Police

If you ask the average Indian what they think of the Police it's usually a negative reaction. Most people do not want to get involved with them as they are perceived as being brutal and biased. Why is this so?

Most policemen at the lower levels are drawn from lower middle class backgrounds and belong to nearby towns and villages. Around Delhi, for example, there are a number of villages who have a tradition of sending their boys to the police. Patriarchal attitudes are strongly embedded in such places. Their attitudes towards women are conditioned virtually from birth. The women of the house will eat only after they have served the men. Young girls will start helping with housework at an early age while the boys have the freedom to enjoy themselves. The girls may not be educated or partially so while the boys are treated as "ghar ka chirag" These small examples are part of the overall reality of our attitude towards women and policemen's families are no different. Secondly, in such families, the attitude towards corruption is one of benign tolerance. The police recruit has seen corruption endemic in his village from his earliest youth. He may even have had to pay a large bribe to get into the police force in the first instance. Once recruited he is pitchforked into a milieu where corruption is virtually institutionalised. In fact, if he is honest and does not conform he will be singled out by his colleagues - the theme of endless Bollywood Movies.

Apart from the above, one may question what training does the police recruit receive. How does the force ensure that patriarchal attitudes towards women are changed or that there is a strong push back against corruption? How does the police force instill values of public service and incorruptibility in their recruits? It would be interesting to see what a a professional analysis of HR and Training practices followed by our Police force would throw up. Another aspect is the traditional Indian attitude of not wanting to get involved mentioned earlier. Policemen also do not want to get involved in 'trouble'. If he is unfortunate enough to get involved with a serious case of rape or murder he is scared of running afoul of powerful political or criminal interests. Ultimately he is not very different from the society that shapes him.

All these factors add up to a policeman who is not unlike the society in which he lives. He shares the patriarchal attitudes towards women, easy acceptance of corruption and a desire to stay uninvolved with any contentious issues. Not a very potent force for social reform or crime control!

What can be done? As always there are no easy answers. Societal change is obviously the basic pillar of any real improvement. But that is slow and uncertain and the factors influencing change are not strongly embedded in our country today. So what remains is; One, inspiring leadership. A lot can be achieved by dynamic and motivated police officers at the senior level. Delhi still remembers 'Crane' Bedi who was responsible for clearing the streets of badly parked cars and other traffic offenders. One wishes that there were many more like her. The second doable improvement is summary punishment for wrong doing. In the private sector, a dishonest salesman was dismissed if found guilty. There was no redressal. I realise that the Government cannot act as arbitrarily as that but there is a strong need for swift and punitive punishment for corrupt and inefficient policemen.

India needs to regain its faith in both law makers and enforcers. It is time that Government and Civic Society moved strongly and decisively to redress the anomalies that have crept in.

Rape

Rape is a heinous crime. Everyone thinks so. Right? Obviously not if you consider how many such crimes occur in our society. So what are the reasons why it happens? There are two basic reasons, attitude towards women and lack of enforcement.

Male attitudes towards women in India are too well documented to reiterate here. Suffice it to say that all the rubbish about "Ma, Behen ya Beti" and worship of Durga, Kali or any of the other goddesses is just a facade that covers the awful reality of what we really feel about them. The main attitude is of dominance. Women are by definition subservient in Indian society. Their role from childhood onwards is to serve men. The saga of female foeticide to infanticide to dowry to bride burning is an awful indictment of all that is wrong and hypocritical in Indian society. Sati was banned many years ago by the British but every once in a while rumours and actual incidents still show up. Reverence of "Sati Mata" hides primitive attitudes behind the act of worship. The worst offenders are the burgeoning Indian under class in our urban slums. Behind the glittering facade of emerging metropolitan areas like Gurgaon and NOIDA there is a stinking cess pit of illegal and violent dreams fed by increasing money and easy access to Alcohol and Drugs. Delhi has many such urban villages imbeded in its cityscape. This is not to imply that these areas are the only source of sexual violence. The essential thought process of dominance prevails equally strongly in middle class India too. In addition to the this, there are two other facilitators. One, the attitude towards crime and corruption. In the old days middle class families would not entertain a tax evader or a criminal of any sort in their homes. This attitude has been considerably diluted nowadays and one does not really consider bribery or tax evasion as a crime any more. It is a symbolic of the slipping standards of public morality. Two, easy access to pornography and increasingly titillating cinema. Social depictions in Bollywood have undergone a seismic shift. From not depicting a kiss it has leapfrogged into the modern era where a "one night stand" is par for the course. In reality, society has not moved that far and many gullible viewers begin to imagine that all women are open to their advances and inflamed imagination.

