INDIAN POLICE

In 1971, an all time hit Hindi movie – Pakeezah was released. There was a song in the film with mukhada – Inhin logon ne le linha dupatta mera……The antara of the song with the line – Hamari na mano sipahiya se puchho, jisane bazariya me chhina dupatta mera (If you don’t believe me, ask the constable himself who snatched my dupatta in open market) truly reflects the original character of Indian police. Any good civilian always avoids going to a police station for lodging complaints against anti social elements for the atrocities of low degree. Women rarely restore courage to contact a policeman for daily eve teasing incidents. In police stations they are afraid of more serious eve teasing. The entire police department is run by black money. Right from appointment of constables to the transfer/posting of top officers, heavy kick backs always play an important and decisive role. The police department is deeply plunged from top to bottom in the ocean of corruption. In Varanasi, any truck, tractor or bus can move to any part of city, any time by paying Rs. Ten only to the constable posted at the check post of the no entry zone. This is the story of every city more or less. Policemen pay less attention to crime control and more to money making. Sometimes when they are forcibly sent for hard duties like encounters due to one reason or the other, best known to top rank and file, they have to face heavy casualties as they are not mentally and physically prepared for odd duties. Only a month ago, the nation viewed on TV, an encounter of one dacoit, Ghanshyam Kewat near Chitrkoot. Nearly 500 policemen armed with latest weapons struggled for more than fifty hours. The dacoit managed a successful escape killing four policemen but luck deceived him. While crossing nala, he was hit by bullets and forced to breathe his last to the good luck of policemen. It was a fight of one versus five hundred.

The entire system of police department lacks vision, training, zeal, guidance, professionalism and honesty. Sometimes for eye washing and proving their existence, our policemen go for fake encounters – the tally of which is bigger than actual encounters.

After independence, a complete overhauling of police department was required but unfortunately nothing could be done. The working of police is unchanged. They still live in pre independence era. Political interference, insensitive bureaucracy and deep rooted corruption have made the department ineffective and unreliable in the eyes of common people. Discipline always comes from top. The government with strong will power of eradicating corruption and overhauling the department by implementing reforms suggested by different commissions time to time may check allegedly fake encounters in future. The government and police must first win the confidence of peace loving disciplined civilians with friendly behavior.