Theek Hai!!! Lekin Kya?

If the police is on your side, you have made it in India. It is the most helpful police of the world.

I remember as a child growing up in Kanpur, our entry into Green Park and seating in the Governor’s Pavilion (a colonial pseudonym for the VIP Enclave) was always facilitated by some valiant IPS officer. My fondness for munching on peanuts as I watched India bat, was also pandered to by a committed and courteous cop. And I must confess, I was never fond of cricket, but liked all else at Green Park right from the entry to the peanuts.

As a young corporate executive, once I was invited by an MP to accompany him to a Ghazal recital in Golf Club Noida. This venue was very particular about not allowing cars inside its premises. It was a cop who facilitated precisely that. Since, the organizers did not expect a guest with the MP, an extra chair for me, on emergency basis, was again organized by none other than a healthy (read pot-bellied) Daroga.

Such good people as you can see, and why do you guys criticize them. My mother is a gynaecologist. In India, you don’t have a structured system of marriage counseling. So Indian women and even men, treat their Gynaec as a marriage counselor also. Sometimes even a mediator. And she has often sought police help to get matters sorted out between girl and her in-laws. Of course in such settlements merit of position is not as critical as on whose side the police is taking. That party will clearly be the weighty one.

So as you can see, even though our police may bitterly be failing in its policing duties, but they are doing so much more, including but not limited to marital dispute settlements.

Sarcasm apart, you cannot blame the police. There is a rot in the society at large. When you enter the police, you pay a bribe, which by an amazing capillary action reaches up to the home minister and CM. The bribe money has often been raised through land sale by a poor farmer or through an expensive loan. Land sale by a farmer is like selling his livelihood. Upon selection, the first objective is to get a posting from which the investment made for entering the force can be recovered. The dynamics works the same for key positions like police commissioner.

I remember, in 2006(?) our house in the posh Lucknow colony had been occupied by a man whose daughter was supposedly close to Akhilesh Yadav. At least that is what the police claimed to justify their inaction against the fellow. This fellow would neither pay rent nor vacate. When we met the SP Transgomti, we saw something very interesting.

He did not rise to receive my father a retired Colonel  (a usual courtesy that should be extended). In fact we waited for 40 mts despite reaching at the appointed time. But he met with alacrity the shadow of Sheila Gautam an MP. Just for your information, these shadows or PSOs are constable rank people. He even summoned his inspector and told him to take care of the PSO of the MP, as the latter could facilitate even that which IGs could not.

Besides, cops are used as drivers / cooks / chaperons / and often clean utensils in the homes of senior officers. There is a hue and cry about VIP security, I can tell you there is an equal number of police personnel engaged as domestic servants in the houses of senior officers. And these cops they don’t regret working as domestic helps, as there are ample benefits attached. Most of them never fired a bullet in all of their career.

So the focus is not duty. It is also not policing. It is about being resourceful. And as Indians, no one needs to explain to us what is meant by this phenomenally potent word.

Some of my close friends are in the police. Very fine human beings. People with good values. Personal integrity above reproach. But again victims of the system which, they initially thought they would set out to change. They cannot even with freedom verbalize their angst against the rot in the system. They do their wee bit, align to survive and move on.