Lack of enforcement is endemic in India. From trivial offences like jumping a red light or driving on the wrong side of a one way street to other more serious offences, Indians believe they can get away with anything. It took us four years to hang Ajmal Kasab and a more deadly example of a criminal, terrorist act is hard to find. Politicians, Power Brokers and Mafia Dons routinely get away with murder and worse. At worst there could be a brief period of jail after a protracted legal process after which they are usually freed to enjoy their ill gotten gains. In some cases the jail terms are alleviated by frequent paroles where the convicted criminal is allowed to "look after his ailing mother" or some such nonsense. What are the reasons for this attitude? Let us dismiss one often touted one straight away. There is an argument that our laws are not stringent enough. That is simply not true. We have laws in plenty if only they could be implemented strongly enough. The real reasons lie elsewhere. Firstly, the foregoing paragraphs talked about slipping standards of morality and ethics. This is equally true for work ethics in India. A civil servant sees himself as the recipient of a government pension for life. He has priviliges without responsibility. Power without accountability. What could be better than that! Politicians embody the extreme end of the spectrum. If you have been elected once all you need to do hold on to your chair while you press the button of the public ATM to fill your pockets. Obviously this venal approach precludes public servants from doing anything more constructive than filling their own pockets. Secondly, the dimensioning of our law enforcement agencies is just not big enough as indeed is the case of the courts. Our cities, towns and economy have grown far faster than the institutions that are meant to uphold them. Civic infrastructure is a similar example. What restricts us from expanding the Police and Paramilitary? Budgetary constraints are one thing but what is more important to realise is that taxes are being eaten up by unproductive subsidies. There is simply no money left to improve policing and preserve security. We have abdicated the will to govern in favour of short term gains of a selfish nature.

We cannot claim to find solutions for these endemic problems in a simple blog like this. Perhaps all of us need to introspect on what is wrong with us so that effective solutions can emerge. We are not a world power yet and perhaps we will never be one. Certainly we can never hope to progress and hold our heads high if we treat our women the way we do,

 

Roads

Winding roads, highways, potholes, dirt tracks. India has them all. A few years ago the best 'highway' was only 2 lanes with no dividers in between. It was OK in the 80s when I started working. A drive to Jaipur or Chandigarh from Delhi would take 5 hours in a panting Ambassador car without airconditioning. The roads were tolerable with very little traffic. It all started changing after that. Many thousands of cars and trucks later the Jaipur highway had become a menace. Once when coming back we just had to stop at a Dhaba as we were literally sandwiched between smoke belching, rumbling monsters. In the one hour we sat at the Dhaba disconsolately we must have counted a thousand trucks roaring by. Finally, we summoned up the courage to start again and limped into Delhi hours later. All this changed when the Jaipur highway got 4 laned. Then for a brief blissful period you could get to the pink city in 3 1/2 hours. But it was not to last, Manesar happened and Bhiwadi and the traffic grew and grew until it was back to a 5 hour ride and growing.

Anyway this is not a lament or history of India's road network but a paean of praise for India's most fabulous road - The Yamuna Expressway. Mayawati may have been overfond of handbags and their contents but she has gifted UP something to be proud about. Last Sunday we drove to Agra from Gurgaon and came back the same day. The roads are immaculate all the way. The Expressway is a ribbon of perfection against the background of emerald green fields and menacing storm clouds. Traffic moves like lightning and we actually made the return trip all the way from Agra to Gurgaon in just 2 1/2 hours. Akbar would have been truly amazed!

Development does come at a price and it is a bit of a shame to think of all the fertile land that has got swallowed up for making the road. But something has to be sacrificed for improvements and I guess it's a small price to pay!

I heard that the Ganga Expressway from Agra to Gorakhpur has been sanctioned and work will start soon. Can't wait!

