NIGHTMARE OF ODISHA

Odisha is the land of  Bhagwan Jagannath and Sun temple of Konark, we are also reminded of the famous battle of Kalinga which transformed Ashoka the Great. It is the state of Biju Patnaik who was a national hero of not only India but also Indonesia, Odishi dance form, the birthplace of rashogulla (contested by the Bengalis though) and of course unparalleled nature's bounty. Chilka the largest brackish water lake in India, its coast the breeding ground for turtles and Chandipur range where India has been testing its technological prowess from time to time. Yes it was also the state of Kalahandi where India faced the ignominy of starvation  deaths and the infamous burning down of Christian Missionary Graham Staines with his two sons. But by and large Odiya people are peace loving and God fearing, that is what I had also gathered when I visited Puri, Bubaneshwar, Konark, Gopalpur etc and generally carried that impression until the day when the news of police brutality of a lady and her fiancee broke out. To make matters worse, the fiancee was a serving Army officer and his fiancee was a retired Brigadier's daughter. 

We know that police has a reputation of being high headed, despite coming directly under the respective state,  in this context across the length and breadth of the nation there is a uniformity in approach and actions. It is a fact that FIRs are not recorded, instead the complainants are generally roughed up and discouraged from lodging a formal report. We also understand how the system functions, so the less the number of FIRs, better the state of law and order at least statistically, but actually that is a fallacy. Having known all these aspects and being aware of their past track record, the couple still felt, that they had a chance where the police would react to their complaint and address the issue. May be they felt the recent Kolkata incident would have some effect on the sister state and such acts of eve teasing and hooliganism would not be tolerated. Alas, even in their worst nightmare they would not have imagined the response which they received at the hands of men and women in uniform, though Khaki towards the Olive Greens. 

Without going into the gory details, which most of us are aware by now, I have been pondering over the reason for this outrageous behaviour by the police authorities. In the last couple of years the police high-headedness towards Armed Forces personnel has become more of a norm than an exception. Just the other day there was a report from Rajasthan where it required Col Rajyawardhan Rathore a cabinet minister in the state govt who had to give a piece of his mind to the erring officials who had the gall to tell the soldier that "Hum Police wale tum Army walon ke baap hain" or words to that effect. Irony of the situation cannot be lost on the reader that it is the Army who has come to the rescue of the states each time the law and order situation deteriorates and have to work in close cooperation in Jammu & Kashmir or the North East. The police forces are also headed by IPS officers which is an all India cadre of Group A sevices, the Armed Forces are also officered by Commissioned officers who enjoy a similar status in the hierarchy. We are aware that at the time of independence the Armed Forces enjoyed an exalted status vis a vis the Police Forces but over the years we have witnessed  quite a steep degradation. But the worst blow was the introduction of Non Functional Upgradation for the Group A and B services which was unjustly denied to the Armed Forces. Ever since then, despite a number of clarifications on the subject, all and sundry claim to be senior to the Army officers with equal number of years in service. That feeling has trickled down the cadres and has resulted in this disdain towards army personnel. Earlier it was a common sight for Army flag cars to be saluted by the police personnel deployed for traffic duties, but these days it is not so. 

Every organisation tries to protect its personnel, but when an incident of this nature occurs before trying to save their own, they must honestly ascertain the facts before resorting to the usual SOP in such matters. The fact that the Army Commander and General Officer Commanding of the Area HQ had to intervene is a testimony that things are obviously not normal. Army personnel have acted with phenomenal  restraint as they could have taken steps unilaterally as has happened on some occasions earlier. Oft quoted example is of erstwhile Chief Minister of Punjab Pratap Singh Kairon's son being taken to task by the local Commanding Officer when one of the ladies was targeted by the goons led by his son. General Thimayya's  response when questioned was that if the Army can't protect its women, then how were they expected to protect the nation. Times have changed, I think the authorities have reacted very responsibly and now it is upto the Police Forces to demonstrate that they too can follow the righteous path by giving exemplary punishment to the defaulters that too in a well defined time limit. Unless we set such precedences these incidents will only increase. I am hopeful sanity will prevail.