DNA Edit: Insensitive Policing

UP police’s track record is not one that is marked with maturity, restraint, and a soft touch. Issuing lathicharge orders against unarmed girls of the Banaras Hindu University, who were peacefully protesting against the alleged molestation of a fellow student, is an abuse of its powers that is unpardonable and speaks volumes on the insensitivity and tone-deafness of the UP police. By doing so, the UP police has only dented its image further.

Now that the vicious attack, which was disproportionately punitive, has seated itself deep in our collective imagination, the police is advancing a lame excuse that it set upon the lathicharge only when the protestors started pelting stones at them. Numerous eye-witness accounts of those present have put paid to such fabrications leaving the UP police, and consequently, the UP government squarely embarrassed.

This incident also highlights a moral failing of our society at large. The girl who has charged unknown men with allegations of molestation instead of receiving a sympathetic hearing from the college administration was shamed for roaming outside of college premises after 6 PM by them. It is through such warped thinking that we have started damning the women in our society. Our public spaces belong to everyone and it is incumbent on the state government to guarantee to us- irrespective of our caste, class or gender- security and safety at all times.