Do some members of the Police understand their Role

Two incidents reported in the Press today highlight the fact that some members of the Mumbai police do not have a clue as to their role while policing this vast city.

In the first incident the Police were silent spectators while the Shiv Sena goons vandalized and terrorized a 5 star hotel, namely Hotel Intercontinental Lalit at Sahar in the guise of unionism and trying to restore the jobs of the so called 11 youth who lost their jobs. If the management has sacked 11 people they must be having valid reasons, even if they don’t, there are more civilized ways to protest with adequate legal remedies available to the sacked employees which can help re-instate them. Are these politicians people friendly or they just interested in their petty political gains which could help them garner some funds? We have not yet got over the 26/11 terror attacks and here we have our own home grown goondas terrorizing and vandalizing another 5 star hotel. It has been reported in the Press that the police were silent spectators while the acts of vandalism were in progress. Were they scared – or were they told not to interfere by the politicos? Are we ruled by law abiding people or are we ruled by goondas? Why were the police so lethargic in taking action? The Chief Minister in an earlier incident also was hesitant in taking action against the culprits and in this case has also chosen not to speak on the incident. Shiv Sena’s Suryakant Mahadik was being bellicose when he stated that Bal Thackeray had helped Lalit Suri in building the Hotel and now his wife was not letting them set up a Union for hotel employees. If this is the reason given, then Mahadik should be thrown behind bars for taking the law into his own hands. If and when our police gather the confidence and the guts to act without fear or favour, I would then say that India has a chance to improve.

The other incident involved police over-activism in arresting a law abiding citizen who protested the Prime Ministers convoy holding up traffic on Saturday for over 45 minutes. I can understand this persons frustration in having to endure an unending wait for some VIP traffic convoy to pass – and then letting out the frustration in a civilized manner. All he did was get out of his car and ask the cops why citizens were made to suffer unfairly whenever VIP traffic movement happens. On posing this question the cop was so incensed that he ordered the arrest of the individual and booked him for unlawful assembly and assaulting a public servant! May I remind these police officers that it is the ordinary citizen who pays their salary by contributing to the State and Central taxes. As part of the aam junta, this gentleman, Sushil Rane had every right to ask the police why he should be inconvenienced. Are we a police state or a democracy? Probably what got Inspector Waghmare’s goat was that a dozen other people supported Mr. Rane and he could not handle the pressure – so what does he do – slaps a false case and puts the man in jail overnight. Mr. Rane was released the next day on a bail bond of Rs. 15000. If VIP’s have to come to Mumbai, then they should travel by helicopter without inconveniencing the public – as it is Mumbai’s roads are a perpetual disaster with some utility or the other digging the roads up, flyovers being constructed, concreting taking place and if none of these activities are happening then somebody just dumps debris on the road effectively reducing its motorability to half.

The above two incidents highlight the fact that the police really do not know their role in policing this city. We need to give them training in effective handling of all kinds of situations such as resisting political pressure, riot control, soft skills, stress management, and above all we need to tell them that we live in a democracy where people have rights and the police force is one of the arms for protecting democracy and not for being a mute spectator when democracy is being abused nor for abusing democracy by misusing their power.