Law maker & law breaker
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 13 2015 -

The beating to pulp of a police officer whose father was also a high ranking police officer the other night in presence of helpless policemen following an altercation over giving way to the convoy of State Assembly Speaker is a spine chilling scene quite akin to a sequence straight from a Hollywood blockbuster like God Father.

Most painful and shocking part of the real life drama was that the entire sequence of the incident was dramatised in the presence of the Speaker who is the leader of the law making body in Manipur.

Whatever may be the trumped up charges, the brutal attack of the police officer in front of his wife and child is uncalled for.

All the 59 MLAs and the people are entitled to a convincing and democratically acceptable explanation from the custodian of the Manipur Assembly why he did not restrain the unruly personnel who were his body guards.

Even if the police officer had transgressed law and decency which is very unlikely since his wife and child were inside a vehicle, he should have been handed over to the policemen deployed nearby for due process of law.

But it is inexplicable that the policemen who tried to intervene were threatened and shooed away and the body guards continued the merciless torture using rifle butts, batons and fists.

The convoy blocked the police officer's jeep from three sides, denting, damaging it; the spare tyre was unfastened, thrown away under the impact.

Police swung into action against the policeman who attacked a woman scooterist in Delhi with a brick for her refusal to pay up.

But in Manipur's case no actions have been initiated on the basis of the written complaint filed by the police officer who is recuperating in a private hospital.

If a police officer can be beaten up so mercilessly following a minor traffic related issue and no actions taken up, the fate of the ordinary mortals who have to travel the roads amidst the high speed VIP cavalcades is best left to imagination.

The speaker had failed to keep up the law the Manipur Assembly had made of which he is the custodian.

In a democracy, an elected member resigns owning moral responsibility for such misdeeds.

The coming days will show whether there is democracy in Manipur and the speaker respects the law the Assembly had made.

Meanwhile, follow up actions from the police officer will be interesting to watch.

If he capitulates to the inexorable political pressures and honey-trap inducements, his child and wife who were witness to the terror will have a life-long memory and some unanswered questions.

All elected members and citizens ought to see to it that there is democracy in Manipur.