By Gurbhajan Singh Gill
We old timers remember that Punjab Police was famous for discipline, hard work, detection and investigation. They believed in duty and were never hungry of publicity as they are today. There were some police ethics, all cases were properly and honestly investigated and the accused were prosecuted. What was appreciated was skill to collect evidence and not the fabrication of it, like these days. Under the British rgime, some sort of law prevailed over the human enthusiasm to implicate people on false grounds. Even during the early years of Indian rule, some semblance of law was observed because of the officers who were trained during the Raj.
AAs the time passed, the new “democratic”, “socialistic” and “corrupt” politicians began interfering info the police work. The sycophants started playing havoc with the law and corruption became the order of the day. Recruitment, postings and promotion ‘were let on sale. Efficiency, character, integrity and humaneness fell victim. A race amongst the sycophant and corrupt officers started to win prize posts and in return, they sacrificed the integrity, honor and independence of this most noble force. Politeness and firmness gave way to abusive language and ruthlessness.
The rulers wanted to teach Sikhs a lesson for their uncalled for opposition to the Emergency declared by the most ruthless of dynasty conscious Prime Minister. The rulers created such a situation, wherein the Sikhs in Punjab were compelled to start a nonviolent agitation. The police became a willing tool in the hands of the rulers and made all Amritdhari Sikhs, their target. Some sycophant foolish officers started Killing Sikh youths and desecrated their holy places. The youth got agitated and started punishing the agents provocateus and police touts.
Instead of investigating the murder cases as per law some inefficient more vain enthusiastic and narrow sighted police officers resorted to kill in “encounters”, the suspect without collecting any evidence. Such actions were appreciated by the rulers and their sycophants, Other officers started the same game. The “boys” had no chance to survive, so they, too, got militant and took up arms against police informers. The rulers, through their agents, threw animal carcasses near the places to for worship of other community, to arouse: ‘communal feelings and hatred between the Sikhs and the Hindus, The police, without trying to trace out the origin, knowingly, started harassing the Sikh youth who retaliated, resulting in State terrorism versus individual retaliation, The latter is always the result of the former. We do not remember a single “fake encounter” during the British regime, even when the extremists and dacoits were busy committing murders aplenty.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 4, 1987
