It is an irony that the incident took place only a day before a dalit was to be sworn in as the fourteenth President of India, whom the country’s downtrodden people see as an icon of hope and aspiration..

It is beyond comprehension that a man occupying the position of a district magistrate could make such an insensitive comment. His outlandish advise implicitly meant that the villager’s wife should take to prostitution to earn money for her husband. That alone is sufficient to book the fellow under the law against forcing a woman into prostitution.

Saukina had mustered courage to ask the official how could he build a toilet if he did not have the money. The state government had decided to provide an assistance of Rs 12,000 per family under the Lohia Swach Bihar Abhiyan scheme for construction of toilets as part of its target to make the state open defecation-free by 2019.

Tanuj responded by saying, “I will talk to you. If that is the case, then go and sell your wife. If this is the mentality you have then go and sell your wife”.

As a storm erupted over the remark, like any other official, Tanuj initially denied he made such a remark. But once, the protest became viral on the social media, he made a U-turn and sought to convey that his message only meant that people should have self-respect. But for Saukina, who earns around Rs 250 a day, the reimbursement of Rs 12,000 for building a toilet at home means much more than self-respect. This also meant that bureaucrats like Tanuj were living in ivory towers, which blinded their view of the ground realities in the country.

Some senior IAS officers have, however, outrightly condemned the utterances of the DM. The former chief secretary of undivided Bihar V.S. Dubey said, “Tanuj, a 2012 batch IAS officer, should apologise publicly. I think his intentions were good, but the words he used to express his idea at the official meeting were in bad taste. Young officers should learn to maintain restraint."

Rights activists feel that such officers, who have no respect for the dalits and oppressed people and are out to humiliate and insult them, should be fired from service. How could a person like Nitish, who claims to have high moral values, allow this man to continue as DM? It was also the most uncharitable reference to the villager’s dead wife. After Tanuj’s tongue- lashing, Saukina was rebuked by the security personnel and hurriedly taken out of the meeting venue. The incident Is a slap on the face of the Nitish government, which claims swear by the welfare of dalits. How can anyone imagine that the offending official will ever help dalits.

"Is apman ko hum kaise bataye (where do I begin to narrate my humiliation)," said Saukina, a daily wage labourer who makes ends meet mostly by manual scavenging. "It's an insult to my wife, Parvati Devi, who died about 20 years ago. I live with my old mother Rajapati Devi in a makeshift house. I had only requested the district magistrate to pay the government money in advance so that I could construct the toilet at home."Saukina said.

"I am so shocked at the remarks of the DM that I have planned to meet chief minister Nitish Kumar to lodge my protest. The DM made such derogatory remarks just because I am a Mahadalit," he said.

In many ways, Saukina personifies the real Bihar - and the real India - that desperately needs government help and empathy. The 21st century Digital India is a far cry for them as they still lack the basic amenities. The hamlet Saukina lives in is home to 12 Mahadalit families; they have neither been given houses under the central government rural housing schemes nor the state's old-age pensions for senior citizens, Saukina said.

Other residents of the hamlet have expressed solidarity with Saukina and congratulated him for raising the voice of the underprivileged before the district magistrate."Usne jo kaha sahi kaha (what he said is right). ‘Hum log yeh apman bardast nahi karenge’ (we will not tolerate such humiliation.) (IPA Service)