Police brutality in lockdown – Dharavi, Mumbai.
Dear CM saheb,
This is not going to last. The public is about to turn on the police. Uddhav Thackeray, CM saheb, please do something. I stay in Pune and so can only appeal to my Chief Minister who controls the police. They (the police) must be told to treat the citizens with courtesy and civility, if not with actual kindness and a presumption of innocence (which, in any other free, democratic nation, would have been considered par for the course).
If this kind of stupidity continues, someone, at some point, will turn on some policeman or policewoman. The police will retaliate, as they always do, with disproportionate force and increased brutality. That is just how our police have been, since the colonial days. Because it was built for repression in the cruellest and most brutal way possible. So, since all it has is a hammer, all problems look like nails to the policeman. This retaliation will, instead of calming the situation down, lead to something really horrible and once the radioactive rage, sorrow, and disappointment of the common citizen go critical, the chain reaction it will trigger will be out of anyone’s control.
You don’t need me to tell you that there are not enough policemen in the entire country to quell the population of even a single city like Pune if they decide simply to ignore the threats and become immune to the lathis. All the citizens have to do is to tell the policeman, ‘Kaay karaaychay te karaa saheb.’ Remember that the threat of violence works only until it is actually used. Then, there is no fear. And once the citizens lose the fear of the law (there never was any respect, to begin with, it was always only fear, for the past 200 years at the very least), no paramilitary force, no army, nobody can stop things from going sideways so fast that you’d be forgiven if you say that you’d take the Coronavirus over this any day.
Please do not let it reach the point of no return. You are someone who has surprised the entire liberal democratic population of the state by being this amazingly calm, mature, and methodical leader we need in this crisis. I must confess that I am more than impressed. You have been awesome till now. Please do not let the stupidity of a policeman, who knows nothing better than to swing his cane at weak people, spoil it for you, and for the people of Maharashtra.
I request you to restrain your police, ask them to treat citizens kindly and courteously, and be reasonable in their enforcement of what can only be called an unprecedented lockdown in a deeply troubled time in the world. How they behave with the ordinary Maharashtrian will determine how people will remember this time in your first (of many more, I hope) terms. You have the makings of a great leader. Do not let some semi-literate lathi wielding bully in a khaki uniform mess this up.
You are a good man, and are proving to be a surprisingly mature leader. I hope you listen to wise counsel, if not mine, at least from your senior officers who will know exactly what I am talking of. The people of Maharashtra have very high hopes from you. Do not let them down.
With the greatest of love and respect,
Kedar Gadgil
P.S: You can’t stop the virus. No one can. The lockdown will only delay it. This whole ‘Ikkis din’ thing is a PR stunt. Let it play out. Gently. Focus on the healthcare facilities in the state. Focus on the economy of this truly “Maha”rashtra. Focus on how you will take care of our guests who depend on our hospitality. Focus on putting pressure on Delhi to give you enough tools to deal with this. And tell your police to take it easy. They are not standing between the virus and us. If anything, they are the French Maginot line or the Chinese Great Wall of Coronavirus: It looks impressive until it doesn’t, which is the moment it makes first contact with the real enemy. You know more than I that Delhi wants optics. Give them optics. But remember that they are optics, and act accordingly.
