Khaki
Prejudice
By Ram Puniyani
The
episode of (9th April, 2000) police force barging in to the Hostel of Jamia
Milia Islamia on the pretext of looking for two offenders, and then going on
rampage is not only highly disturbing, but is one more reminder of the communalisation
of State apparatus in general and of the police Force in particular. Earlier
there was a fracas in which two of the students were involved and were to be
apprehended. The police contingent of close to a thousand broke open the gate
of the hostel, beat up the warden and then mercilessly beat all around while
hurling highly communal abuses, calling the students Pakistani agents, ISI agents
and also made other derogatory remarks. It is worth recalling that Jamia Milia
Islamia is one of the products of the struggle for independence and has been
the flag bearer of Indian Nationalism, Secularism and Democracy.
The list of biased behaviour of police can be infinitesimally long. Not very
long ago in Post demolition Mumbai riots most of the victims of police 'action'
were Muslims. In the first phase of riots when police was using the bullets
with gay abandon, the victims who during this phase happened to be mostly Muslims
suffered bullet wounds. While in the second phase the victims suffered stab
wounds mainly due to the action instigated by the Shiv Sena.
A police officer, Vibhuti Narayan Rai, conducted a study into the behaviour
of police in the communal riots (Record of Police Neutrality in Communal Riots,
Indian Journal of Secularism, Dec 97). The finding of this study is very disturbing.
The study is based on the interviews with the community leaders, feedback from
serving and the retired police personnel, record of the police academy, and
study of the reports of different communal riots. While we know that 65% the
victims of communal riots have been Muslims the arrest and casualty figures
are very revealing. In Bhiwandi riots 1970 of those arrested in cognisable offences,
21 were Hindus while 901 were Muslims; casualties-wise, 17 were Hindus and 59
were Muslims. In Meerut riots of 1982 the pattern is no different. 124 Hindus
were arrested, as against 231 Muslims while 2 Hindus and 8 Muslims were the
victims of casualty. As in Mumbai, here also police bullets selective hit the
body of Muslims and soul of secular values. In Bhiwandi (1970), Firozabad (1972),
Aligarh (1978), Meerut (1982) there was not a single Hindu victim of police
bullets while the number of Muslims dying of police bullets respectively was
9, 6, 7, and 6.
Let us have a look at some of the glaring examples of police partiality. In
Meerut riot in 1987 P.A.C. was deployed to control the riots. As the violence
continued unabated for some time, PAC according to its theory that Muslims are
responsible for the riots and should be taught a lesson, picked up more than
two dozen Muslims from a locality known as Hashimpura and killed them at two
places in Gaziabad after transporting them in their truck.
One of the worst complicity of the police in communal violence was seen in Bhagalpur
riots (1989). Here the police was a mute witness to the murder of 116 Muslims
who were buried in a field and cauliflower was grown on it to cover up the episode.
Bhagalpur police administration kept denying this till another police party
led by a DIG dug out some of these dead bodies.
Because of the heavy communalisation of the police force it believes that communal
riots are due to Muslims and this is what guides their conduct. Their communalised
consciousness is supplemented by brutal savagery, which gets further compounded
by their non-professional approach in dealing with these situations. Many Muslim
predominant areas are termed as 'mini-Pakistan' and police forces while entering
these areas enter with the preparation and the spirit as if they are entering
the enemy territory. This also makes them do the riot investigation in apathetic
manner and year after year they keep sitting on the available evidence, which
goes against their deep-set biases. Two of the comments from inquiry commission
reports will give us a good glimpse of the attitude of some of the officers
of the police. In the Bhiwandi-Jalgaon riot the Madon commission commented,
"The real reason for the inadequacy of the measures taken by the authorities
was the communal bent of mind of some of the officers and incompetence of others.
Unfortunately, the SP, Mr. S.T. Raman appears to have possessed a communal bent
of mind and perhaps a pro-Jana Sangh (Previous avatar of BJP) he fully realised
the seriousness of situation but chose to turn a blind eye"
In more recent Mumbai riots people who were implicated in the riots dubbed Justice
Shri Krishna as anti-Hindu. The police also got its 'due share' in the report,
" police officers, particularly at the junior level, appeared to have an
in built bias against the Muslims which was evident in their treatment of the
Muslims and Muslim victims of the riots. The treatment given was harsh and brutal
and, on occasions, bordering on inhuman, hardly doing any credit to the police.
The bias of policemen was seen in active connivance of police constables with
the rioting Hindu mobs on occasions, with their adopting the role of passive
onlookers on other occasions, and finally, in their lack of enthusiasm in registering
offences against Hindus even when the accused were clearly identified (vol.,
p.25-26). And "Despite clues, miscreants were not pursued, arrested and
interrogated, particularly when the suspected accused happened to be Hindus
with connections to Shiv Sena or Shiv Sainiks. This general apathy appears to
be the outcome of built-in prejudices in the minds of average policeman that
every Muslim is prone to crime"(Vol. I, p.26).
Commission after commission of inquiry are full of these and similar type of
examples of maltreatment and biased behaviour against Muslims. Police not only
behave in a partial manner during riots, in most of the 'regular' situations
also these biases govern their attitudes. Mostly the police act more as a 'Hindu
force' rather than as an arm of secular state. The discrimination in their behaviour
is obvious at all the levels. By now minorities have starting looking at them
as the hostile force. Lately it is the experience of the second largest minority,
the Christians as well.
What is the remedy to this impasse? On one hand the communalisation of society
is cornering the minorities and on the other the supposedly protective force
has no qualms in conniving and even acting on behalf of the offending communal
elements. This is of course due to multiple factors. The recruits to the police
force are from the same group, which is on the communal offensive. The training
programmes of police academies etc. are not at all geared for secularisation
of its trainees. On the contrary many a top officials themselves are having
heavy communal bias. The representation of the minorities in the police force
is abysmal and the recruitment policy of the state has remained lop sided resulting
in a very low percentage of Muslims in the police force. All these need to be
reversed as early as possible. Not only that there should be a conscious effort
to improve the percentage of Muslims in the police force but also the training
programme needs to be recast with an emphasis not only on the human rights of
minorities but also the general communalisation has to be fought against at
all the levels.
(PUCL Bulletin, Aug 2000)