Yeh Jo India Hai Na, Its Police & Neta Must be Held Accountable

Yeh Jo India Hai Na, says it is time to end this undemocratic gathbandhan of ‘Police & Neta.’

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Varun Sharma
Video Producer: Rupsha Bhadra

Yeh Jo India Hai Na – Is our police really so incompetent? It is impossible to believe that Delhi Police is so bad at their job? It is impossible to believe that Delhi Police failed miserably at dealing with the violence in northeast Delhi because of sheer incompetence?

Look at the long list of mistakes that the Delhi Police made, pointed out in media reports and by former senior police officers.

No less than six alerts from the Special Branch and Intelligence Wing came in on 23 February, about violence that would erupt. They were ignored by Delhi Police.

No preventive arrests were made, even though the local police is always aware of traditional trouble-makers, local goons, etc.

Section 144 was imposed too late. There was no attempt at area domination. Shoot-at-sight orders came too late.

Former cops have rubbished the excuse offered by some Delhi Police cops that they were ‘waiting for orders’. The police doesn’t wait for orders when they see mobs on the roads, vehicles burning and shops being looted.

A verified and chilling video saw a bunch of policemen actually becoming the mob. They surrounded 5-6 injured youth, abused them and beat them further. How could policemen have done this?

Another verified video saw youth fixing a saffron flag atop the Badi Masjid in Ashok Nagar. Around 20 hours later, when The Quint went to the Masjid, the saffron flag was still up there. Why hadn’t the Delhi Police brought that flag down? That flag on top of the mosque could have incited more violence.

Another video shows DCP North East Delhi Ved Prakash Surya standing next to BJP’s Kapil Mishra on 23 February, as he openly threatens the Delhi Police itself.

So, I ask again, is it really possible that the Delhi Police is so incompetent, so partisan, so leaderless? I would say: No. Many of the Delhi Police’s acts of omission, a lot of this baffling incompetence, is the Delhi Police actually following orders. Former Uttar Pradesh Police Chief Prakash Singh says the police in India get NO insulation from their political bosses. They have to take orders from them, reducing them to “government agents”.

This is the sad fact. Political leaders practically asking the police to look away as communal violence and casteist violence unfolds. Be it Delhi in 1984, Mumbai in 1992-93, Gujarat in 2002 or Muzaffarnagar in 2013.

And this need to free the police of this country from the direct control of politicians has been a long-standing demand. You will hear several former top cops saying it. Every government report on police reforms says it. But it hasn’t happened yet.

Yeh Jo India Hai, the netas of this country, want police in their muthi, and as the saying goes… sainkdon fasadon ki jad.. Bharat mein.. yahi hai! Can this change? Will this change? NO! Why? Because which political party, which politician is going to change the law that will reduce their control over the police?!

Why doesn’t the police touch the politicians who give hate speech, make communally charged statements like Dilip Ghosh, Anurag Thakur, Yogi Adityanath, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Varma, Telangana MLA Raja Singh, Giriraj Singh, Tejaswi Surya? Because their political bosses say so. Even the Waris Pathans escape police attention for the same reasons. And Pragya Thakur and Ananth Kumar Hegde are not touched by the police even after insulting Gandhi.

But who goes to jail? A 19-year-old Amulya Noronha who said, ‘Pakistan Zindabad.’ Why does the police not understand her simple view that to love India, we don’t have to hate Pakistan? It’s not that they don’t understand, but they’ve been ordered not to understand. Has anyone died because of what Amulya said, no! Has anyone died because of hate speech ? Yes!

Yeh Jo India Hai Na, here, police and politicians still think that they are NOT answerable to the public. But, Yeh Jo India Hai Na, says it is time to end this undemocratic gathbandhan of ‘Police & Neta.’