The workings of our governing institutions seem to want to divorce us for from our ownership of our country. Why is it okay in a democracy to be told "this is not your business"? Is this the country that Gandhi, Nehru or Ambedkar envisioned? Is it even the India that we deserve? Can we change this? How?
August - perhaps late August. Exhausted from a series of meetings, I am relaxing at a Coffee Day adjacent one of the gleaming new business towers in Jasola just behind Apollo Indraprashta, New Delhi. I step outside the coffee shop to go to a toilet that is located in the business tower. The guard salaams me as I enter the business tower, just as I notice a man with a naked gun and a belt displaying an array of bullets entering the Coffee Day shop. First I assume he must be a plainclothesman to be brandishing a gun so openly and start to walk towards the toilet. Then I think of what might be, if my assumption is wrong. Afterall, it is neither customary nor acceptable for people to walk with naked guns in full view of the public even if they are police officers. The only exception is perhaps a scene of recent or anticipated crime. I remember Mumbai 2008. Was it not my duty to check into the antecedents of this man, as an ordinary over-educated citizen?
I retract my steps and address the security guard being careful to assume both his best intentions and competence - both of which are about to be rendered suspect.
"बॉस, क्या आप उस आदमी को जानते हैं जो काफ़ी डे में जा रहा है (Boss, do you know the guy who is just entering the Coffee Day shop) ?
"नहीं सर (No sir)"
"बॉस, आपने देखा उसके बेल्ट में बन्दूक है (did you notice that he has a gun at his belt)?"
"सर... वोह तो वहाँ हैं" - he points to the gun-carrying guy about a distance of 15 feet from where he stands - "और मैं यहाँ हूँ. मैं वहाँ कैसे जा सकता हूँ?" (Sir he is there... and I am here. How can I go and confront him? He is so far away - and I am not supposed to have jurisdiction where he is standing).
More than anything else the sheer audacity of this reply enrages me, but I try to control myself. I ask him to call his supervisor, which he promptly does although the supervisor is standing about 20 feet from us roughly in the same direction as the coffee day shop.
I begin to feel disgust thinking that the supervisor saw the man too, but chose to do nothing. But then, summon all my resolve to maintain composure. The supervisor comes and has an equally impressive shrug-responsbility attitude,
"सर उसके पास लाईसेन्स होगा" (sir, he would have a gun-carrying license)
I respond saying,
"ऐसा भी हो सकता है की उसके पास लाईसेन्स नहीं हो. ऐसा भी हो सकता है की वो आतंकवादी हो"
(It is also possible that he does not have a license; that he is a terrorist)
"हाँ सर, हो सकता है"
(Yes it is possible)
"तो आप सिक्यूरिटी गार्ड हैं. आपका काम ही यह है के आप जाकर उसका लाईसेन्स चेक करें"
(Don't you think it is your job to check whether he has a gun license)
"सर, वो तो पुलिस का काम है"
(Sir, that is the job of the police)
At his point, I am both tired at my effort of trying to engage with him, and unable to control my disgust at the agency that has employed him. I tell him if he cannot do anything about it, I will. I dial the emergency police helpline number 100, and go to the toilet.
By the time I return, I realize that the supervisor has alerted the gun-carrying man that I had called the police. I assumed he may have checked the man's license too.
आपने उस आदमी का लाईसेन्स चेक किया?
(did you check that person's gun license)
नहीं सर.
(no sir)
I grunt in disgust saying that I would try to get the permission of the security guard agency revoked. As soon as I say that, I curse myself. I begin to wonder whether there is something more sinister going on. After all, it is no joke that a security guard goes and talks to a gun-carrying man with who he was reluctant to hold a conversation earlier alerting him that someone had called the police. More so, in this conversation the guard asks neither for the person's identity, nor whether he held a gun-carrying license. I begin to curse myself in my mind... thinking that the guard is probably in on this - and these guys are likely to going to kill me soon.
Therefore, I avoid going to the coffee shop and try to search the nooks and corners of the building where I could stay away from the sight of the security guards. Soon though I see the gun-carrying man get up and leave. Meanwhile, I have called the 100 helpline three times asking how long is it going to take for the police to come.
About 3-4 minutes after the gun-carrying man left, the police arrive. It takes them another 5-10 minutes to go from their parked car to the coffee as they saunter around; talk to the guards who have run up to the police to give them their version first since they are afraid I will complain about them.
The officer, a wheezing, blundering, pot-bellied, power-drunk 6 footer walks up to me towering 4 inches over me. He asks for the man. I tell him he is gone. I tell him that he should revoke the license of the security agency.
He casts a dismissive glance at me and says I should allow him to do his job. Then he walks round the Cafe and harshly addresses the guy at the couter...
