I wanted to respond to Karthik’s comment. But I realized that I had pretty strong opinions about the police force in general and wanted to record that as well. This is a blend of my own observations, my experiences being at the receiving end with the police, versions from friends of friends who are in the police department, and readings in the main stream media. Yes, the police story is a story of bad guys in the eyes of the public, but there is lot of apathy and tragedy underneath the obvious.
While I am a vociferous critic of the functioning of the police - be it traffic as well as law and order, I am almost certain that had I joined the police force, I would have been as corrupt a police officer as there are any now. I don’t remember when was the last time the police department got a salary hike. They cannot complain, they cannot protest, and they cannot go on strike. Politicians treat them like shit, the media sees them as jokers, and the public despise them.
I think it would be good starting point to compare the salary a cop draws in US, relative to other professions to what a cop earns as a salary in India. In India, its almost like their ‘mamool’ is factored into their official CTG (Cost to government). Not just the police of course, this holds good for any general state government employee too. But the kind of torture a police man goes through is unbelievable. He is paid a pittance for enduring all the suffering. Which means the society (includes me) expects him to beg, borrow or take bribe to make ends meet. With little legitimate money but with lot of clout, what will one do? Exchange clout for money. Thats precisely what’s happening.
A traffic police constable who stands in searing heat from morning till evening would probably make less than a post man. Check out this article.
What years of state neglect had done to their morale is that now a decent number of them have turned themselves into entrepreneurs out of corrupt money. I personally know one police constable who owns a water tanker lorry. I know because our flat association gets water from him. His monthly salary would be like six thousand rupees IMO. I am guessing that but if a DGP would make around 70K per month, how much a constable would make? Can he run a family, much less a water tanker lorry with six thousand rupees in chennai city?
It’s one thing to read this as condoning whatever they do. On the other hand, I think it would be wrong to just condemn what they do and preach about virtues like honesty, integrity and so on without addressing the underlying issues.
If I had any power, probably I would enhance their pay checks substantially, study how the police function in other countries, revisit the fundamental philosophy of the way a police department should operate in the post-independent India, look for ways and means to infuse professionalism and THEN expect better performance from them. I say about post-independent India, because I feel the Indian bureaucracy in general still suffer from British Raj hangover, in the way they treat their political masters.
I have been taken to police station for wrongs I did not do, and from which I escaped because of my network. I have given ‘mamool’ for the traffic offences I did and did not commit. I loathe them. But to paraphrase a dialogue in Hey Ram, ‘Oru police a ninnu partha dhaan avanga nyayam puriyum’.
Till the state home minister, who is also usually the state chief minister does something fundamental to change the police DNA, its better not to get caught by a police man. Or, have a hundred rupee note handy. If you are a non-tamil, better have a 500 rupee note in hand.
100 Hyundai Accents are good but not sufficient to fundamentally change the police DNA. Without the needed change in the DNA, Hyundai Accents have replaced Willeys jeeps and Ambassadors in dropping school children.
As an after thought, If you know about any good police man, please write, talk about him. Do some word of mouth publicity. That’s the least we can do. It’s not easy to be good and honest in such an environment.
