In Patna Shuklla, Rinki Kumari accused Vihar University of falsely failing her in her exams and then refusing to recheck her papers. Since she was extremely sure that she wasn’t in the wrong, she approached Tanvi Shukla to fight this case for her. The alarm bells went off when VC Sinha brought in Neelkanth Mishra, a high profile lawyer, to fight against Rinki on behalf of Vihar University. Things got particularly muddy when the son of the Bihar CM, Raghubir Singh, got involved and straight-up asked Tanvi to drop the case. He even dangled the bait to fund Rinki’s education if she agreed to not look into this matter anymore. Eventually, it became evident that Raghubir was the one who used his influence to exchange his marksheet with that of Rinki’s while filing the nomination for the upcoming elections. So, if Raghubir accepted the fact that he was the one who was stagnating Rinki’s academic progress, he would lose the election. Instead of getting demoralized, this obvious display of corruption motivated Tanvi to see the case all the way to its bitter end.
Spoiler Alert
Did Tanvi Shukla defeat Raghubir Singh?
Raghubir Singh, via the Municipal Corporation and Neelkanth Mishra, pulled all the stops to kill Tanvi’s will and win the case. He got her husband, Siddharth, fired. He sent a bulldozer to her house to destroy the “illegal” section of the building. When the intimidation didn’t work, Neelkanth punched holes in Tanvi Shukla’s case. He showed that Rinki had given bribes to increase her attendance, thereby proving that she was dishonest and her case didn’t have any basis. When Tanvi presented Savita Yadav, who said that Mr. Srivastav was the one who exchanged Rinki’s roll number with that of Raghubir, Neelkanth proved that she was lying. Savita wasn’t present on the day the roll numbers were allegedly exchanged. He said that Savita had accused Mr. Srivastav of molesting her. She didn’t get any justice in that case. Hence, she was apparently using Rinki’s case to get back at Mr. Srivastav. Judge Jha accepted this fact, and Tanvi’s case became weak. Later on, it was revealed to the audience that Savita was working for Neelkanth and that she had purposefully misled Tanvi.
Tanvi had exhausted all her resources regarding the case. She and her husband didn’t have a lot of money at their disposal. And, all of a sudden, their son, Sonu, fell ill. He had to be hospitalized, and Tanvi’s father had to chip in to ensure that Sonu got the treatment that he needed. Seeing all this, Tanvi’s father requested that Tanvi drop the case so that things could go back to normal again. Tensions spiked between the daughter and the father, and J. P. Sharma (the father) suddenly started saying that she was never meant to be a lawyer. He revealed that, in order to fulfill Tanvi’s dreams of becoming a lawyer, he exchanged her roll number with that of Zaibuddin Ansari. That allowed Tanvi to pass her exams, and Ansari failed and was relegated to the stereotypical job of a car and bike mechanic. Tanvi was heartbroken when she realized that all her zeal and motivation were based on a lie. However, she used this scam to prove in court that the exchanging of roll numbers was an age-old practice.
During Patna Shuklla‘s ending, Ansari showed up at the court and spoke his piece. Tanvi stood in the witness box and implicated herself for benefiting from this scam and robbing Ansari of the chance to become a lawyer. While Neelkanth asked Jha to cancel the whole case because Tanvi was a fake lawyer, Jha took cognizance of the fact that this malpractice was a part of the education system. And he wanted things to change, starting with the rechecking of Raghubir and Rinki’s examination papers by an unbiased panel of teachers. The music swelled, everyone cried, and justice was apparently served. Raghubir exclaimed that he won’t be able to contest in the upcoming elections because if Rinki’s paper was re-examined, she would get the marks that she deserved (which would be first division), and Raghubir would get the marks that he deserved and he would fail. While it’s common for politicians with no degrees to be in the business of making policies, it’s difficult for fraudulent politicians to do the same, especially before an election.
What Did Tanvi Shukla’s False Degree Mean?
Tanvi Shukla rising through the ranks despite her fake degree and her very obvious failings as a lawyer, while Zaibuddin Ansari worked as a mechanic, is Patna Shuklla’s critique of this hollow facade of merit. The privileged class loves to say that they are where they are because of their hard work and dedication. But the truth of the matter is that a lot of them are where they are because their parents have used the generational wealth at their disposal to bribe officials and bypass rules and regulations so that they can have a bright future and earn enough to continue the cycle when they have to help the next generation of privileged kids. Meanwhile, people who hail from the underprivileged sections of society or belong to religious minority groups face systemic oppression because they don’t have the money to support the corruption that is eating the country from the inside. There’s no way of calculating how many Tanvi Shuklas are out there with fake degrees who are making crores of rupees because of their majoritarian privilege while hundreds of Zaibuddin Ansaris are struggling to make ends meet. The education system needs a complete overhaul so that there’s total transparency. The justice system needs to be more robust so that the affluent don’t get away with anything and the disadvantaged get the support they need. Since that’ll take a lot of time, all we can do is hope that the privileged folks realize that they don’t need to squash the dreams of the underprivileged to earn money. They have their generational wealth for that. They should make way for the poor and minorities so that they can have their day in the sun.
What Is the Significance of Raghubir Singh’s Defeat?
Patna Shuklla’s Raghubir Singh is an amalgamation of every politician who wields immense power but doesn’t have the ability to pass a simple exam without bending or straight-up breaking the rules. They apparently represent the people. They keep the underprivileged dependent on the government’s freebies while robbing them of the chance to forge their own future. They use the law, the media, and government bodies to intimidate and hurt those who go against them. But they always maintain this image that they are innocent, and it’s the people who are questioning them who are corrupt and vindictive. Politicians like Raghubir Singh have become such a common feature of Indian politics that the people don’t even question it. As mentioned before, the law is in their pocket. So judges and lawyers don’t hold them accountable. The media is in their pocket. So they don’t ask them any hard questions. And the general populace is so busy earning their daily bread that they don’t have the time to think about who they are voting for. No matter what people like Raghubir Singh say, they want the country to stay this way because if the law, the media, and the public start upholding their values, then there won’t be any space left for their brand of corruption. Raghubir Singh is a fictional character, and that’s why he is thwarted by a bunch of upstanding citizens. Real life is very different, and politicians like him are thriving. When will they be shamed into oblivion? I don’t know, but I do hope that it happens soon.
