Blistering Barnacles ! State cops : A mistake
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 24, 2011 -

They are certainly not some freaks of nature nor are they some aliens from outer space or from some other planet, neither are they some mutants who owe their physical appearance and mental make up to a nuclear mishap or exposure to some highly radio active elements.

No, they are a product of years of institutionalised honing and training that today no one can be faulted for viewing them as the greatest blunder or mistake that the policy framers of Manipur could have committed.

Tragically this blunder has come in the form and shape of the men in Khakis and Olives, ranging from the elite police commandos to the traffic cops, the Charlies to the IRB personnel, some of whom are attached to police stations and extend their service as police commandos for reasons that should be obvious to all.

Officially they were not meant to have taken this shape or identity, but through the long years of honing and fine tuning by the political class and the top brass, these law enforcing agencies today stand as the perfect model of what political machinations can do and how it can exact its toll on the society.

It could not have been achieved in a jiffy, for it certainly needs skill, expertise and a complete overhauling of the mind to make the transition from law enforcers to one who is increasingly viewed as law breakers.

It also needs cutting edge training and years of hardwork for a police force to earn the reputation of being an institution which has failed to inspire any hope or positive thinking amongst the people but succeeds in sending a chill down the spine of anyone just by the mere mention of its name.

It is a colossal mistake, deliberately planned and implemented, which has given birth to the police that we know today. The result of such a situation is not hard to factor in.

News of IRB personnel being on the pay roll of militants is not something unique anymore to surprise or shock the people. Remember the abortive bomb attack at the Chamber of Commerce Hospital some years back or the arrest of some runners (IRB men) who were engaged to deliver extortion notes at Singjamei area in the recent past ?

On the other hand, while the police commandos continue to represent all the excesses that the State has sanctioned, the Police Department has exposed itself as nothing more than an inept, bungling and incompetent force, when it comes to dispensing their duty such as inspiring confidence and trust and yes solving crimes, which normally do not come under the definition of insurgency.

So while the police is still fumbling in the dark over the murder of a 4 year old child at Bishnupur district, another infamy has been added to its feather, courtesy the bomb blast at MG Avenue in the evening of May 22, near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

MG Avenue is a highly fortified area and not some forgotten lanes or bylanes. Imphal City Police station is just a stone's throw away from the place where the bomb exploded in all its might and fury and there are security guards at the State Bank of India, which again is just within shaking hands distance from the spot of the bomb blast.

If we care to flip through the pages of Manipur’s past in the last four or five years, the bomb blast at MG Avenue will not come as a surprise, much less a shock to anyone.

Remember the time when a car loaded with explosives coolly made its way into the compound of the Raj Bhavan and the man behind it casually walked away without so much as a body check or some quizzings ?

It was sheer luck or an instance of the divine hand coming in to do its bit, that the bomb fitted car did not explode.

We may also recall the time when the Chief Minister's official quarters came under attack, not once but twice. The second attack certainly takes the cake as far as rubbing salt into the wounded psyche of the police is concerned, for it came in the midst of an important day of the State police when all the top cops along with those in the VIP club were celebrating the day at 1st MR campus.

Or remember the day when a woman with a child casually walked into a shop and after whipping out a gun, shot the shop owner from close range and walked away right in the heart of Imphal at Thangal bazar, opposite Hotel Anand ?

The bomb blast at the gate of the Commando quarters on Diwali night some years back continue to disturb us for its sheer audacity.

The cries and wails of the victims and family members continue to ring in our ears while the scattered limbs and mangled torsos continue to remain fresh in our mind. Such instances are just too many to list here and the interesting part is the manner in which the police and the State Government have responded to any of these crises.

In the case of the attacks at the CM's bungalow, our twelve wise men in the Council of Ministers, ably aided by the police top brass decided to block all the roads leading to the official quarters of the Chief Minister after a certain hour everyday.

In the case of the car bomb at the Raj Bhavan, some smart Alec wearing Khakis came up with the fantastic idea of ordering all shops located along Governor's road or behind the Raj Bhavan to down shutters by 4 pm everyday.

These are but some examples and these should suffice for anyone with a modicum of intelligence to conclude that the police here is nothing but a colossal mistake, an error, a blunder, but which has been deliberately made so by the political class.

There is something cute and affable, when Captain Haddock in the Tintin comic series goofs while on some important mission, but the same cannot be said when it comes to the State police, for the fact stands that they have none of the innocence of the character created by Herge'.

On the other hand, they are better known for their acrobatic skills on their motor cycles.