Yesterday, a group of cops was on a training session. It isn’t about new weapons, strategy, fitness or even how to be polite and citizen friendly. They were seeking spiritual intervention. The reason is the recent cases where two senior inspectors have been caught in criminal/inappropriate acts. Arun Borude has gone underground after raping a 15-year-old girl; Baburao Gaikwad committed suicide after an extra-marital affair got messy.
Mumbai Mirror reports that Sakshi Ramkripalji of Sci-Divine Foundation was called in and the Additional Police Commissioner Ramrao Pawar said:
“Cops face constant stress and need such counselling sessions to tackle problems – both personal and professional – in a positive manner. We do not want more cases like Borude and Gaikwad to happen.”
Counselling is different from this spiritual stuff. 550 people attended, and it included the officers, constables and their families. The police force needs to have its own mechanism to deal with the professional problems. A spiritual lecture will not ensure pay hikes, better facilities, and more forces where required. It is sheer poppycock to believe that there won’t be more such cases. When was the last time you got to know about a spiritual guru/tantric who was not on some power trip himself or had control over his own instincts?
But the guruji managed to hold forth for an hour asking the men to control their carnal desires.
“These officers lead very stressful lives. They spend long hours, sometime days on end, away from their families. This makes them vulnerable.”
True, but so do people in other professions. There is no need to control their desires, but to unleash them in places where it is wanted and acceptable.
“Policemen need to be strong. They need to understand the importance of moral behaviour given the power that they yield.”
This is not about morality. They should understand that their job is to protect citizens. It is a responsibility. By making them seem vulnerable, the police force is shirking its role. When the havaldar takes a bribe, is it about stress? Or is it about making some extra money? When a high-profile case gets in the news, what makes a top-level officer hobnob with the socialite crowd?
And there is absolutely no need to go on and on about how these officers have brought shame upon the force. This is really obfuscating the issue. Officers are frustrated because of the attitude of their seniors or just the nature of their jobs. The police force must have strict penalties for those who commit crimes.
Clubbing the two cases mentioned is in itself wrong. While Borude’s is truly a crime of power, I am not sure about the extra-marital one. He did not force himself on the woman. So, had he not used a service revolver to kill himself would it have been any different?
The report went on to mention how women are always ready to fall for these men because of their power and their vulnerability. No one has bothered to talk about what happens when women come in to register cases, the questions they have to answer and sometimes the consequences where justice is delivered in the chowkies itself? How many ask questions about what happens to the juvenile suspects who are picked up and what happens before they land up at remand homes and sometimes even after in the course of the follow-up? What about their using the services of commercial sex workers for free to 'protect' them? How many want to know about why you only hear about the inspector level vulnerability and not about the creamy layer?
A spiritual guru won’t have the answers or will not give the answers. He needs to be called again to titillate the ‘essence within’.
FV, This kind of nonsense of inviting "Spiritual gurus" to assist the police force must stop. Policework has to be based on science and psychology of the criminal to be accurate and successful. If policemen are having psychological problems, then they need to be provided counseling by qualified psychiatrists, or an anonymous helpline meant only for police professionals.
ReplyDeleteI very closely aware of the Saibaba type gurus that are in excessive numbers in India today. These "gurus" basically run a commercial enterprise and gullible and naive people with a good heart actually provide their skills and services for these organizations, while these organizations themselves are in the business of making money and exploiting gullible individuals.
There ought to be a law against such types of "godmen" who are usually middlemen for arms dealers and politicians in garb. These "gurus" are not qualified individuals in any domain except the "spiritual domain" (I have not figured out what that means, because it is all about politics not spirituality after a certain point....like Baba Ramdev).
I only have to listen to Sri Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar for about 3 minutes before I go searching for some used slippers to slap myself in the face.....to remind myself that I could be abusing myself in worse ways than listening to the dork.
-Al
Policemen need a lot of psychological support because they see the worst and most depraved acts of one human against another, day in and day out...this can skew their perception of the world, since non-police citizens do not encounter such a reality.
ReplyDeleteThe psychological scars of the policemen cannot be treated with religious bullshit -- it needs a trained psychologist to help the policemen understand how to deal with their reality successfully.
Even this is not going to help until the politicians stop interfering with the functioning of the police force in order to protect the criminals who work for political parties of all shades. Right now, as soon as the cops get close to a criminal that does the dirty work of a political party, the top cop will be replaced with a corrupt and pliable individual to protect the criminal elements in society. There is a reason why hard-core criminals in India evade the law for years and years while still remaining in the public eye.
-Al
Some Guruji Quaketh: "Policeman needs to understand Moral Behaviour"
ReplyDeleteNo, Dear "Guru", policemen need to understand the local laws and regulations and the constitution to discharge their duties, not a bloody moral science lecture.
Our police and criminal laws are still from the British Raj and the laws themselves are archaic and irrelevant for India in the 21st century -- a fact that has apparently passed by all the so-called gurus and those from the police force who hire such gurus to provide "moral science" to police men....policemen can get all their morality from their temple/mosque/church in the private time if they want. This "moral science" approach is a complete waste of public resources and will not produce any positive results either. Moral science is mostly useless to handle such issues.
The policemen should get a crash course on how to implement enforcement of the law. A policeman is supposed to go down a list of laid out procedures while interacting with any citizen -- these procedures also typically provide legal facts to be used in prosecution if required.
For example, a policeman cannot just pull up anyone on the road and charge them with driving under the influence of Alcohol. The policeman has to approach the driver and look if there is "probable cause" to consider the citizen in violation of the law. "Erratic driving" and "alcohol in the breath" are considered evidence of "probable cause" in court, indicating that the citizen was not targeted by the police without a just cause. But this requires policemen to feel good about themselves and their jobs....are they happy with their lot in life? I doubt it.
The rot starts from the fact that for decades, Indian states have refused to reform the police force because that would remove all the bad influence on the police force. The criminals in politics have always resisted any change in policy that will stop them from undermining the justice system, and these criminals make our laws. What a lovely country.
-Al
FV, Not really on topic, but this news item makes me mad and sad.
ReplyDeleteThe Indian Nation does not respect the Indians that bring pride to the Nation -- India does not deserve to exist in one piece if this is what we have become.
This lady who made India proud in the Asiad with a gold medal was the "chief guest" in a function where she was completely ignored -- just rotten behaviour by the Indian public in UP.
http://tinyurl.com/2ed8h89
If national heroines are treated this way, is it any wonder that lesser mortals are abused by the system all the time?
-Al
Al:
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding to my views. I agree with you!
I don't know what is worse - political or religious interference. These days both work in tandem.
Re. the sportswoman, this is a story that is repeated so often. It is pathetic that the few who get feted are rarely achievers; they just make a lot of noise.