The incident took place in Araria district, where an agriculture officer humiliated on-duty home guard in front of the public. The video of which got viral on the internet.

Manoj Kumar an Agriculture Officer in Bihar, punished an on-duty home guard Ganesh Tatma after he asked the Agriculture Officer for a lockdown pass amid a nationwide shutdown over the coronavirus pandemic.

The visuals in the video clip show that the constable was made to do sit-ups holding his ears publically and was even forced to apologise to the government official. The only fault of the home guard was that he dared to stop the vehicle of a government official and asked for the lockdown pass. According to the guidelines of the Indian government, nobody can get out of their house without a lockdown pass.

In the 20-second video clip, it is visible that the home guard is wearing a black face cover, but the agricultural officer is not wearing masks, as per the COVID-19 government guidelines. His colleagues and the others were the mute spectators at the time of the incident.

The government official was so offended by the actions of the home guard that he threatened to send him to jail. Manoj Kumar is seen shouting on the video- “I am in a hurry because of a video conferencing meeting otherwise I would have sent you to jail.”

Later the home guard even forced to ask an apology, with head down in the feet of agriculture officer.

 

The shocking part of the whole incident, senior police officer sided with the government official and started shouting at the home guard. “You have stopped the Department of Agriculture official for checking but this is my insult as I am the in-charge of the checkpoint,” the senior police officer shouted.

After the incident twitter flooded with the viral video. The people were sharing the video asking for the strict action. One of the uploads are-

Bihar Agriculture Minister Prem Kumar statement

Bihar Agriculture Minister Prem Kumar said that we will have an enquiry. The agriculture officer is looking guilty. Strict action taken against the agriculture officer and departmental proceedings started against him. The police are doing a commendable job in ensuring the strictness in the lockdown.

Humiliation will not tolerated

Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey has filed a complaint with the Bihar Chief Secretary for humiliating an on-duty constable.

Gupteshwar Pandey said, “we will not tolerate the humiliation of any policeman. They are all doing their duty to enforce lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. Action will be taken against the agriculture officer.”

Opinion

The police officers of the entire nation are working day and night to ensure the strictness of the lockdown. Because of them, the lockdown is getting successful in several states.

For what reason does the frontline soldiers of our country deserve this level of humiliation. They are performing their duty honestly. The behaviour of government official is unacceptable. This is not the time to showcase your authority. If the government officials will behave like this in front of the public, what kind of message they will portray to them.

It’s not only the duty of the police to follow the guidelines of government amid lockdown. Every government officer including the public should take the lockdown very seriously.

What if one fine day the frontline soldiers decided that they won’t do any help of the nation. The whole nation will suffer the worst-case scenario. Then the government officials like Manoj Kumar will beg for help to them. It’s because of our frontline soldiers, India has not become a death field like other countries.

Our frontline soldier’s doctors, policeman, healthcare workers all of them deserve an utmost level of respect. They are risking their life for the sake of the nation. Risking their life and their family life to perform their duty well. They are living away with the family amid the pandemic guidelines. They are on working on the field without any proper food water and comfort.

The Agriculture officer like Manoj Kumar does not deserve the tag of the government official. He does not deserve to be one. The government official’s main goal is to serve the society, not to showcase your power and position especially in the time of crisis.