A Deranging Demagogy

28 June 2020

If only India had heeded the advise of sage experts and not allowed this conversion of a public health issue of pandemic containment into one of policing. Yes, public health is an aspect of public safety, however, by no yardstick can you allow the public health aspect to be subservient to administrative convenience and policing initiatives.

When I look at how this summer has gone, without kerb side vendors ever reclaiming their spots, without selling nera- which is palm date tap fresh, sugarcane juice, lime-mosambi juice, or the tender coconut vendors, without the push cart vada-pav vendors and so on…Where these not injections of fresh nutrient food, offerings of essential vitamins and refreshment that largely met the urge of middle and lower middle class? How for months, no one considered mobiles, their accessories and recharge vendors as essential services, how the hype of Digital India never materialised into this need? Just imagine how we just shuttered Asia’s largest perishable commodities market at Koyambedu in Chennai, or its local Mumbai variant in Navi Mumbai because a local outbreak occurred.

Sometimes, I feel strongly that all this strong arm tactics, of closing off streets, of sealing buildings, and shuttering shops are done by people who have no exposure to social dynamics or economics. For there was no counter support from the agencies, whether by way of money, or by way of goods, and meals delivered at doorstep. India was the only country which made no Cash transfer to its unorganised or informal sector, it was also the only country which did not permit food delivery and courier deliveries for people at the height of the lockdown. Today Government officials blithely say: ‘We did our best. We did the harshest and fastest lockdown, but still the epidemic continued to grow. People have let us down!’ Well, the reasons are not far to find. When people were forced every day or alternate days to go to shops that were open for limited hours, naturally it would allow the virus to spread. When people were not getting their regular follow up and check ups for chronic diseases naturally their immunity weakened. When people were not allowed to go out and exercise at fixed hours, unlike the rest of the world, you think you cannot find out the cause for Indians becoming more susceptible to the disease even in non demographically categorised groups, in the age group of 35 years and less!

What was the logic for the government to ban exercise, to ban pushcart vendors? Remember those grisly videos where policemen upturned pushcarts laden with fresh produce? Remember those migrant workers who were made to do monkey walk, duckwalk, serpent crawl and freeze sit up in the highways? What social distancing were they violating? Why did migrants opt to walk on railway tracks? To avoid police harassment.

All this build up now reaches this flashpoint of India’s 2020 Covid 19 George Floyd + Nirbhaya moment. George Floyd because father and son in Thoothukudi  were killed in police custody. Nirbhaya because, they died of being repeated sexual assault and sodomy, with batons being pushed up their rectums, tearing their intestines. So what was the provocation? The elder was in the shop, waiting for his son to come back and close the shop. What were they vending? Wooden fixtures and furniture. It was simply a curfew implementation drive. The father was taken to the police station. Son who followed was also taken into custody. Now things get grisly, despicable and what ever word you can use to further deliver the time line. Over next three days, several times the household was approached for fresh change of clothes, clothes worn by the duo were shredded and drenched with blood and tissue. Those who saw the ‘carcasses’ of the father and son say that their faces were unrecognisable, their knees were smashed, their behinds shapeless, with entrails disgorged and emitting blood and bile, their genitalia bore marks of fire, ash, singed with soft tissue damage in a mangle of flesh and skin.The duo was duly presented to the Magistrate, they were seen by the appointed medical officer of Sathankulam jurisdiction during this 72 hour ordeal, even as they were taken to Kovilpatti subJail too. (https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/sathankulam-father-son-death-family-refuses-take-bodies-protest-127271)  

Of course, this is not your usual break down of law and order. It is many factors, like matinee stereotyping of cops, which makes bystanders accept that ‘third degree’ is the only way though absolutely unlawful to carry out the mandate of the law! Imagine from superstar Rajni, to Vikran to Surya to Vishal, every icon has played this ‘grey cop’ who takes the law into his hands, the very antithesis of their previous era Shivaji Ganesan role of ‘Thanga Padakam’ ( Gold Medal) a story where Shivaji faces duty versus family and his son is errant, turns criminal and whom Shivaji does not flinch from shooting at sight on a judicial order! Shivaji the cop does not see any way, Shivaji the father, nor does Shivaji the father contradict Shivaji the cop. There was a rule book. That was meant to be upheld! Always! Of course, while Trevor Noah and others have a valid point saying that we viewing such portrayals have normalised police extraconstitutional actions, I feel that their portrayals alone are not the arc under which the police have gone rogue.

There is a larger play here. Let us not blame right wing, of ultranationalism or über patriotism for this tragedy at Thoothukudi . What happened was firstly a systemic failure, where the core competency of actors at play, empowered by Government rules and regulations, was abuse of power, not administrative talent. Secondly there was a striking absence of humanism in the whole of that police precinct and its perimeter colony. There is a larger question here, of what was the role of the senior police officers in charge of the circle and the district! Thirdly, why did the family of beleaguered next of kin, not find any support to political parties who are locally very active? DMK was able to offer ₹ 25 lacs and legal assistance, but why could they not intervene before it was too late?

You cannot escape the larger overhang of a police system under stress. That India has lowest per capita police presence, but this enforcing of social distancing norms, of Covid19 rules for merchants to operate, was to have been assisted by the police but led by health and community health workers! Why were ASHA workers, or Midwives or Community Health Nurses not leading this campaign?

What India has is a system where police immunity has become police impunity. Token suspension of policemen and the odd capital punishment offered for custodial deaths is part of the problem. But can India do just three things immediately:

1. No Lock Up will have detained persons after sun down.
2. All interrogation chambers, lock ups and all areas inside police stations will be fitted with CCTV cameras with their footage stored at the District and State level archives.
3. Fast track courts to award punishments and damages for police abuses.
4. Reduce the political and administrative role of the police, in a Indian version of DeFund Police that is now under discussion in USA.

Remember there is a bank official in Surat who is recovering from a spinal injury after a policeman off duty misbehaved in the bank premises, physically assaulting her- the cashier! Remember that she was pressurised by police to not complain, her other colleagues were pressurised to not back her statement, that only because her video of the event from her mobile which was being transmitted live and which became viral, and which fortunately was seen by the Indian Finance Minister who then intervened and contacted Mr Brahmadutt IPS who is in charge that led to police filing FIR, suspending the defaulting cop and promise to take both departmental and criminal action against him.(https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/surat/nirmala-sitharaman-asks-police-chief-for-timely-action-in-gujarat-woman-bank-employee-attack-case/articleshow/76544208.cms) This confirms my hypothesis that we erred gravely by making this pandemic a policing problem. Now let us first unpolice this pandemic please! And then hope to usher in long overdue police reforms!