Public speakers marked by their rhetoric derived from their knowledge on various subjects specific to their captive audiences as well as perception often take fascination to extol the land’s culture in glorious terms, not forgetting to lament on the current scenario of money power, muscle power and mass power holding sway, even as the various affected sections in the population are feeling helpless, taking the brunt of consequences of the principle of might-is-right followed by a) The vote-seekers, b) The goons and c) Those with a plethora of unmet demands (such as the case of just-ended country-wide stir by doctors as a mass). Dwelling on the vicious side of money, exchanged in horse-trading by vote-seekers, stashed in Swiss Banks, filling the pockets of cash-hungry dishonest functionaries in the Government, traders dealing in faked goods of popular brands, extortionists and so on amounts to the proverbial beating the dead horse. Muscle power in public life, having come out of wrestling arenas and boxing rings in our times has tended to mock at the law-keeping machinery of the government. Mass power happens to be the best bet in arm-twisting of administration and grab the pound of flesh as it were.

Chroniclers of events during the past few centuries seem to have bestowed low level attention to the play of the aforementioned powers, except the power of mass associated with the freedom movement that ultimately witnessed the exit of colonial rulers of the sub-continent.

 One has to just glance at the reports in dailies of all hues in various languages to be aware of umpteen outfits in different parts of the country leading rallies, protests and road shows for a plethora of causes concerning people feeling hurt on justifiable grounds, such as the load of exorbitant rates of interest on loans taken by the farmers from greedy lenders, loss of livelihood due to closure of industrial establishments and so on. The just-ended stir by the doctor fraternity across the country, however, happens to be in a different class considering the episode of assault on junior doctors by relatives of a patient in a Government Hospital raising the issue of threat to life and limbs of the doctors by irate public.

The doctor fraternity, prima facie, appears to have been wrongly chosen for assault by whoever took law into their hands. The top brass in administration too seems to have dealt with the situation without finesse, resulting in misery to the masses across the land. Lastly, timely intervention in all cases of muscle power triggering mass power is the crux of State craft, regrettably missing in the country now.