"क्यों बे? तेरे दुकान का लाईसेन्स कब मिल गया तुझे? आज ही तो मैंने साइन किया है उसे. तू बिना लाईसेन्स का दुकान चला रहा है?"
(what's up, you? when did you get the license to run your shop? I signed your license only today। So you have been running your shop without a license?)
Despite the practical angel in me advising me not to get upset at a cop, I find anger danerously erupting inside me. This blundering good for nothing cop, instead of taking down a report, connfronting the security guards or trying to look for the whereabouts of the gun-carrying man - was trivializing the whole issue. Was potential crime less important than checking on the license of a Coffee Day store?
Visibly upset, but struggling to control my anger, I turn to the cop and address him politely but with authority.
आपको यहाँ मेरी शिकायत पर बुलाया है. दुकान का लाईसेन्स चेक करने नहीं. आप पहले मेरी शिकायत पर काम करिए...(You were called here on my complaint. Not to check on the license of the shop. You must work on my complaint first)
He turns and address me. A smug, sarcastic smile on his face, a lazy bent to his frame, bored eyes, and a devil-may-care attitude...
क्यों? आपने पूरी दुनिया का ठेका ले रखा है क्या?
(Why? Have you entered into a contract to run the whole world?)
At this point I realize that talking any further to this guy will likely get me into trouble. After a while in his own devil-may-care manner he instructs his deputy to take down my statement. To try to unnerve me however, he starts the statement taking himself - asking me detailed questions - just to try to put me in place and get me to recognize his situational superiority.
Where were you this morning? Why? What do you do? What time did you come here? Why? What business did you have in this coffee shop? Where do you live?
The tone of the proceedings was of course quite clear - reprimanding - it was to teach me a lesson: never tell the police what they should do.
Then his orderly, a Sub Inspector takes over...
So you study. What do you study? So you are an MBA student. Where? So you are in Boston. Do you have a student identity card? My nephew is in Boston. You should meet him. Help him out. I will come meet you in Boston.
Where do you live? What is your address? Can the SDM (Sub Divisional Magistrate) residence in Jalandhar be an address? What is the house number? You don't know the house number? Are you the SDM of Jalandhar? If your wife is the SDM of Jalandhar why are you in New Delhi?
At every point of my statement the Sub-inspector tries to trivialize my statement. He writes on an empty sheet of paper - no pad - no numbers - nothing. The sheet of paper will likely be thrown away. But back to my statement.... at every point in my statement of what occurred the sub-inspector seems to want to get me to say that there was no real threat of any sort - I only called the police in the "interest of humanity".
Really? I wonder. Is that what I did? Call in the interest of humanity? Or did I do something that should be a basic expectation from every citizen in a country plagued by terrorist attacks, naxalism etc. etc. etc. Should alertness to security concerns be trivialized as "interest of humanity".
I tried hard to get the Sub Inspector to write what I wanted written... not what he wanted to write. I don't know to what extent I succeeded. It was an uphill battle... the climb getting steeper, and my disgust at the police force and government officials (despite being the husband of an IAS officer myself) getting more and more bitter.
I said that in my statement I wanted to include the name of the security agency, the name of the guards, and recommend that the agency's license to operate should be cancelled - since they were not capable of doing routine checks.
That's when the Sub Inspector delivered his punchline.
"शादी के सब गीत सच्चे नहीं होते"
Translated literally, it means not all the songs sung during a wedding morph into reality. What he meant was - yuo shouldn't expect a person to always do what you hire him to do.
The police officer's name is K L Jadhav. His orderly, the sub-inspector was Sub Inspector Joginder Singh. K L Jadhav and Joginder Singh work for the East Delhi division of Delhi Police.
The name of the security guard agency is Sentinel.
Until such characters "rule" our police force, how can we ever be safe? Is it not a just demand that these police officers be dismissed - not just suspended but dismissed! And the agency and all its directors be prohibited from operating in the Security business?
Perhaps if you know the Home Minister or the Chief Minister of Delhi you could point them to my blog? I will be happy to be of any assistance.
What else can a citizen do when he hears "have you entered into a contract to run the whole world"? That too in his own country - a democracy.
August - perhaps late August. Exhausted from a series of meetings, I am relaxing at a Coffee Day adjacent one of the gleaming new business towers in Jasola just behind Apollo Indraprashta, New Delhi. I step outside the coffee shop to go to a toilet that is located in the business tower. The guard salaams me as I enter the business tower, just as I notice a man with a naked gun and a belt displaying an array of bullets entering the Coffee Day shop. First I assume he must be a plainclothesman to be brandishing a gun so openly and start to walk towards the toilet. Then I think of what might be, if my assumption is wrong. Afterall, it is neither customary nor acceptable for people to walk with naked guns in full view of the public even if they are police officers. The only exception is perhaps a scene of recent or anticipated crime. I remember Mumbai 2008. Was it not my duty to check into the antecedents of this man, as an ordinary over-educated citizen?
