Dr Manoj-Sumati R Borkar
Last week I returned from Odisha on the eve of the inaugural of International Men’s Hockey Tournament, where I was on an academic assignment with 2 of my female colleagues and 26 young women students.
During my fortnight of stay and travel in that eastern coastal state, I sought assistance of that state police constabulary on few occasions to cross busy roads, navigate to desired destinations, board crowded public transport and even arrange auto rickshaws at affordable fares to ferry my flock back to their stay after institutional visits! Not once did I experience reluctance, displeasure and apathy towards this civic courtesy expected of the Police force. And this despite the fact that the state was hosting an international event with 16 participating countries, that will keep its police force on toes 24x7 from November 28 to December 16!
I noticed that the deployed police personnel were young, smartly dressed in their full uniform, wearing an ‘on duty’ yet amicable expression on their faces; fully focused on work with neither any cell-phones in use or hand held, nor any inter-personnel banter on duty. The weather in Bhubaneshwar was hot and humid and yet the force was positioned and active the way and where it was supposed to be!
But my preeminent impression about the Odisha state police came on November 23 during the Kartik Poornima celebrations in Puri. Like any other visitor to the state, I had taken time off to visit the Jagannath temple at Puri along with a few of my students and a colleague, all with the same religious fellowship. The crowd was swelling by the hour and we had to patiently stand in the long queue for entering the temple premises. From the queue, I looked at the police post attached to the temple and saw a posse of policemen on standby for responding to any untoward crowd behaviour or an unforeseen security situation. In the crowd stood a senior police officer, distinguished by the IPS insignia on his shoulder straps and black collar tabs, his serene composure and confident demeanor. A couple of local Odiya TV channels interviewed him on crowd management and he engaged them in an animated conversation. After a while he started walking towards the devotees in the queue. Mesmerized enough by his personality, as soon as the gentleman reached close to where I was standing, we exchanged smiles and I saluted him in a reflex! He reciprocated with a polite ‘namaste’ and started a conversation. Most unexpectedly he apologised for the inconvenience of a long wait for ‘darshan’, and sought to know from where I had arrived. On being told that we are from Goa, he enquired about the police chief of my state. Introducing himself as S K Priyadarshi IPS, he said he was the IGP (Central Range) Cuttack. After exchanging pleasantries with me and my students, he asked his subordinates to get ‘Khaja’ a local sweet and water for all of us and even asked one constable to arrange for our ‘Mahaprasad’ inside the temple! Subsequently I entered the temple and paid my obeisance to the deity and continued with my tasks, but Priyadarshi’s persona and courteous conduct continued to occupy my mindscape for a long time to come… After reaching Goa, I wrote a mail on his official address appreciating his sense of duty and thanking him for his courteous behaviour.
Now back home in our Goem, why do we not have such pleasant experiences in the public-police interface? Recent past has seen rising graph of conflictual police-citizen encounters and even brutality (if one goes by the narrative in the electronic and print media) in dealing with innocuous civilian subjects. While the police have a societal endorsement to use aggression for law enforcement, care should be exercised to avoid its escalation from being instrumental to being hostile!
There are a number of reasons for this transmutation. The young recruits at various levels of this constitutionally authorized force for maintenance of law and order have an admirable physique with well toned muscle mass and fist-happy attitude inspired by Singham. What they lack is the discretion of negotiative dialogue and ‘Impulse-brakes’ in dealing with people. The glamour and authority that comes along with their crease-free khaki, discipline that is embedded in their polished leather belt and pitch black shoes, and the crime deterrence that looms large in their holstered weapon is all annulled by the lack of ‘anger reins’ and absence of mob appeasement tactics. While Singham could well be a hero to emulate for the young men of police brigade, the ordinary citizens of Goa are surely not from the pedigree of Jaykant Shinkre!
Also, as Muktesh Chander our state DGP suggests, the training of the recruits is flawed and lacks elements of anger management and civic conduct. Police cannot imagine in their wildest dreams to be at par with James Bond, the British agent 007 who is on HMS (Her Majesty’s Secret Service) with a license to kill, or even hit or beat! Wherein the law abiding civilians should consider the police force to be their friend and sentinel, that shields them from the criminal elements; the force is getting increasingly distanced and isolated from the society due to the irresponsible and barbaric conduct of some of its constituents. It is also important that senior police officers be seen in public apart from their association with page 3 glitterati, to instill confidence in the common man and for ice breaking with the citizenry. Leadership must demonstrate model code of public relations to their subordinates.
While the citizenry must follow the legitimate instructions of the police, the latter should not flaunt authority and heap aggression on the ordinary citizens who have no criminal intentions and antecedents. The alleged assault on the unsuspecting woman and her son after the football match at Fatorda, as also the young seafarer from Betul are regrettable and condemnable. In both the cases, there is a clear pointer to impulsive hostility on part of the accused police personnel and punitive action must follow. But the larger point is to put in place the leash of accountability and discipline. Even before the induction training, during the recruitment screening individuals with compulsive aggression must be weeded out through psychological testing. Perhaps then Goa will have a polite police force, that is assertive though not
aggressive.
