Following the twin killing case : Reserving the accolades
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 30 2011 -

The four cadres who surrendered to the police - Pix :: TSE

In 'normal circumstances' or 'normal places' an acknowledgement and even kudos would have been in line, but the mental conditioning, rendered by the circumstances down the years, is such that everything is taken with a pinch of salt.

And so it stands that even as Imphal East police has claimed, more or less, to have cracked the dastardly killing of the care taker of the PHED and his son by the KCP (Kesho Meitei), there has been no outpouring of congratulatory notes.

Psychologists or sociologists may be hard pressed to coin a term to aptly define such a mental makeup but it says something significant about the people, the Government and its agencies as well as the multi-layered ties and relationships between the public and all the entities that represent the State Government.

That four persons of the outfit have surrendered to Imphal East police, singing like the proverbial canary and spilling the beans about their involvement in the twin killings that numbed the sensibilities of the people, is now well known.

It is anybody's guess what approach or tactics the police employed to make them come with their tails between their legs, but it is nonetheless noteworthy.

The final say obviously rests with the Court, but a significant step seems to have been taken up. What however stands out significantly is the near total absence of any overt acknowledgement of the breakthrough claimed by the police. The scepticism runs deep. v Even as Imphal East police appear to have scored something significant, the State Government finds itself in an awkward situation in the face of the directive from the Election Commission of India to do away with the 'Look After SPs' in Imphal East, Churachandpur and Tamenglong, the order for which was issued on December 23 and 24.

Not exactly a rap on the knuckle but nevertheless a sort of a reminder that posting and transfer of police officers, especially at such a time when election is round the corner is not a trivial matter.

And trivialisation of the matter, it certainly appears to be, for it is hard to find any logical explanation behind the decision to come up with "Look After" system for an office as crucial as the top cop of a district and that too when election is within shaking hands distance.

In as much as bad times are meant for stock taking, good times too should be an opportunity for serious introspection.

It is not very often that one sees the State police move fast and get cracking after a case and the question therefore arises why there has been no overt public acknowledgement of the manner in which the police have got cracking after the twin murder case with four of the suspects believed to have been rounded up or made to surrender.

Right time to reflect on this point with all the seriousness it deserves. One right way to go about tackling this question would be to acknowledge that the scepticism that is visible all over the place did not come about overnight.

Such a mindset did not develop on its own accord, but there have been too many external factors responsible for giving birth to such a mentality.

When transfer and posting of police officials are increasingly seen as a game of favouritism, when police officials are shuffled and reshuffled like a pack of cards, when there are no consistent benchmarks to measure the performance of police personnel then merit would be the last thing on the mind of everyone.

The institutionalisation of not only corruption but arrogance and nurtured and protected by a political class, which is a breed apart, and we have the perfect formula to erode the people's confidence in the law enforcing machinery.

Complementing this is the all pervasive culture of the people where acknowledging a good work done simply does not exist in their understanding or consciousness.

In short a people who only know how to complain and fret and whine but staunchly refuse to see a positive point. This does not say anything healthy about the overall mental make up of the people or the land.

As noted earlier, the final say on the case of the twin killings rests with the Court and if the police are sure they have got their men, then their work towards cracking the case has just started, but it is nonetheless a significant start. In the meantime learning to appreciate will not harm anyone.