Basant Rath and his Kashmir attachment
When one’s intentions are right applause is likely to follow
Rayees Ahmad Kumar
One could love him or hate him for his flamboyant style and aggressive posture of issuing appeals and warnings to follow the traffic rules in Jammu & Kashmir when he was posted in the UT. This Odisha-born IPS officer, Basant Kumar Rath had vowed to bring everyone including the citizens, politicians and police officials on right track.
During Rath’s tenure as IGP (Traffic) in Jammu & Kashmir, following his promotion, he landed in a series of controversies for his style of action directed at everyone who refused to wear helmets and whom he termed as politically well-connected individuals.
Hailing from Odisha and an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the 2000-batch IPS officer Basant Rath is best known for his straightforwardness on social networking sites like Facebook and microblogging site Twitter.
People here would love to see the traffic updates posts on Twitter by Rath after they used to access socal media sites for updates after waking up from their nightlong sleep.
In Jammu & Kashmir, Rath was like a moving force in vehicular traffic system. He left no stone unturned when he caught anyone riding the bike without helmet.
His strict attitude in profession and dauntlessness has won many hearts on Twitter and Facebook. Today he has more fans and followers from JK on social media than any other politician or celebrity. This is all because of his dedication and zeal towards streamlining the system.
When he was posted as IG (traffic), he used to check traffic mismanagement himself like a brave hero, checked the overload of vehicles and traffic jam issue was also partly resolved during his times. Not only in Srinagar city but in almost every district he visited and overhauled the traffic mismanagement. He didn’t spare anybody irrespective of his status or affiliation when it came to control and manage the traffic on roads.
Many a times he challaned force’s vehicles, paramilitary vehicles and even police vehicles parked at wrong places. They were given time bound notices to explain their misdoings. I myself have seen many a times when Rath directed male passengers to leave seats for female passengers in the vehicles exclusively reserved for them.
Through his cheerful attitude and people friendly behaviour, he has won the hearts of Kashmirs. Kashmiri people irrespective of the age, gender and sect like him and consider him like one of their family members. The VIP culture in which most politicians and police/ civil administrators are sunk, Basant Rath disliked it wholeheartedly. He instead likes to mitigate the public sufferings, win their hearts through noble deeds. He knows and has strong belief on “Action speaks louder than voice “. That is why he always keeps himself ready and geared to ease people’s worries.
Basant Rath during Sunday/holiday times used to roam in Srinagar’s busiest Sunday market, there he used to greet people, listen to their woes which reflected his inner attachment with the land and people of valley. Sometimes on the banks of world famous Dal Lake near Boulevard road when Basant would spend some movements, people in crowds surrounded him. Get ready to take selfies with him.
Basant never rejects anybody nor he ever gets annoyed at it. Basant Rath’s Kashmir attachment is further evident from the fact that his Twitter handle runs under the name @kangri carrier. Kangri (Fire pot) is the inseparable part of Kashmiri culture which is used in winters to warm our bodies.
In addition to this, Basant Rath has taken many prosocial initiatives to help people in distress, destitute and those who can’t afford a good living. Using social media platforms Basant Rath informs youth especially poor one’s who can’t afford costly books for competitive exams like NEET, JEE, JKPSC, SSRB and UPSC, he fetches them these books for free.
So far he might have distributed books among thousands of students worth lakhs of rupees across JK. This unique quality of Basant Rath has made him so popular that young generation eagerly wait for his social media posts and once these appear , unlimited number of likes, comments and shares are received by Basant.
A couple of days before, when the news about Basant’s suspension by home ministry went viral, people without wasting a second took to social networking sites and expressed their anger against this move and supported Basant. Some even went on to write “Basant you don’t need domicile certificate entire Kashmir is with you “.
All this shows that work for public is the best kind of worship. When your intentions are right and you love public service, in return you are bound to receive applauses all around.
(The writer is a teacher by profession)
KV Network