I retract my steps and address the security guard being careful to assume both his best intentions and competence - both of which are about to be rendered suspect.
"बॉस, क्या आप उस आदमी को जानते हैं जो काफ़ी डे में जा रहा है (Boss, do you know the guy who is just entering the Coffee Day shop) ?
"नहीं सर (No sir)"
"बॉस, आपने देखा उसके बेल्ट में बन्दूक है (did you notice that he has a gun at his belt)?"
"सर... वोह तो वहाँ हैं" - he points to the gun-carrying guy about a distance of 15 feet from where he stands - "और मैं यहाँ हूँ. मैं वहाँ कैसे जा सकता हूँ?" (Sir he is there... and I am here. How can I go and confront him? He is so far away - and I am not supposed to have jurisdiction where he is standing).
More than anything else the sheer audacity of this reply enrages me, but I try to control myself. I ask him to call his supervisor, which he promptly does although the supervisor is standing about 20 feet from us roughly in the same direction as the coffee day shop.
I begin to feel disgust thinking that the supervisor saw the man too, but chose to do nothing. But then, summon all my resolve to maintain composure. The supervisor comes and has an equally impressive shrug-responsbility attitude,
"सर उसके पास लाईसेन्स होगा" (sir, he would have a gun-carrying license)
I respond saying,
"ऐसा भी हो सकता है की उसके पास लाईसेन्स नहीं हो. ऐसा भी हो सकता है की वो आतंकवादी हो"
(It is also possible that he does not have a license; that he is a terrorist)
"हाँ सर, हो सकता है"
(Yes it is possible)
"तो आप सिक्यूरिटी गार्ड हैं. आपका काम ही यह है के आप जाकर उसका लाईसेन्स चेक करें"
(Don't you think it is your job to check whether he has a gun license)
"सर, वो तो पुलिस का काम है"
(Sir, that is the job of the police)
At his point, I am both tired at my effort of trying to engage with him, and unable to control my disgust at the agency that has employed him. I tell him if he cannot do anything about it, I will. I dial the emergency police helpline number 100, and go to the toilet.
By the time I return, I realize that the supervisor has alerted the gun-carrying man that I had called the police. I assumed he may have checked the man's license too.
आपने उस आदमी का लाईसेन्स चेक किया?
(did you check that person's gun license)
नहीं सर.
(no sir)
I grunt in disgust saying that I would try to get the permission of the security guard agency revoked. As soon as I say that, I curse myself. I begin to wonder whether there is something more sinister going on. After all, it is no joke that a security guard goes and talks to a gun-carrying man with who he was reluctant to hold a conversation earlier alerting him that someone had called the police. More so, in this conversation the guard asks neither for the person's identity, nor whether he held a gun-carrying license. I begin to curse myself in my mind... thinking that the guard is probably in on this - and these guys are likely to going to kill me soon.
Therefore, I avoid going to the coffee shop and try to search the nooks and corners of the building where I could stay away from the sight of the security guards. Soon though I see the gun-carrying man get up and leave. Meanwhile, I have called the 100 helpline three times asking how long is it going to take for the police to come.
About 3-4 minutes after the gun-carrying man left, the police arrive. It takes them another 5-10 minutes to go from their parked car to the coffee as they saunter around; talk to the guards who have run up to the police to give them their version first since they are afraid I will complain about them.
The officer, a wheezing, blundering, pot-bellied, power-drunk 6 footer walks up to me towering 4 inches over me. He asks for the man. I tell him he is gone. I tell him that he should revoke the license of the security agency.
He casts a dismissive glance at me and says I should allow him to do his job. Then he walks round the Cafe and harshly addresses the guy at the couter...
"क्यों बे? तेरे दुकान का लाईसेन्स कब मिल गया तुझे? आज ही तो मैंने साइन किया है उसे. तू बिना लाईसेन्स का दुकान चला रहा है?"
(what's up, you? when did you get the license to run your shop? I signed your license only today। So you have been running your shop without a license?)
Despite the practical angel in me advising me not to get upset at a cop, I find anger danerously erupting inside me. This blundering good for nothing cop, instead of taking down a report, connfronting the security guards or trying to look for the whereabouts of the gun-carrying man - was trivializing the whole issue. Was potential crime less important than checking on the license of a Coffee Day store?
Visibly upset, but struggling to control my anger, I turn to the cop and address him politely but with authority.
