Our Police or Our Disgrace
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 29 2013 -

The incident of snatching the camera for taking photographs of an electric transporter in Khwairamband Bazaar and detaining a staff reporter of Hueiyen Lanpao daily by a police constable of City Police has once again shown the true nature and attitude of the police personnel in Manipur, who have come to live under the impression that they could get away with anything.

Many of our esteemed readers have been requesting (or rather demanding) us to reveal the name of the police constable and other personnel involved in the incident to send out a strong message to all those who consider themselves as kings, once they are in uniformed service.

However, for the reason that we had cited in the report and for nothing else, we have kept the name withheld in the hope that the leniency shown should be a lesson for life to him and his other fellowmen in uniform.

In fact, more than the audacity of throwing his weight around, what really surprise us was the ingenuity of the police constable in conjuring up a non-existent order supposedly issued by the Superintendent of Police prohibiting taking photograph in any part of Imphal city to threaten the staff reporter.

Perhaps, the police constable may not know at first that he was dealing with a journalist on duty in the field and thought of extracting some money.

That could be the precise reason why he demanded to know whether the reporter had the permission of the SP for taking photographs in the city.

On knowing that the reporter was a hard nut to be cracked and his hope for some quick bucks to fill his private pocket for the day slowly diminished, the police constable dragged the reporter to the City Police Station where the rest of the police personnel are hand-in-glove with him in the game of deceiving unsuspected public.

In such a situation surrounded by a pack of unscrupulous police personnel, any innocent person could have become the unwitting victim of 'police extortion', a term which is increasingly gaining popularity among the people of the State on account of continuous failure by the higher authorities of the Police Department to do proper screening and verification at the time of recruitment.

How the untrained and unqualified candidates who, nevertheless, have 'connections' and 'resources' to buy the post are being recruited in the State Police Department is an open secret known to all.

This system of 'mutual concession' at the time of recruitment to any post, not just in the State Police Department but also in other Government departments, has become so ingrained in the minds of the people that one common discussion among the intending candidates is not about the topics or subjects to be prepared to face the recruitment but about the price to be paid to get selected.

Merit or qualification is something that one can conveniently keep aside for selection in recruitment in Manipur today.

So, what could we expect from a police constable, who probably got landed into the job not on the basis of his merit or qualification?

Yet, we can't help but to admit the ingenuity of the police constable in using his brain to extort money from innocent public with threat and coercion. An order prohibiting taking photographs in Imphal city!!

Who would have thought of it? Not even the SP himself, we suppose.