Issue of waiving of penal rent of house of Hooda- Similar and interesting observation from Japanese delegation to Indian delegation

Gustakhi Maaf Haryana- Pawan Kumar Bansal

In the context of waiving of penal rent of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, I have received an interesting and similar observation from our enlightened reader R K Garg, retired EIC Irrigation Haryana. He writes that it may be in fact peculiar in our kind of system that irregular actions in whatever field are tended to be regularised on the basis of one or the other consideration. It is because of this reason that there is hardly any respect for discipline and respect for laws and norms in our system.

In this context I recall an interesting incident also quoted in my book: Reflections:

It was sometime in April 2011 when I got an opportunity to be part of a delegation for an urban development meet at Tokyo. Our ten member’s delegation was headed by the Secretary UD Government of India. Except three engineers; myself, the present Chief of the Delhi Metro and the then Chief of NBCC, the delegation mostly comprised of the bureaucrats including few from the states. The Japanese delegation normally comprised of specialists only. During some discussion, while explaining the pattern of the development of the National Capital, there was some reference of the “regularized unauthorized” colonies of Delhi. Few members from the Japanese delegation were surprised with the terminology used by us. They were little amused with the obvious paradox that how something unauthorized could at all be regularized. We could not even explain that the terminology was something unique in Delhi’s or perhaps India’s context.