KATHMANDU, APRIL 20

Over the past few weeks, we heard reverberations of thunderous polemics on Indian TV, culminating in the daylight assassination of political gangsters at a hospital precinct.

Commenting on the recent political violence in an eastern state, a minister presents his diagnosis: "If our government comes to power, we will hang the miscreants upside down and straighten them." Will they? A few weeks earlier, another government politician openly claimed that vehicles could turn turtle insinuating doctored accidents to eliminate the criminals. Encounters and accidents are two favourite modus operandi to snuff out the criminals without tainting democracy.

True to their words, they killed a junior mafia (son) and his hitman in a police encounter on the roadside, both of whom were shot dead and left lying in the dust.

A day later, the father, who inconsolably wept in the courtroom to mourn his slain son, and his brother met the same fate at the hands of shooters masking as journalists.

It is usual practice for politicians in the government to vent vitriol against their enemies in the run-up to assembly or other elections. Still, how appropriate is it to graphically describe the punishment?

Putin does not seem to use harsh words, or maybe he does in Russian. Democracies could be following Bush's ominous warnings: "You can run but cannot hide." Obama did this in a sophisticated way without wasting a word. He just had his SEALs fly thousands of miles, pick up his target and dump him into the sea.

Unlike in many other countries, democracy rolls on dozers in our neighbourhood.

Almighty dozers dismantle houses of miscreants hurling and pelting stones as warnings to the copycats in India.

It can be a strong deterrent for families to stop their kids from throwing stones at the cops.

We have witnessed glimpses of the power of the dozer, terrorising the house owner during a road widening drive in then Province No. 3 at the behest of Baburam, then the PM.

We are now immune to the telecast of dozers wreaking havoc on the miscreants' houses and properties belonging to their families. Or trucks losing control to run over victims.

In the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, heavy and loaded trucks reportedly reverse to crush accident victims to death, the Indian version of vehicles losing control.

Is the Republic also soft on financial criminals? "What awaits your former local Soros?" I asked a bank staff.

"Nothing," she replied confidently, adding, "he does not have to return a penny when he emerges from jail."

I told her not to be overconfident, telling her the fate of the Pathao inventor and that of the political gangster and dreaded land mafia Atiq.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 21, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.