आपको यहाँ मेरी शिकायत पर बुलाया है. दुकान का लाईसेन्स चेक करने नहीं. आप पहले मेरी शिकायत पर काम करिए...(You were called here on my complaint. Not to check on the license of the shop. You must work on my complaint first)
He turns and address me. A smug, sarcastic smile on his face, a lazy bent to his frame, bored eyes, and a devil-may-care attitude...
क्यों? आपने पूरी दुनिया का ठेका ले रखा है क्या?
(Why? Have you entered into a contract to run the whole world?)
At this point I realize that talking any further to this guy will likely get me into trouble. After a while in his own devil-may-care manner he instructs his deputy to take down my statement. To try to unnerve me however, he starts the statement taking himself - asking me detailed questions - just to try to put me in place and get me to recognize his situational superiority.
Where were you this morning? Why? What do you do? What time did you come here? Why? What business did you have in this coffee shop? Where do you live?
The tone of the proceedings was of course quite clear - reprimanding - it was to teach me a lesson: never tell the police what they should do.
Then his orderly, a Sub Inspector takes over...
So you study. What do you study? So you are an MBA student. Where? So you are in Boston. Do you have a student identity card? My nephew is in Boston. You should meet him. Help him out. I will come meet you in Boston.
Where do you live? What is your address? Can the SDM (Sub Divisional Magistrate) residence in Jalandhar be an address? What is the house number? You don't know the house number? Are you the SDM of Jalandhar? If your wife is the SDM of Jalandhar why are you in New Delhi?
At every point of my statement the Sub-inspector tries to trivialize my statement. He writes on an empty sheet of paper - no pad - no numbers - nothing. The sheet of paper will likely be thrown away. But back to my statement.... at every point in my statement of what occurred the sub-inspector seems to want to get me to say that there was no real threat of any sort - I only called the police in the "interest of humanity".
Really? I wonder. Is that what I did? Call in the interest of humanity? Or did I do something that should be a basic expectation from every citizen in a country plagued by terrorist attacks, naxalism etc. etc. etc. Should alertness to security concerns be trivialized as "interest of humanity".
I tried hard to get the Sub Inspector to write what I wanted written... not what he wanted to write. I don't know to what extent I succeeded. It was an uphill battle... the climb getting steeper, and my disgust at the police force and government officials (despite being the husband of an IAS officer myself) getting more and more bitter.
I said that in my statement I wanted to include the name of the security agency, the name of the guards, and recommend that the agency's license to operate should be cancelled - since they were not capable of doing routine checks.
That's when the Sub Inspector delivered his punchline.
"शादी के सब गीत सच्चे नहीं होते"
Translated literally, it means not all the songs sung during a wedding morph into reality. What he meant was - yuo shouldn't expect a person to always do what you hire him to do.
The police officer's name is K L Jadhav. His orderly, the sub-inspector was Sub Inspector Joginder Singh. K L Jadhav and Joginder Singh work for the East Delhi division of Delhi Police.
The name of the security guard agency is Sentinel.
Until such characters "rule" our police force, how can we ever be safe? Is it not a just demand that these police officers be dismissed - not just suspended but dismissed! And the agency and all its directors be prohibited from operating in the Security business?
Perhaps if you know the Home Minister or the Chief Minister of Delhi you could point them to my blog? I will be happy to be of any assistance.
What else can a citizen do when he hears "have you entered into a contract to run the whole world"? That too in his own country - a democracy.
Shocking! especially after 26/11, and especially the attitude of the private agency. The police force situation aside, you should talk to the people who run the business tower. They're likely the ones who've hired the private security agency and who can do something about their contract/file a complaint with the higher-ups of the security company/etc.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we've lost the innocence of a young nation now 60 years after independence. Everybody is interested in their own vested interest, and not in the good in general.
ReplyDeleteWhat's needed is that we develop a system of checks and balances - there's (a semblance of) accountability at the highest level with universal adult franchise, but we need more accountable at the lower level. People are helpless against law-makers (breakers?) at the grassroots level. Unless the accountability is built into the system, there's little that can be done to cleanse.
- Krishna Mehra
INFURIATING!
ReplyDeleteWow! what can I say.
ReplyDeletePartho
The fact that Indian police is corrupt and incompetent is an open secret. You won't hear a counter-argument from anyone. Fact that you are alarmed by the public presence of someone wearing a handgun speaks to the level of your paranoia. Two wrongs don't make a right.
ReplyDeleteWhile you had these two incompetent officers tied up, they were missing from somewhere else, likely rendering two villages without their idiots!
I loved the punchline!
ReplyDeleteIndia needs more 26/11s to wake up.
ReplyDelete