The Death of a Bureaucrat and a Web Series

Click to read the Malayalam version.

I happened to watch the Malayalam web series 'Jai Mahendran' on the last day on Sony Liv. Even though its plot and the overall structure were haphazardly put together, it was a pleasure to watch Saiju Kurup, who is presently an expert in portraying the typical Malayali psyche in the human form. The web series also addresses a few pertinent issues that are presently plaguing our society.

I started writing a post soon after finishing the series that compares it with the cult movie 'Vellimoonga', which possesses a similar ethos. Both of them exposed several loopholes in the system and had as the protagonists people who could manipulate everything according to their benefits. But soon I realized that I didn't have anything substantial to write about, and I abandoned the effort. But there was this tragic breaking news that made me attempt it again in a different form.

The series is about a bureaucrat who is an expert in negotiating twisted and complex government rules and regulations. He has a knack for manipulating any situation and convincing anyone to further his goals. Right from the department minister to everyone below, everyone uses this skill of his to escape convoluted situations that they land on every day. But when one fine day he unexpectedly finds himself on a fix, everyone abandons him like a plague. He has to use all his willpower to fight back and reinstate his job and his reputation.

My biggest gripe with the series was how the character played by Suhasini was depicted in it. Her character, who is a senior bureaucrat with years of experience in the Revenue Department, is portrayed as a weak personality who crumbles when faced with adversity. I felt that someone who has grown up in a career in between the Kafkaesque landscape of the Revenue Department couldn't be so vulnerable. But the aforementioned news that came out today made me accept that I am wrong in my assessment of government officials.

Yesterday, during the sent-off ceremony of the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of Kannur, the District Panchayat President barged in without invitation and leveled an allegation of corruption against him. She insulted him in front of the public, press, and officials in the presence of the district collector and threatened serious action against him. The next day he was found dead in his house, hanging.

This shameful occurrence is a serious threat to the public administrative machinery of the state because if the government officials insist on sticking to the rules, it's a fact that the entire system will come to a standstill. If any official is suspected to have engaged in corruption, the public representative has a proper system in place to address it. There are legal ways to deal with it, which are ensured by our Constitution and the Penal Code. No one has any right to publicly humiliate anyone, even if they are real culprits.

But the public discourse in Kerala has fallen so low that publicly shaming people has become the norm. We have even named it 'pongala' and normalized this uncivilized behavior. I have come across several occasions where efficiency in cyber 'pongala' is seen as evidence of smartness and acumen. There are instances where Malayalees indulge in cyberbullying celebrities of other states or even of other countries. Instead of taking legal steps against a suspected officer, who has given any right to any politician to publicly humiliate him and force him to take his life?

In normal cases, bureaucrats and government officials are portrayed as shady villains in Malayalam movies. It would be a good exercise to see this web series that tries to see things from their perspective in parallel with this tragic event.