"Sir, can they call us, laboratory technicians, for election duty, can they?" the person in charge of the lab asked me.
"You have already been called, I read in the newspapers today" I said. "The election commission is a constitutionally established federal authority. It is autonomous. It can do whatever it wants as far as conducting elections is concerned. If its order is refused, it can jail people. Its chief draws salary like the judge of the supreme court of India, I hear."
"But how will we do lab tests for patients if we have to go on election duty?"
"I understand it is judicial or quasi judicial. Don't you know that law is blind. It is evident from lady justice wearing a blindfold, as shown in court scenes of our Hindi movies . That blindness must prevent the people in the commission from seeing that healthcare is more important to people, especially poor people who seem to make a major part of the population, than the election process." someone said.
"But how will we run laboratory services on those four days our technicians go on election duty?" the lab person asked desperately.
"Well, you obviously cannot. The newspapers have strongly criticized the decision to call lab persons for this duty. If that decision is not revoked by the election commission, you will have to stop laboratory services on those days."
"But our patients will suffer."
"I know" I said. "But I have no power to do anything to resolve the problem."
A week passed after the initial call was sent out, and they did not revoke the order. The lab person was right. The patients did suffer. The tragedy was that no one seemed to care. Social activists, NGOs, media, and even politicians remained silent on that issue. It seemed like the poor people had lost the will to protest, or even to survive. Others probably had other things on their minds.
"The next thing will be doctors being called for election duty" I said to the Boss during a meeting.
"They have already been called" the Boss said.
"What has the biggest democracy in the world come to?" said that someone who had criticized this decision so vehemently just a week ago.
No one answered the question, because it was a rhetorical question.
"You have already been called, I read in the newspapers today" I said. "The election commission is a constitutionally established federal authority. It is autonomous. It can do whatever it wants as far as conducting elections is concerned. If its order is refused, it can jail people. Its chief draws salary like the judge of the supreme court of India, I hear."
"But how will we do lab tests for patients if we have to go on election duty?"
"I understand it is judicial or quasi judicial. Don't you know that law is blind. It is evident from lady justice wearing a blindfold, as shown in court scenes of our Hindi movies . That blindness must prevent the people in the commission from seeing that healthcare is more important to people, especially poor people who seem to make a major part of the population, than the election process." someone said.
"But how will we run laboratory services on those four days our technicians go on election duty?" the lab person asked desperately.
"Well, you obviously cannot. The newspapers have strongly criticized the decision to call lab persons for this duty. If that decision is not revoked by the election commission, you will have to stop laboratory services on those days."
"But our patients will suffer."
"I know" I said. "But I have no power to do anything to resolve the problem."
A week passed after the initial call was sent out, and they did not revoke the order. The lab person was right. The patients did suffer. The tragedy was that no one seemed to care. Social activists, NGOs, media, and even politicians remained silent on that issue. It seemed like the poor people had lost the will to protest, or even to survive. Others probably had other things on their minds.
"The next thing will be doctors being called for election duty" I said to the Boss during a meeting.
"They have already been called" the Boss said.
"What has the biggest democracy in the world come to?" said that someone who had criticized this decision so vehemently just a week ago.
No one answered the question, because it was a rhetorical question.
