The Tamilnadu police is in the news again , for all the wrong reasons . Firstly for brutal custodial torture and death and now for getting assaulted themselves by politicians . This is not an isolated incident, it's happening everywhere. Only most of it is being hushed quickly.
After the spread of Covid 19 pandemic, the police in every state is as harried as the doctors but maybe less celebrated. The Police in every state have a lot of negatives and personally I am not too much sentimental about them or their services. But there is no harm in acknowledging, however grudgingly one may do it, that it is the police who have been instrumental in ensuring the lockdown everywhere. The Indian police system of all spectrum, good , bad or ugly have done a great job over these three months since lockdown was announced nationally .
They have been stretched beyond physical limits and no doubt exhausted physically and mentally. Particularly those at the lower end of the hierarchy. Continuous duty for unlimited hours, lack of leave, recreation and quality family time in these testing times is telling on them . And one has to also consider that many of them have individually lost their second stream of income through bribes and extortion (hafta). That's a fact of life and only a hypocrite will deny or ignore it with a holier than thou moral stance. All in all , the police everywhere are raging volcanoes capped by their uniform. At some places this seething lava just comes out.
We need the police and we need more of them ,fit and fine, of good health and mind. But are the policy makers and administrators listening ?
#BitterPill
