muslims to realize her place, discovered herself defamed, with out the safety she had hoped to supply others.
Afros’s story is one in all grit: raised by a widowed mom who struggled to ship her to St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and later Oxford, Afros may have pursued a profession on the United Nations. Yet, her dedication to serve her homeland introduced her again to India. Now, underneath immense stress, she has been pressured to depart her submit quickly, in search of solace in her village in UP’s Moradabad on 15 days’ go away. What lesson does this give to younger aspirants to public service? It means that upholding the legislation is likely to be a noble concept however is harmful in apply. Ilma Afros’s ordeal lays naked a bitter reality: In some locations, justice may be muzzled by energy. A democracy that silences its dutiful officers dangers shedding the ethical basis on which it stands.
