Why police brutality chokes prosperity

No distinguished social scientist could have brought out the essence of what is wrong in the relationship between the state and the citizenry in this country as clearly as an Uttar Pradesh cop did this Thursday.

Television grabs showed him lunge towards an old woman, hold his baton to her neck and push so hard as to fling her to the ground. She was protesting the horrific rape and murder of a six-year-old girl.

This is the daily reality of millions of Indians who are treated by arms of the state not as citizens but as subjects to be subjugated and brutally trampled upon. This is just not acceptable and must change, across the land.

The perpetrators in this case must be sacked without a moment’s hesitation. The perennial administrative shortcut of suspending culprits pending enquiry does little more than to deflect public scrutiny and buy time.

The message should be clear: those who do not respect the dignity of citizens have no place in policing. But for the police to change its culture, the political leadership must lead the way.

It must stop treating itself as a privileged elite with the licence to prey on the people. They must reappraise and reprise their role as the people’s representatives, not their masters.

Failure of 65 years of democracy sent that old woman flying at the hands of someone she, as a citizen, pays for to provide security for her own self, as also for six-year-old girls liable to be picked up, raped and dumped with impunity. Sustainable prosperity cannot be built on the basis of oppression of the majority.

Hugely unequal distribution of social power is inimical to innovation and entrepreneurship and to broad-based, inclusive growth, apart from being a source of misery, resentment, civil strife and crime.