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THAT Punjab has not changed its feudal outlook is evident. When one of its state minister Charanjit Singh Channi send an "inappropriate" text message to a senior woman IAS officer late in the night, he got away with a verbal apology, that, too, was forced out of him. And the matter was supposedly "resolved.

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Ruchika M. Khanna in Chandigarh

THAT Punjab has not changed its feudal outlook is evident. When one of its state minister Charanjit Singh Channi send an "inappropriate" text message to a senior woman IAS officer late in the night, he got away with a verbal apology, that, too, was forced out of him. And the matter was supposedly "resolved.

This, even as all kinds of tales are being spread about the officer to make his "overture acceptable", ala Rupan Deol Bajaj- KPS Gill saga of 1988. 

Tan ki? Ek message hee tan bhejeya si. Ho sakda hai message mantri de staff ne bhejeya hove. Raati mantri apna phone staff nu de dinde ne (So what? It was just one message, which may have been send by any of his staff even, as ministers hand over their phones at night to their staff). This is the common refrain in the government circles, ever since this matter was reported in the media this week. 

Channi is accused of having sent a couplet praising the physical attributes of the officer. The officer had reportedly objected, reprimanding the minister in a text reply. She had then approached a senior state government functionary and also met the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, to complain against the minister. On the CM's intervention the minister had tendered an apology. 

No doubt, there is politics at play in "leaking" the news, two months after it happened and a week after the minister had openly criticised the Chief Minister during a Cabinet meeting. More politics seems involved when ministers of a particular caste put their weight behind Channi, who is on a foreign tour. But politics aside, can the minister be absolved of charges of harassing a woman officer in such a light manner? The Opposition parties, AAP and Akali Dal, are building pressure on the Congress to drop the minister, especially when it has been taking on the NDA government at the Centre in the MeToo campaign against former union minister M J Akbar. Sources say that the party high command has already asked for a discreet inquiry into the incident. 

However, all India Congress Committee in charge, Punjab, Asha Kumari, has exonerated the minister even before an inquiry could begin, claiming no written complaint has been received. Interestingly, both the Chief Minister and the minister do admit that the episode has happened. The minister claims that the message was sent "inadvertently". But since the matter has been "resolved", it needs no further action. Brushing aside the episode would only dent the image of the party and the Congress government in Punjab before the General Election, specially when the MeToo tsunami has washed away many a powerful predators.

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