Systems

One of the things that always strikes me when I travel abroad is how systematic and process driven everything is. The frustrating side of it is when you try to ask someone to bend the rules even a trifle, you are usually greeted with an incomprehending shrug almost implying that you are from Mars or something equally outlandish! Maybe you have wondered (as I have) about who makes these systems. Surely they are smarter and more flexible than the sheep who follow them! Asimov wrote a wonderful story on this theme called 'Education' where the idea was that a truly creative person WILL create. At the expense of great personal difficulty and even social ostracism. And then he will be the REAL leader. The one who creates systems, not follows them. Many years ago I wrote a poem about a similar thought. My memory fails me as to the exact words but it went something like this:
The leaves fall down,
Slowly floating down to the ground.
If two thousand two hundred and twenty two
Could sacrifice themselves
Could one alone be different?
This difference, this inner vision, this innate conviction. That is what makes for true leadership!

Anna Hazare

What is this phenomenon called Anna Hazare? Why does his 'movement' attract so many people? What will be the possible outcome of this struggle?
First and foremost. People are sick of corruption. They are sick of misgovernance. They are sick of politicians, policemen and other aspects of the 'State' that governs us. And they do not know what to do about it.
Who is Anna Hazare? He evokes the symbolism of the Mahatma by the way he dresses. His poor diction makes him endearing and his age makes him an object of respect. His followers - Kejriwal, Bhushan and Bedi are shrewd tacticians who have succesfully used Anna's image for driving towards their own objectives.
Indians love democracy but they hate politicians. In other words, many of us feel that the 'Structure' of democratic institutions - parliamentary democracy, judicial institutions etc do not work. It's not that we want a dictatorship. We want a catharsis, a cleansing of the body politic. A reform of the way that Democracy works in India.
Anna offers hope for that. Corruption is an emotionally charged issue with which Anna and his team seeks to drive a stake through the heart of the corrupt edifice that democracy has become in India.
Make no mistake. Anna and his team have a larger agenda - Reform of India's moribund democratic institutions is what they are driving at. Corruption is only the first of the issues that will come up in the succeeding months.

Tigers

I had really not experienced India's wildlife or for that matter, any wildlife till late in life. It was only after a visit to Corbett with my cousin a few years ago that the first stirrings of interest began. This month we went down to Ranthambhore and what an experience that was! We went out for 3 rides to the National Park. The first two were relatively uneventful in as much that we did not see a tiger. But the park is beautiful and full of animals - we saw many deer, Sambhar, Chital and Nilgai. Langurs, Wild Boar and even a water snake. There were innumerable birds, including the friendly Indian Tree Pie, but no tigers.

The last ride was in the afternoon. After almost two hours we were on the way back when suddenly the jeep in front stopped and the tracker pointed out a Leopard in the distance. We could barely see it but it was better than nothing and we started off again. Hardly a few minutes later, the tracker in our jeep heard an alarm cry from the monkeys in the trees. He stopped and there she was! A young tigress, beautifully marked about 200 feet away. There was pandemonium then. 3 Jeeps and a Canter full of people tried to get closer and to track her as she moved. She was regal - totally unconcerned about the human hubub around her, unafraid of the jeeps and the people who were mesmerised by her regal walk. At one point she was just 6 feet away from the jeep on the side where I was sitting. Her eyes were like beige, glowing opals. She walked nonchalantly around, drank water from a stream all in full view of the human horde just feet away from us and finally bounded into the jungle.

The spell was broken but I realised that this was a new enchantment. This magic will not be broken for a lifetime.

Sri Lanka

We spent 7 years in Colombo. From our very first visit we fell in love with the country. It's like what India could or should have been. Quiet, fun loving, civilised people. And what a beautiful country. In such a small place there is so much diversity. There are spendid, uncrowded beaches all around the Island that soothe your soul with the gentle sound of the sea. The sun rises in Trinco and sets in Bentota while the fisherman stand on stilts to bring in their glistening catch in Matara. Then there is the Hill Country. Acres of rolling hills with manicured tea bushes. A gentle rolling mist comes in in the evening and cools the countryside. In the distance you can see gleaming waterfalls with names like St. Clair and Devon. The Hotels in the area match the ambience. Old world 'Grand' Hotels with a long bar and billiards with a fire place where you sip the first drink of the evening. Then there is the 'dry zone' where it does not rain quite as much as the rest of the island. The cuckoo sings in the evening and the leaves of the 'kohomba' trees rustle in the twilight. There is a gentle breeze and the sun breaks over the Kandalama lake. We climbed upti Ritigala with the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery on the slopes of the mountain. There is an even older legend of Hanuman there which still draws credulous tourists from India. There are elephants all around - wild ones who cross the roads at twilight secure in the belief that they are protected by the gentle islanders.

Truly a paradise on earth.