By Invitation: Corona can help the Indian police redeem its image

By Anil Singh
(anilsinghjournalist@gmail.com)

If the Indian police takes the right lessons from its handling of the Corona virus curfew it can add a new dimension to its crisis management skills.
To begin with, it has an unenviable job but it messed up things by its indiscriminate use of force and its inflexibility; inability to make exceptions for delivery boys, trucks carrying essential supplies, etc.
No doubt citizens initially took the curfew orders lightly but the cops too erred by opting for the usual strong-arm approach. Social media is flooded with visuals of power-drunk policemen using excessive and, at times, brute force; something that is reflected in the mainstream media as well.
Strangely, the police leadership was blind to the signals. Goaded no doubt by their political bosses, they were single-minded in their quest to keep the citizens locked up in their homes. At times, journalists and doctors too were not spared.
Such knee-jerk reactionsalienate the public which then remembers the men in uniform at their worst; a force that forgets its duty and sides with arsonists, as in the recent Delhi riots or looks the other way, as with rampaging Dalit mobs in Mumbai two years ago. Memories of cops working round the clock to help citizens during natural calamities recede into the background.
Anyway, over-reliance on the `danda’ is not only a debatable approach but it also highlights the police-public disconnect. Consulting the local municipal corporators or the MLAs to gauge the public mood and to fine tune curfew strategy would have been a smart move but that does not seem to have happened.
By and large the Indian police is disdainful of the people it serves; something that can be set right only if the Supreme Court’s directives on police reforms are adopted in earnest by state governments.
It is also doubtful whether the cops spoke to representatives of the business and trade sectors on how to maintain the supply and distribution of essential supplies. Such was the overkill that couriers delivering medicines, groceries or food were thrashed, leading to disruption of e-commerce which in turn led to panic buying. Finally, on-line grocery stores such as BigBasket were forced to appeal to the cops through the media.
It is not surprising then that one hears of IAS officers joining the chorus of complaints. In Maharashtra, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust chairman Sanjay Sethi complained to the chief secretary about the police stopping trucks carrying essential commodities and ordering petrol pumps to shut down.
Responding to the outcry against `police raj’, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has instructed the director-general of police and the police commissioner of Mumbai to behave in a humane manner with citizens during the lockdown. A course-correction has begun but citizens also need to behave responsibly.
Other chief ministers no doubt will have to address the situation. However, instead of waiting to be told, police chiefs can use the crisis to redeem the image of the Indian police.
There have been initiatives such as using home guards to deliver medicine and groceries and to help voluntary agencies feed blind beggars. Then, there is the viral video clip of a senior woman police officer addressing residents of a Bangalore housing colony on a megaphone.
Politicians must also realize that everything cannot be done by brute force alone and that to be effective the police force has to be made more accountable to the public; something that can be done only if police reforms are implemented.

Forwards Ki Duniya: Humour At The Cricket Field

Hilarious lines by cricket commentators

1. In a match between India and Australia, Michel Clarke was caught at the slip off Kumble and he was waiting for third umpire’s decision when he was clearly out. Commentator Harsha said: ‘I think he is waiting for tomorrow’s newspapers to declare him out.’

2. In one match, Dravid and Ganguly panicked while running between the wickets and Ganguly sent him back from half pitch.
Siddhu: ‘Ganguly threw drowning Dravid, a rope with both loose ends.’

3. Navjot Singh Siddhu on Ajit Agarkar: ‘If Ajit Agarkar is an all-rounder, then I am Aishwarya Rai.’

4. Geoffrey Boycott during the lunch show: ‘Sachin may be a great batsman, but he has never been on the Lords Honours Boards!’
Harsha Bhogle: ‘So whose loss is it more, Sachin’s or the Honours Boards?’

5. Navjyot Singh Siddhu commenting on Rohan Gavaskar’s performance said: ‘Everything coming out of cow is not milk, my friend.’

6. India is playing Sri Lanka. Sehwag hits a boundary and Ravi Shastri remarks : ‘It’s gone to the boundary before you can say KULASEKARA.’

7. During an India-WI test in the summer of 2011, Andre Russel had just dived to save a boundary.

Ian Bishop: ‘Reminds you of a young Tony Cozier, this man.’

Tony Cozier: ‘You weren’t even a thought in your parents’ head when I did that.’

8. Michael Atherton: ‘It is England but India has more support in the stadium, and the pitch is completely assisting your spinners. Says a lot about our hospitality, right.’

Harsha Bhogle : ‘Well…. we let you rule our nation for so many years. I believe that’s the least you can do for us.’
Michael Atherton was speechless!

Baghban in real life

Mr and Mrs Iyer have two sons, Navin and Madhav, staying in Ahmedabad and Nagpur, respectively. Since their bahus are also working, there is nobody from the family to look after the three grandchildren at the two locations.
So the family has hit upon a unique solution, which, at first look, seems straight out of the Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini tearjerker Baghban (2003).
Mr Iyer stays at Ahmedabad with Navin and looks after his two kids. Mrs Iyer looks after Madhav’s only child in Nagpur.
We are told that the arrangement has been working well for the last dozen years. We are also told that unlike in the movie, there are no buckets of tears flowing at the two locations.

Eavesdropping: Ghotalas galore

Two men on their morning walk:
“And so, Yes Bank has also sunk.”
“Yes, and now SBI has been called in for the rescue act. One day, SBI will also drown.”
“Why do you say that?”
“SBI is always called in to pump money into failed enterprises. But whose money is it? It is our money. Shouldn’t we have a say in what is being done with our money? SBI is throwing good money after bad. One day, it will fall like a pile of bricks. SBI is the biggest ghotala.”

 

A matter of convenience

Two women out on an early morning walk:
First woman: God bless the person who invented elastic.
Second woman: Why do you say that?
Using a nadia on the pyjama of a Punjabi suit is such a pain. Sometimes it just breaks. Often, it gets knotted up. And if you have to rush to the loo in a hurry, an elastic is very convenient.

Beyond The Byline: The son also rises

In December 1985, I interviewed Salim Khan, a failed actor turned one half of the very successful Salim-Javed Bollywood screenwriting duo. I interviewed Khan in the extended, open air balcony of his Bandra flat, when he was trying to make a comeback as a solo writer, after his 17-year-long collaboration with Javed Akhtar had snapped.
He did not shy away from tough questions, including those related to the break-up. “Even though it happened a long time back, the hurt is still there. I have still not reconciled over how such a long relationship, spanning 18 films, could be terminated with just one stroke.” Khan rarely referred to his former partner by name in the interview and I remember one particular line of his: “If he did not respect my talents, would he have been magnanimous enough to allow my name before his own?”
The interview was conducted in December 1985. Throughout our two hour long conversation, a 19-year-old youth sat on the floor, about two metres away from us. He didn’t utter a single word, but patiently absorbed Bollywood gyan from his father whom he clearly adored. Three years later, Salman Khan would make his acting debut and soon achieve the big Bollywood stardom that Salim Khan had only dreamt about.

Scene in a marriage: One question only

Wife: One should cherish memories in life, not things.
Husband: What if you get Alzheimer’s?