Thugs in uniform

I read this news item in today's Deccan Chronicle where a city-based agent was threatened first, and then beaten up by goons sent by the company selling bottled-water. The crime? The man reported the company to the concerned authorities for not adhering to the required quality standards.

The newspaper reports that the company also owns a textile showroom in T.Nagar. Ahem, that clue is a certain give away and am sure, people Chennai citizens have heard how this showroom has routinely been in the news for roughing up customers, employees and others.

The victim's wife and daughter tried registering a complaint with the local police station, but predictably they were not entertained and were asked to settle the matter "amicably".

This reminds me of something I witnessed several months ago. My friend had recently moved into a new office space in T.Nagar...they had seen an ad in the newspaper for the office space. After a few days a couple of men, presumably brokers, came to the office and demanded that they be paid a "finders-fee" for the house. It so happened, these men had shown my friend's assistant an office space a few weeks earlier in a different locality and that was the only interaction this organisation had had with these guys. But they now wanted to be paid for a deal they had nothing to do with!

It was obvious that they were politically connected and they repeatedly visited the office demanding money. One day, when I was visiting my friend, a cop came over and claimed that these men had "registered a complaint" that they were not paid for their services. Again, very quickly it was obvious that the cop was there just to intimidate my friend and his colleagues into coughing up the money.

When I casually told the cop that he should check with the landlord if he had engaged the services of these men, he started getting a little more aggressive. He then said, if the money was not paid, there could be "problems". When I asked him politely, what "problems" he anticipated and from whom, he stood up abruptly and after muttering something about me being stubborn, he left.

Unfortunately, the episode did not end there. I later heard that my friend, tired of being intimidated in this fashion, went straight to the local police station and tried registering a complaint. And surprise, surprise, guess what they were told?? Well, simply to pay up, of course, and forget the matter!!

When policemen do this instead of upholding the law, one can't help thinking that many of them are just thugs in uniform. I am sure there are honest policemen out there, but they seem to be increasingly in the minority! Of course, this is not surprising in state where the police are nothing but pawns in the hands of the ruling party...much more than most other states in this country.