Police the Indian police
July 13th 2009 01:54
When the Congress comes to power in UP its first priority should be police reforms
It seems the time has come to police the police in the country. We still do not know what to believe about the police force in the country apart from the fact that it is a shade better than Idi Amin’s Army in Uganda. In case you do not know who Idi Amin is then let me refresh your memory. He was the dictator of a small African country and was known to eat the brains of his victims. He kept the brains in his personal refrigerator.
Our police keep skeletons in their cupboard.
I had the chance to go with a friend of mine for a drive in Europe. We were heading for a party when his car developed a flat tyre. Now we will be late for sure I said. She laughed it off. Don’t worry she said. We will just call the cops. She picked up her mobile and dialed from the middle of nowhere the equivalent of 100. Within five minutes a patrol car was there.
They saluted us, inquired about our safety and checked our Id cards. On coming to know my friend was an Income tax payer they showed visible admiration, the kind only reserved on the faces of UP Darogajis for CM’s and associated VIPs. I suddenly realized that for these European cops, my friend who was an ordinary citizen and an Income Tax payer, was a VIP. They drove us to the party, went back replaced the flat tyre and drove the car to the party venue, where they handed over the car keys and left after saluting us again. We felt we were being protected. This was police.
But what do we see here. We see that a boy from Ghaziabad was going for an interview for a job. The boy was doing his MBA. He was suddenly declared a notorious terrorist and shot dead. Eyewitnesses say that a posse of policemen first arrested him, then dragged him into a jeep. Later his body was found in a forest four km away riddled with bullets. People say that he was tortured and killed. So if anyone feels that our police force is better that Idi Amin’s kindly let me have your reaction in writing at the Lucknow Talk response cell.
Now today we see policemen realising money from vegetable sellers, rickshawallahs and autowallahs and worse victims trying to get their grievances redressed inside a police station. If an MBA student can be shot then what cannot happen to an aam admi. I have seen not even policemen but their family members walk into an icecream parlour and leave without paying the bill, on what basis are they allowed to do this? This is due to their proximity with the netas to today who toy around with the system of checks and balances introduced in the force by the founding fathers of this nation. This political interference has reduced honest officers in the force to mere puppets where their juniors openly defy their authority under political protection.
What we have is a force that misuses its powers, is corrupt and capable of the worst possible excesses. The only way to prevent fake encounters of the kind that took place in Dehradun with an MBA student from UP is to learn a lesson from the British police. Unlike police in other developed countries, the vast majority of British police officers do not carry firearms on standard patrol; they do however carry Extendable "Asp" or fixed Monadnock PR-24 batons and CS/PAVA spray. Should we do the same and disarm the cops on routine duty? I think the government at the Centre or whatever party that comes to power in UP after this party is voted out which it surely will be, has to put police reforms on top priority. The police and especially senior police officers have to be made to realise that the common law abiding citizen is a VIP. Period. For this we need to promote and empower honest policemen and punish the greedy and the wicked in the force. But for that we first need honest Netas.
It seems the time has come to police the police in the country. We still do not know what to believe about the police force in the country apart from the fact that it is a shade better than Idi Amin’s Army in Uganda. In case you do not know who Idi Amin is then let me refresh your memory. He was the dictator of a small African country and was known to eat the brains of his victims. He kept the brains in his personal refrigerator.
Our police keep skeletons in their cupboard.
I had the chance to go with a friend of mine for a drive in Europe. We were heading for a party when his car developed a flat tyre. Now we will be late for sure I said. She laughed it off. Don’t worry she said. We will just call the cops. She picked up her mobile and dialed from the middle of nowhere the equivalent of 100. Within five minutes a patrol car was there.
They saluted us, inquired about our safety and checked our Id cards. On coming to know my friend was an Income tax payer they showed visible admiration, the kind only reserved on the faces of UP Darogajis for CM’s and associated VIPs. I suddenly realized that for these European cops, my friend who was an ordinary citizen and an Income Tax payer, was a VIP. They drove us to the party, went back replaced the flat tyre and drove the car to the party venue, where they handed over the car keys and left after saluting us again. We felt we were being protected. This was police.
But what do we see here. We see that a boy from Ghaziabad was going for an interview for a job. The boy was doing his MBA. He was suddenly declared a notorious terrorist and shot dead. Eyewitnesses say that a posse of policemen first arrested him, then dragged him into a jeep. Later his body was found in a forest four km away riddled with bullets. People say that he was tortured and killed. So if anyone feels that our police force is better that Idi Amin’s kindly let me have your reaction in writing at the Lucknow Talk response cell.
Now today we see policemen realising money from vegetable sellers, rickshawallahs and autowallahs and worse victims trying to get their grievances redressed inside a police station. If an MBA student can be shot then what cannot happen to an aam admi. I have seen not even policemen but their family members walk into an icecream parlour and leave without paying the bill, on what basis are they allowed to do this? This is due to their proximity with the netas to today who toy around with the system of checks and balances introduced in the force by the founding fathers of this nation. This political interference has reduced honest officers in the force to mere puppets where their juniors openly defy their authority under political protection.
What we have is a force that misuses its powers, is corrupt and capable of the worst possible excesses. The only way to prevent fake encounters of the kind that took place in Dehradun with an MBA student from UP is to learn a lesson from the British police. Unlike police in other developed countries, the vast majority of British police officers do not carry firearms on standard patrol; they do however carry Extendable "Asp" or fixed Monadnock PR-24 batons and CS/PAVA spray. Should we do the same and disarm the cops on routine duty? I think the government at the Centre or whatever party that comes to power in UP after this party is voted out which it surely will be, has to put police reforms on top priority. The police and especially senior police officers have to be made to realise that the common law abiding citizen is a VIP. Period. For this we need to promote and empower honest policemen and punish the greedy and the wicked in the force. But for that we first need honest Netas.
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