Our police need lessons on policing.

Last year's new year celebrations were marred a bit by two tragic(depends upon individual perceptions) incidents which happened at the fag end of 2006. One was the hanging of saddam hussain and the other one was the nithari killings. The former one is deemed inevitable but the latter one was surely something which could have been nipped in the bud itself. But, but, the indian stereotypes caught up with our policemen too. When a father of a 15 yr old girl goes and ask the SI to file an FIR on the missing of his daughter, he says that "your daughter must have eloped". Couple of months later, this same girl's bones have been retrieved from the back of pandher's palatial bungalow. I guess even the act of necrophilia committed by surendra koli would not arise these policemen's conscience. Just imagine, a 3 yr old girl is beheaded, her liver is removed and koli tried to eat that. Still the police has remained stolid until mulayam intervened. If such a visceral act cannot move these hardened people, what would ??

The SI is surely justified, in his own way, when he refused to file an FIR. A few weeks back, tamil nadu's chief minister karunanidhi was miffed with the police system of TN. Why ?? They were filing lots of FIR's and that gives a spike to the crime curve of TN. His logic is that the other states do not file as many as FIR's as in TN. That's why, he thinks that TN is being regarded as the state with the most number of crimes being committed. This is the sorry state(no pun intended) of affairs. In these situations, no wonder the private security agencies are thriving and if estimates are to be believed this is going to be a 200 crore industry. And why not, when the terrorists are getting equipped with the latest warfare, the khakee laden police still wields a lathi or else a revolver relegated to antiquity. How can we believe in the policemen to save us when they themselves are ill-equipped to save their repsective lives. A case in point is the nandigram violence where their helmets are soo fragile that a stone pierced through them.

A very pertinent point is made by sartaj singh in the enormous beast of a novel, "Sacred games". He says that "Our salary will not be enough to nab the criminals". I guess that's true. With hardly any money allocated for the fuel and there is no provision whatsoever to pay to the "informers". Is there a solution ? The answer is a resounding YES.Currently, we are allocating 1,10,000 crores for military warfare. For a country which prides upon itself to be a harbinger of bonhomie this fact contradicts its intentions. Even if atleast a twenty percent is allocated for the police system , i believe the people are safe. Or else, thepolice will be more interested in nabbing marlon samuels for fixing an inconsequential match rather than save an urchin from the dingy corners of dharavi. It surely bears testimony that the hoi polloi are neglected like hell by the police. How else, can one explain the alacrity with which anant, son of the CEO of adobe, was saved. Its useless to blame the police. They are a vital cog in the wheel of high and mighty.

These policemen's life is a perfect example of what we call the hobson's choice. If they do not pander to the whims and fancies of the madarins and bureaurcrats, they are sent to the places where their life is spent on saving the foliage because people would hardly be there. Thus, they become subservient and avowed minions of our netas. This would be keeping them in the good books of the politicians and their names would not be listed in the roster which every odd day appears in the newspaper with a title " List of commissioners transferred". The side effect of an inefficient and laggard police system is that the bajrangi dal youth, RSS karsevaks(who incidentally happen to wear khakee pants albeit half ones) take up the mantle on themselves to "cleanse" the system which is otherwise known as moral policing.

Those images are still vivid in our mind when the couples in meerut have been beat black and blue by the "responsible citizens" because they were holding each other's hand. Such disconcerting situations will only make a dent in an already depleted confidence of the "aam junta" on the police system. Nowadays, people hardly make an attempt to file cases against theft, sexual abuse and several such petty cases. Why ?? Because, the police are being perceived as no performers and this perception will only change if the police approach the people with a more humane attitude. Lock up deaths in the name of interrogations is a well known fact. Inserting sticks into the genitals, making the suspects eat a kg of jalebis with no water being provided, laying the bare body on ice and many such approaches are done on the hardcore criminals as well as on the weaklings. This surely goes against the principle emblazoned on a police officer's insignia "khal nigranaya sad rakshanaya"(the writer is not sure about the veracity of this sanskrit shloka)- it means killing the criminals and saving the innocents. Being humane is the key for the policeman to again redeem our confidence in him. I just hope that shashi tharoor is contradicted when he made the following statement " These are not good times to be a policeman". This piece of cynicism should inspire the entire police system to fervently try to cut the gordian knot.

Tailpiece: This writer thinks that jagdish raj and iftikhar make better policemen because they atleast have the time sense to reach the crime scene just after the act is perpetrated and in the process, may be, even nabe the criminals. Unlike our police system which takes out sketches and the chalks out the modus operandi. By then the criminals get holed up in a siberian pigeonhole where there is no extradition treaty with india.

Recommendation of the fortnight:

Black friday made me believe that hindi cinema is not deteriorating. Anurag kashyap made a film which would give your testosterone levels a fillip even without skin show. The scenewhere the restaurant's owner takes out his belongings with a beating scene as the background is sheer genius. The lesser known actors leave the desired impact. Indian ocean's background is such goose bumps stuff. I feel sad for anurag that his other film "paanch" has not yet got a theatrical release. Its not RDB which is an oscar material. Its black friday which needs to be shown at the kodak theatre.