Admin rights and perceived wrongs

BENGALURU: The past week has ushered in times when terms like khap panchayat, vigilantism, authoritarianism and overreach are being flung about with a renewed vigour. Not during conversations about love marriages, cow worship or fast-tracked PILs, though. The relaxed lockdown rules have thrown up a face in the neighbourhood that few residents expected to encounter during a crisis – the know-it-all-for-your-sake RWAs. 

From forming and enforcing rules about doorstep delivery of milk and newspapers to calling out parents for allowing their kids to play outdoors, the officials of residents’ welfare associations are inviting cheer and censure in equal measure, the response depending perhaps only upon the anxiety level each person is facing about coronavirus. The absence of a free-size solution or a previously-tested template has only made matters muddier. 

Rules have been formulated for everything, including entering the premises, entertaining friends at home, taking evening walks or even handing out garbage. So while some apartment complexes have allowed the entry of maids on the condition that residents submit forms absolving the RWA of any responsibility if they are found COVID positive, some others have introduced strictures like time slots, weekly rota or even the number of houses they can work in.

Entry of drivers is allowed in some premises with caveats like they should not venture outside the parking area, but if that is seen as too elitist by the residents, they are promptly informed about other neighbourhoods where drivers have to wait outside the main gates. Questions like “what does someone who doesn’t know how to drive do” are, of course, met with stoic silence or just a plain coated-in-plea argument like “these are tough times; all of us have to be ready to bear some difficulty for everyone’s health and safety”. 

Add to that the ease that WhatsApp groups offer to everyone to pronounce their opinions, and the result is 200 unread notifications in just a few hours. The elderly ask the youngsters to show responsibility for the “larger good”, and the latter request the senior citizens to be more understanding about the stress they face. Other divides soon threaten to creep out: between those with small kids who “need” physical activity and parents of teenagers who “at least understand the importance of wearing masks”; the pet owners pitched against those who object to their frequent outdoor jaunts; the women who take on men about doing household chores; or the ones who subtly exhort everyone to cook even-if-it’s-chitranna at home inviting not-so-subtle responses from “but-it’s-contactless-delivery” believers. 

It’s worse, of course, in areas that have been sealed off. A friend in Delhi who had left her house for sometime before the containment orders kicked in, was not allowed back in, to even pack some clothes and medicines. She had to seek accommodation with a relative, and is managing with borrowed clothes. Her social media post was in no time teeming with ‘I hear you sista’ comments. 

The fact that most RWAs comprise retired men is seen as posing an uneven battle, especially amid a health issue that’s tilted against the elderly. The time that they can devote towards community affairs, alongside their curious eyes, was held valuable earlier. It’s the same assets that are driving some to call them ‘RAW’ officials now, the acronym working as an adjective too.