In the last four months, we have witnessed many Arab tyrants resorting to extreme measures to curb protests against their brutal regimes. Ben-Ali, Hosni Mubarak, Ali Abdullah Saleh, King Hamad and of course Muammar Gaddafi used every state (or foreign) apparatus available to them to curb the protests. The unrest and the protests in the Middle-east are a reflection of the people’s demand for democracy and self-rule and the reaction and the violence from the tyrants weren’t exactly unexpected. Dissent is not appreciated by dictators but it is a vital part of democracy. So, what if you live in the so-called ‘largest democracy’ in the world and constantly see the diminishing place of dissent in Indian democracy? When people like Arundhati Roy or Gautam Navlakha reflect on Indian government’s policy towards the problem in Kashmir or the Maoists, they are branded as anti-national and threatened with charges of sedition. While Arundhati Roy and Gautam Navlakha do face reprehension from the government and the police, they do not go through what many other activists and protesters face on a daily basis. They are harassed by the police and their peaceful assembly, most of the time, is broken up violently through Lathi-charging.
Lathi-charge (Baton charge) on protesters is a very common and widespread practice of the Indian police in virtually every state. The police in India carry the colonial mentality of treating dissenting Indians as second class citizens. Lathi was introduced as a weapon in the Indian police by the Brits during their rule in India and its unnecessary usage continues even to this day. In the recently concluded Cricket World Cup which was held in the subcontinent, the frenzied fans flocked in numbers to get tickets for games involving India and every time police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the cricket enthusiasts.
Police would argue that the crowd is unruly and they are resorting‘only to lathi’ because it’s least likely to cause serious damage (which could be true because of these trigger-happy cops) but the actual problem is not whether lathi is less harmful than other weapons, the real the issue is the mentality of the Indian police. Their job is to serve and protect the people not oppress them on behalf of other agencies and I argue that this mentality is a leftover of India’s colonial past when the Indian police employed by the British were given the power to “rule” over the people (and they actually believed their superiority over others because the Brits chose them) but were only used as a deterrence against the local people. What has changed now is that the police is acting on behalf of the government and the elites of India rather than Britain. When farmers in Nandigram, West Bengal came out in protest against the decision of West Bengal government to acquire 10,000 acres of land without their consent and give it to a foreign corporation to develop a chemical industry, around 4,000 heavily armed policemen were deployed to crush the protest which resulted in the death of dozens of poor protesters.
The crimes committed by Indian police are numerous and done with complete impunity, and it is because most of the time they are acting on behalf of some ruling politicians. India is (in)famous for some of the worst communal riots but what inflates this communal problem in India is the role of police. While they should be acting to prevent riots and protecting the attacked community, in most cases are a part of the government or aligned with politicians who use riots to further advance their interests. Governments use the police force to suppress the voice raised against their policies and actions. Last year, after the European Union and India agreed on a free trade agreement, peaceful protesters gathered outside the Commerce Ministry in New Delhi to protest the deal which would severely affect the cheap and reliable supply of otherwise expensive medicines in India and other developing countries. What followed was a brutal show of force by Delhi police, lathi-charge and arrest of non-violent protesters.
India prides itself as being the ‘largest democracy’ but that democracy is nothing but an elitist show because of the role of police, amongst other factors. As one of the most corrupt institution in India it deprives people of their right to expression and dissent.
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