People Will Not Tolerate Another Emergency

KERALA appears to be going back to the days of Emergency. One compelled to reach this conclusion after observing the developments in the state in recent days. Scores of young men have been subjected to torture in police custody, just for being suspected of being involved in small, petty crimes. At the same time criminals are sowing havoc in the cities. And to blame for this is the UDF government that has let loose blade companies and muscle men. The recent massacre at Kanichukulangara should have been an eye opener to everyone concerned. The strife between the chitty barons led to the massacre and all the accused are still to be captured by the police. Not that the police cannot find, but because them, the ruling junta do not permit the police to take them into custody.

The Udaykumar incident at last opened up a pandara bose of police crimes before the public. The young man suspected in a petty case was caught. Then literally rolled to his death by the special squad of police. On investigation he was found to be not guilty. But by this time he was already dead and as a dead body cannot be charged in a petty case, he was marked as having died of illness. However, his mother and friend did not give up, and thus the story of a heinous crime within the walls of Fort Police Station in the state HQ came out.

Such incidents are being repeated elsewhere, the police took a suspect Biju of Meppayur, in the case of the theft of a motorcycle in a small, tiny hamlet in Kozhikode district. Biju was the only hope of a hapless family whose earning member, the father is still on his sickbed after falling from a coconut tree. The young man was subjected to a Garudan hanging, the modus operandi of which is inexplicable. It is said to enhance the criminal imagination of the assailant policemen.

The top brass in the police is only to willing to be accomplices to the crimes of their subordinates. Thus the incidents become all the more serious. The chief minister has graciously promised the people that third degree methods will not be used against the culprit policemen, but has not so far said anything against the police using third degree means to extract evidence from defenseless suspects. Thus it is neither the police nor the individual constable that stand responsible in these and similar incidents. It is the government which must stand in the dock.

It would not be out of place to quote here what P Sainath wrote in his article on the Gohana atrocities. He was quoting Chunni lal Jatav, a survivor of Khumer massacres in Rajasthan: “All the judges of the Supreme Court do not have the power of a single police constable. That constable makes or breaks us. The judges can’t rewrite the laws and have to listen to the learned lawyers on both sides. A constable here simply makes his own laws. He can do almost anything”.

This is a situation emerging after four-plus years of UDF rule in the state. The preceding LDF rule was never massed by such incidents as these. The police were then instructed that they were there to serve the people. The brass was cleansed of its impurities, to a very great extent. Its diligence was raised and morale upheld. Not one incident of lockup killing was reported during those days. Then came the UDF with all its flamboyant assertions of law and order, with results that are only too well known. Many communal riots were added by scores of lockup killings and manhunt. Men go missing and rape has become a daily occurrence.  Kaviyur and Kilirur are now merely rhythmic usages to the public relation authorities of the state. But for the people these incidents are a grim reminder of the terrible occurrences like the Kilinoor sex scandal in which girls below the age of seventeen were mass raped, even by the well known political and screen luminaries as well as bureaucrats.

But the days when all this could be hidden are over. The curtain has been raised, and the government stands in the dock. The chief minister knows very well that “all the scents of Arabia” will not be able to wash the hands of his guilt. And the government seems to be in fright and consternation. They fear the people’s wrath after they have given expression this in no uncertain terms, in the several elections, the last being the local body elections. The UDF has lost in 115 out of 140 constituencies Legislative Assembly, more than 75 per cent of the local bodies are now ruled by the LDF, all Municipal Corporations are in the hands of the LDF, the LDF and partners rule 12 out of 14 Zilla Panchayat. So the UDF has nothing to fear from the people, who have decided what to do when the assembly elections come probably in May 2006.

(C P Aboobacker)