Midnight thoughts on Indian police

It is a rare midnight cogitation that I am forced to indulge into thanks to a common plot located opposite my home. With “char char bangadi wali gadi” blaring from truck-mounted monster-speakers, my circadian rhythm is beaten black and blue out of its beat.

I have attempted calling the police, but their control room seem to be a more peaceful place than my home, hence my rings have failed miserably in disturbing their beauty sleep. As state is not inclined to assist me in my selfish agenda of using night time for sleep, I am taking the matter in my own hand and write, as I am told that my prose possesses a mysterious quality that often sends people to sleep.

Of various urban myths we live with, the most mysterious one is Supreme Court’s ban on using loudspeakers after 10pm that claims that loudspeaker “shall not exceed 10 decibels above the ambient noise standards for the area or 75 decibels whichever is lower”.

I am sure that, if Supreme Court was allowed sense of humour, they would have also added a LoL, or rather ROFL and “Go figure!!” to the order.

This preventive order against loudspeaker usage enjoys the same level of respect that Indians have for amusing thoughts like “red lights are for stopping” or “politics is for serving people”, because almost every Indian firmly believes that getting disturbed by loud sound and wanting peace is as unpatriotic as one can get. So, it is one more rule of the many that is an inconvenience, mostly for the poor police force of India.

There is absolutely no doubt that we may by poor in monetary terms, but we are enormously wealthy in terms of law. Indian manufacturing sector has failed to deliver, but our rule-manufacturing apparatus works overtime.

Though our parliament is enjoying a power cut lately, our judicial system is busy compensating. As we have crores of cases being filed and fought on everything under the Sun and beyond, we have judicial wisdom on esoterica ranging from “how to feed stray dogs?” to “can algae fly?”, with police as the sole instrument of enforcing ever-growing wisdom of the courts.

The net result is, our already strained police force finds ten new rules to defend or enforce every morning. With bare minimum manpower and threadbare infrastructure, Indian police has to fight a Tsunami that rises daily when unruly population meets over-supply of rules.

Indian police is spread as thinly on the ground as ghee on a miser’s roti. It is working overtime while being constantly doubted by the citizens. It receives no real appreciations for its work, and to boot, there are irritable curmudgeons like me venting their late night frustration that police has to contend with!

Can the police continue functioning under such a demanding atmosphere?

If I re-read this piece, it can be easily read as a thinly veiled complain against the police. But I rather use it to highlight a bigger picture, as we are asking too much from our policemen and demoralising them at every opportunity.

The reality is, we do need proactive judiciary and sound legislative backbone, but it just solves the theoretical part. Along with every new rule, we also need a serious consideration for policing requirements emerging from it.

Just as construction of new riverfront needs new police stations, every rule is a new legal construction requiring suitable augmentation of police force. If Supreme Court passes a law with decibel limits, state must solve the practical requirement of how police will measure it.

We need crime data analysis and find demand-supply gaps that need to be filled for delivery of service. Police needs massive and well thought about modernisation, including a google assist like feature to deal with people like me!!!

City-based science nomad who tries to find definitive answers
samir.shukla@icloud.com