news details |
|
|
| Punish guilty for police’s hour of shame | | | by M.P.S. Aulakh
BY its inept and brutal handling of the peacefully protesting veterinary students during the Chief Minister’s visit to Ludhiana on September 21, the Punjab Police has added to one of the darkest chapters of its history, which in any case has often been laced with allegations of gross violations of human rights.
What makes the inhuman assault on innocent young girls by the police personnel doubly shocking is not only the rapacious manner in which the cops behaved but also – and especially – the way the senior police officers and the government top brass tried to pass it off as a routine error by some overzealous members of the force.
I am still wondering why none of them stepped in to stop the animal-like misbehavior of their men in this case of daylight molestation. Was it this implicit belief about seniors’ silence and even acquiescence that had so emboldened the junior and middle rung officials to indulge in such shocking acts?
The girls’ assembly in Ludhiana could in no way be construed as violent. To the extent that it was unlawful (if the magistrate on the scene had declared it to be so) there were civilized options available to the police to deal with it, including ensuring the presence of lady police in adequate strength in advance.
Even worse than the tragic incident was what followed it. The government gave the police a clean chit, even an appreciation certificate by declaring that the police ‘acted with responsibility.’ Some responsibility this, considering the shameful photographs published in newspapers.
All the subsequent events including the registration of cases against 200 students, ordering of police and then magisterial inquiries, the CM justifying the police, the SSP owning the police guilt and apologizing, and also withdrawing cases against students - all betray what is known as the ‘Keystone Cops’ syndrome, where the police is doing everything except what is right.
The worst having happened, the government still did not wake up to its ‘responsibility.’ In view of the brazen nature of the case and the availability of irrefutable evidence, including photographic proof, the first part of the response mechanism should have been a statement by someone in a position of high authority, owning the wrongdoing.
That should have been followed, by the invocation of Article 311 against the guilty official - removal from office without inquiry - and the registration of a case under Article 354 -molesting a lady. (If there was a justifiable case for the use of this article, it was here.) This is exactly the course that was rightly followed in the case of ‘stung’ police officials of Nawanshahr. The third step should have been an expression of apology by the highest ranked police officer of the state, in conformity with the principle of collective departmental responsibility. None of this happened.
The time to reform our police is now. Why wait for the implementation of the Supreme Court’s directives on police reforms? It is time for us as a nation to demonstrate a will to reform ourselves without waiting for fresh commandments every time a Moses goes up judicial Mount Sinai.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
