Against The State Police

The Maoists have struck once again and blown up a bus. Some "special police officers" (read "informers") were the specific target, but some 50 people have died. On the idiot box last night, I watched the Central State Police ministry's secretary lament the "loss of innocent civilian lives." This is humbug.

In India, the innocent civilian is always the target of police brutality. He is harassed at every turn. He hates the police. In these Maoist badlands, it is police atrocities upon "innocent civilians" that have turned the average tribal into an armed guerrilla. It must never be forgotten that in West Bengal the rebel organization is called People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA).

In this news report, the Central State Police Minister is quoted asking for the intellectual support of independent journalists and civil society groups. This should be denied him. In the same report he talks of using "air support" against the Maoists. Wow! We now have an internal civil war going on. Same in Kashmir. Same in the north-east.

All these internal problems require "politics" to solve them. Tax-funded rifles, grenades, bullets, drones and air support can accomplish nothing - except to turn this malfunctioning socialist democracy into a Total Police State. This is in the vested interest of the top brass of the State Police - the denizens of North Block. For them, persistent law and order problems means bigger budgets and more powers. They must be defeated.

What I would like to ask the Central State Police Minister is this: Does he think the State Police are liked and respected anywhere in India?

On the streets, ordinary innocent civilians actually hate and despise the police.

We need drastic police reform. We need to defang the police by making all voluntary trades legit. We do not need to take the opposite direction - which the Police Minister is urging upon us. No independent journalist, no civil society group, should come out in favour of the police.

Actually, why only the police? What about our politicians? Does anyone in the entire territory of India like a single politician?

Much fuss is being made now about the hanging of Afzal Guru, the mastermind of the (unsuccessful) armed attack on Parliament some years ago. I remember that day. I was then on the editorial team of a major business daily. At the morning edit meeting, I asked my colleagues what they thought about the attack. One guy replied: "They should have got at least a few MPs." He was quite serious, I do believe. It was I who was surprised to see how much our MPs are hated.

These are dangerous times. One wrong move and we could end up with Police Totalitarianism. The National Intelligence Grid, the biometrci ID card project, the caste census - these are all steps in the direction of totalitarianism.

You are warned.