The notorious intolerance of the present political “leadership” has had an infectious, trickle-down effect.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has run whining to the cops against a WhatsApp group of pilots of private airlines who had the temerity to use “filthy and abusive language” ~ as if that can be easily quantified ~ against its officials.

And though the Delhi Police did not immediately convert the complaint into a First Information Report, some of the “offenders” were summoned to a police station, their smart-phones seized for further investigation.

If only the police displayed similar diligence to the complaints of the common folk, but this is an age of increasing “big government” and old-timers will recall how during the Emergency a local tongawallah was at the receiving end of the cops’ batons for whipping a troublesome mare that happened to be named “Indira”.

It can be nobody’s case that social media be used to hit out at individuals, but reality presents a different picture and the police would be swamped if they took cognisance of every complaint against being “trolled”. But then, in this case the complainants were government officials, the new breed of “touch me nots”.

Persons holding “regulatory authority” must be capable of withstanding criticism; if they find the job “too hot” they should “get out of the kitchen”.

The DGCA has displayed double-standards: it pressured Air-India staffers into lifting their informal ban against an MP who took pride in saying he had “slippered” an airline worker, but has taken serious exception to pilots slamming “one of its own”.

Reluctant to discuss the issue with the media, the DGCA used vague terms to describe what the pilots said ~ not did. And if the messages were shared among members of a group they were not “publicly” defamatory ~ worse was likely to have been said had the pilots met in a hotel lounge or lobby.

It was not as if “filthy” language had been used at an organised protest meeting. “Boys will be boys” and airline pilots have never been hailed as “perfect gentlemen”; certainly those flying for private carriers would not hold in awe some official from a ministry.

And in any case there is the old saying that “sticks and stones may break my bones but the words don’t hurt me”. The pilots are irked by revised regulations requiring them to give long periods of “notice” before seeking fresh employment ~ unlike officials they are not government servants for life.

The minister of state for civil aviation has done well not to make an issue of the matter. He would do better if he directs his staff to dismount from its sarkari high horse.

Surely the DGCA has more pressing matters to deal with rather than give vent to pricked pique?