Column

Dear Mr Sivanandan,
I write with some trepidation, because what I have to say will seem like mere piffle considering what you have to deal with these days: the rising terror threat, open bickering within the ranks and xenophobic politicians who defy the police, with the tacit support of other netas who ineffectually claim that ‘India belongs to all Indians’.

However, I take the liberty of writing to you because policing is not always about the dramatic big picture. You might have heard about the ‘broken window’ theory of crime-fighting that comes from America. The champions of that theory believe that if the police crackdown on the smallest crimes, like an urchin breaking a shop front-window, bigger crimes will be deterred. Similarly, I believe that if the police learn to be responsive to a citizen’s minor complaints, they will be able to deal with more demanding situations.

But unfortunately, as my recent experience shows, many members of your department are so inept in settling the most routine matters, that I doubt if they can ever deal with the likes of David Coleman Headley!

One morning recently a dumper rammed into my stationary vehicle near Sahar International Airport. The driver of the dumper admitted his fault and was ready to accompany me to the ISO 9002 certified Sahar police station to facilitate my complaint.

However my illusions ended, when I entered into the premises of the ‘plush’ police station.

The sight was simply astounding, I thought I had strayed into the lair of the chaddi-baniyan gang, because your men were literally sleeping in their underwear and vests! So not only were your men caught napping, they seemed to have been enjoying a pyjama party. When I woke them up, the inspector was highly irritable. He eventually got up and started brushing his teeth before us.

When a junior policeman started taking down our complaint, another senior officer was furious. He yelled at the junior for misplaced priorities, for him his steaming cuppa of chai was more important than lodging the report. The cop’s fury was so great that his foaming toothpaste trickled to the ground and added to the miasma of thick layers of dirt, produced by the ongoing airport expansion.

Have you ever visited this police station? And if you everdo carry a towel to wipe the chairs before you sit. Three inch-thick dirt is settled on the seats! It looks like a warehouse of all lost baggage belonging to international passengers. Some cats have already made these piles of baggage as their home. The mouths of some suitcases are wide open that an individual coming under the pretext of lodging a complaint can rob a vial of Versace or Christian Dior.

I don’t know which situation is worse. The fact that the police station is never cleaned or that the half-dressed police official is too busy guzzling tea to show courtesy to a tax-paying citizen.
In the end, what should have taken just ten minutes, took me one hour to finish. Mr Sivanandan, while you modernise the force with weapons and training, may I also request you to modernise the mind of your personnel? Otherwise, such bumbling Inspector Closeaus will be a blot on a force that has produced brave heart martyrs like Tukaram Omble, Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, and Ashok Kamte.
Yours truly.