Kr Swarn Kishore Singh
The fresh bureaucratic set up of Jammu & Kashmir and its infatuation to straw man fallacy makes me remember a dialogue from a British sitcom ‘Yes, Minister’ wherein two bureaucrats are in a conversation and the senior one while illuminating the junior with the modus operandi of bureaucracy says ‘Private Secretaries who can’t occupy their Ministers are a threatened species’. This is the way bureaucracy really functions. When a Sarpanch in the terrains of Pir Panjal range (Reasi) is freed forcibly from police custody by an unruly mob, some very disparaging signals are emitted. And then when the same guy addresses media and the reveals the whole fiasco, names each official who had demanding bribes from him for disposal of a criminal matter, whose investigations were pending for last so many years, the police is caught with their pants down. That guy was clearly naming the officials and the respective sum of money demanded by each one of them. The FIR pending investigation was lodged under those sections of Indian Penal Code which include offences against women and this type of cases are gold mines for corrupt police officials. That Sarpanch was threatening the police to even try arresting him where the police failed again.
Why? Is it because the police wasn’t having their own house in order? Is it because what that guy said was right and police feared getting more exposed if they follow the rule book? If that guy had really committed some crime, why isn’t police arresting him? And if he hasn’t then why was police harassing him? The most interesting question remains; inspite of such serious allegations made by Sarpanch, Jammu & Kashmir Police didn’t bother enquiring the matter. This proves that the clichéd dialogue of almost every corrupt police official ‘Ye Sb Upar Tak Jaata Hai’ true ? Quid pro quo! When the slogan ‘Ye Jo Gunda-Gardi Hai, Iske Peeche Vardi Hai’ becomes an anthem, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark! We can see law and order deteriorating day by day.
There is no doubt that Jammu & Kashmir Police is doing exceptionally well on counter-terrorism front but what is supposedly the main objective of police, Jammu & Kashmir Police is failing miserably there. The main objectives of police are maintaining public peace and order, prevention of crime, VIP security, tackling smuggling and drug trafficking; on each front Jammu & Kashmir Police is found with a poker face.
We can see murders in Jammu with a dangerous flamboyance. The lapse in law and order situation across Jammu & Kashmir is visible via daily news of protests and Ddharnas and then consequent reaction by Jammu & Kashmir Police worsens the matter when women are being manhandled by male police officials.
In Ramban, where the district police is commanded by two women, 5 girls were kept in a police station for almost 36 hours without FIR hence without presenting them before the magistrate thereby the directives of the Apex Court in D K Basu Vs State of West Bengal sent for a walk.
When even the command of the highest court of the land isn’t deterrence for a governmental agency, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark!
The example of public peace and order can also be evaluated by the lathicharge on ABVP students across Jammu province. Imposition of restrictions under section 144 CrPC in district Ramban serves as icing on the cake of the mismanagement of the affairs. As far as security of political workers is concerned, the less one says, the better it would be.
In last 2 years the number of political workers murdered in Jammu & Kashmir easily outnumbers the political killings of 90s.
The crippled system of Jammu & Kashmir Police finds more expression when we find our youth getting uninterrupted supply of narcotic drugs without any break.
There are instances when the police officials are themselves the connecting dots in the supply chain of narcotic drugs.
The corruption in the ranks of Jammu & Kashmir Police is exposed by Anti-Corruption Bureau; when every alternate day, Anti-Corruption Bureau catches police cops red handed with bribe. The guy who is supposed to arrest the criminals is found behaving like a criminal himself and hence arrested, that too from the police station. Ludicrous! We had numerous examples of their cops decamping with their service weapons but when we have over ground workers serving in Jammu & Kashmir Police, dodging their so-called robust intelligence network, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark! When the Government is pressurising people for adhering to COVID Appropriate Behaviour and at the same time, the enforcement agency i.e. Jammu & Kashmir Police is arranging a farewell rally, by which authority the same uniformed chap can come later to impose a fine on a person not wearing a face mask.
When the restrictions under section 144 CrPC were imposed and hence restrictions muscled in, the senior most police officials of the district instead of arranging patrols arrange public parties, it can be anything but governance. And then if the concerned District Magistrate is reluctant to take action and subsequently direct for lodging of FIR against the delinquent officers, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark!
When a toll plaza is made functional without its formal inauguration and within a couple of days, a bridge for which the toll is charged gets major cracks, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark! (Banihal-Qazigund Tunnel) These questions are ostensibly uncomfortable but they hold relevance when the contents of newspapers are more of a source of fright of governmental agencies than trust, the polar opposite. LG, don’t get occupied by lip service of these bureaucrats instead put them to work.
Since lethargy is their strategy, therefore disturbing them from inertia is dire need of the hour but a tough nut to crack.
To put it short just a couplet from Urdu poetry will sum up fiasco and the subsequent redressal sought from your office; ‘To Idhar Udhar Ki Na Bat Kar, Yeh Bta Ki Qafila Kyun Luta? Mujhe Rah-Zanoon Se Gila Nahi Teri Rehbari Ka Sawal Hai.’
(The author is an Advocate & legal and political analyst).