Unburden the police

In early September, a memorial meeting was held in Bengaluru's Town Hall for human rights activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh, assassinated six years ago. The event was addressed, among others, by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, actor Prakash Rai, former Kerala health minister K K Shailaja, and others. It was a full house, and one could not fail to notice the large numbers of policemen and policewomen present inside the hall and even larger numbers of them outside.

While it was gratifying that those of them inside got to listen to speeches upholding the Constitution of India, the rule of law, and human rights, where was the need to deploy so many police personnel for an event attended by people who were entirely peace-loving and harmless?

During Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit a few months ago to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in North Bengaluru, hundreds of police personnel were posted in Malleshwaram, Kodandaramapuram, and Vyalikaval. It might be no exaggeration to say that the numbers deployed that day ran into four figures.

The next time Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Shah visit, the office of the Commissioner of Police needs to make a realistic assessment of the number of personnel—in charge of traffic and others—required and for what duration. At the most, a few dozen strategically placed traffic police and others ought to suffice. However, why politicians should be spared facing traffic snarls and traffic lights that the rest of the citizenry do is another matter.

Many years ago, I heard a (now former) Bengaluru Commissioner of Police say that his personnel worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week. This was when I accompanied a theatre person, who said she had been booked in a spurious case by a traffic policeman and that she wanted it to be quashed.

While refusing to do so, he said something irrelevant but striking: that human rights activists were supporting terrorists. That an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer should be so lacking in what human rights activism is about—a betrayed lack of basic knowledge of the Constitution and its provisions as regards citizens’ rights he had sworn to uphold while he was being commissioned under oath.

Gauri Lankesh herself was accused by cynical right-wingers of supporting Naxalites, whereas all she was trying to do was wean them from recourse to violence. Global non-governmental organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been critical of terrorism on the part of both State and non-State actors.

I once asked a roadside sandwich and pani-puri seller how much he had to pay the cops. "Rs 20 each time they pass by," was his response. And once, after seeing a roadside egg-rice vendor cross the street to a traffic police car, I asked how much he'd handed over and was told "Rs 100". 

Some years ago. I asked a waiter at a bar near the Kempegowda Bus Station about the haftha. He mentioned figures, both daily and monthly, that sounded almost incredible, but then again, it is one of the busiest places in the heart of the city.

Can police not be weaned of hafthas from street vendors, sex workers (whom they harass while allegedly winking at “dance halls” and such other establishments?) 

They also need to learn that street vendors, street lights, and street dogs (or community dogs) make for safe streets for children, the elderly, and women. And read what Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan, and Shilpa Ranade, authors of Why Loiter: Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets, have to say about making our cities safe.

The late writer U R Ananthamurthy once spoke of his wish for a Bengaluru where children and the elderly could cross the streets safely. A mandate the police ought to adopt.

Perhaps Siddaramaiah could come up with a “Police Bhagya” scheme to alleviate their plight, such that so many of them need not rely on “hafthas” and also be allowed to work normal hours—35 or at the most 40 hours a week? Also initiate a programme to educate them about upholding the rights of citizens, especially the most vulnerable among them, as regards their own and citizens’ rights under the Constitution of India crafted by Dr BR Ambedkar and others.

(The writer is a senior journalist)