Salute the Cops!

Two incidents that is related to Indian Police officers shocked me, literally.

(1) The 26/11 martyr Mr. Hemant Karkare, chief of Anti-terror squad, Mumbai division, was found to be wearing a bullet-proof jacket that was made of low quality. Thanks to the media, especially, CNN-IBN, for shedding light on this topic. How can the manufacturer make such a jacket that do not assure the safety when someone like Mr. Karkare wears it and risks his life to save others? And, under what pretext does the police officials partner with the manufacturing company? Or, where there some under the table dealings? Lot of youngsters in India aspire to join the police department and the military to serve the nation. Now they must think twice!

(2) This one is really gruesome and this happened in my state, Tamilnadu (South India). Mr. R. Vetrivel, a sub-inspector of Police, was "mistakenly" murdered by gangsters who were looking to kill another sub-inspector. To make things even worse, the 'bleeding-to-death' Vetrivel was not given due assistance by none other than the personnel who "embellish" Indian democracy - The Politicians! The Tamilnadu Health Minister Mr. M.R.K Pannerselvam and the environment minister T.P.M. Moideen Khan happened to pass by the bleeding inspector who was 'literally' dying to get help. However, these 'caretakers-of-the-democracy' decided not to take care of the police inspector, instead called the ambulance and waited for it arrive. May be the ministers thought for a moment they are living in America where the ambulance arrives the spot in a matter of few minutes. Or, may be they thought their luxurious vehicles are just not right for the dying inspector. Or, may be the ministers' IQ levels were not up to a respectable mark and hence they do not know how to react to a spontaneity. It does not matter what justifications they provide, but the bottom-line is Mr. R. Vetrivel died in 30 mins.

The Police force/security force in my state, or for any other state in India for this matter, is "always" misused. Politicians would not just go to places should the 'band of police brothers' be not with them. Not just 1 or 2, sometimes hundreds of police officers are called for to provide security to just "one politician". But sadly, the police to public ratio is only 1:632 in Tamilnadu; meaning, there is only ONE police for 632 civilians. And the worst part is the police officers are the ones who are affected the most by the politicians. Whenever there is a change in power and a new party takes over the government, police officers from commissioner level to constable level are always relocated to different places. During every public meeting, the politicians always bring out a trite remark on police people. Whenever there is a public nuisance created by politicians with 'no rhyme or reason', police face the criticisms from both the public and the Government as well as the media. The politicians intently tie the hands of police to not to react to a situation but later reprimand them for keeping quiet. And now, to the present case, these Health and Environment ministers (what an Irony!) were provided security by 1000s of police-men during their political career, however, they did not reciprocate back to Vetrivel during the 'Golden hour' when his life was hanging in a balance, but instead let him die. The kind of "actual help" the politicians provide to the society is plummeting every day. It is about time to suppress these 'cancerous-type' cells to help save India. And no, democracy is NOT the treatment!