Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 19, 2003
"Just when I thought everything
ended peacefully, minister Monazir Hassan said, "You are a professor from
America. You have law there. But in Bihar I am the Law. If I want, I can
stop the Rajdhani Express and turn it back."
Then he told his daughters, "'If
they were Indians, I would have thrown them out by grabbing their shoulders'.
I was stunned and kept quiet while seething underneath...," writes Subrata
Bhattacharjee, a US-based professor, in an e-mail to The Times of India
narrating how his "dream trip" with his South Korean wife Kyoung Hee Yeo,
a software engineer, and their three-year-old son in Rajdhani Express turned
into a nightmare.
"We were travelling in a first class
compartment of the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express from Guwahati. We were
enjoying our journey. In the afternoon, the workers with whom we had struck
a friendship warned us about Bihar ministers and their entourage who treat
everyone like dirt. We shrugged it off.
"At about 10 pm when the train arrived
in Patna, I was woken by a commotion inside; a minister, with four youngsters,
had entered our cabin. After they finished their meal, one of his aides
woke up my wife and asked if she had confirmed reservation. After showing
her ticket, she wanted to see the tickets of the minister and his children.
"The youngest onedeclared that if
there was any problem my wife would have to leave the cabin as his father
was a minister. "By that time the TTE had come and we asked for his help.
The minister declared that he was Mr Hassan, a minister of sport from the
RJD. I asked if violating the law of the land was part of his job. The
arguments went on until the TTE found two seats for the two boys somewhere
else. "Finally, I agreed to the minister's demand that his two daughters
would stay in the cabin provided he apologised to my wife. To my pleasant
surprise he apologised.
"A senior minister, Mr Siddique,
arrived and asked if everything got settled. He was courteous to my wife
"Just when I thought everything
ended peacefully and we were about to turn the lights off, Mr Hassan turned
to me and said, 'You are a professor from America. You have law there.
But in Bihar I am the Law. If I want I can stop the Rajdhani Express and
turn it back.' Then he told his daughters, 'If they were Indians, I would
have thrown them out by grabbing their shoulders.'
