Julian and the cops
One of the reasons why I am disinclined to purchase a property here is because of a general lack of transparent responsibility taken by the authorities. The local newspapers are full of what one local government minister is claiming and what another is denying. Unfortunately, the truth is that nothing is really getting achieved except that those in positions of power are getting richer from the dispersal of lucrative commercial contracts. This cannot be done without the tacit approval and support of the police. Tacit support however, could be interpruted as lack of inclination or independence but I doubt it. Compare the present UK situation with PM Blair and his second interview by the police for the ‘cash for honours’ investigation. I very much doubt that the police here and the associated investigative bodies have the rigour of the UK system. It is after all the local government who pull all the financial purse strings for police funding so it is understandable that the police are not willing to unearth financial irregularities with their paymasters. However, the police are corrupt and worse still they are inept and hide their misdemeanours in tiers of bureacracy and mindless paperwork.
We have patrolling our beach uniformed armed police who carry rifles and other semi automatic weapons. Their role is supposed to be an anti terrorist role, to deter or ‘god forbid’ detect any terrorist activity. These ‘brown caps’ as the local beach sellers call them do not seem to serve any purpose other than being a visible presence. Taking bribes from itinerant hawkers I am sure, is not in their job description but I am afraid that seems to be their main preoccupation. But worse still a couple of them have shown a complete dereliction of duty.
A week or so ago there was rather an odd individual on the beach who had a very upper class English accent, who claimed to be Canadian but was in fact Indian and called himself Julian, not his real name as I found out later that he registered in his accomodation as Rajan David. He ingratiated himself with several other tourists but particularly with two American male tourists, who I would guess were an item. All afternoon he was drinking with them and using their camera to take cute close-up snapshots of his new companions. Later his behaviour became more bizarre when he started to chase stray dogs for more pictures. In the late afternoon when the ‘brown caps’ were allegedly patrolling the beach he asked the cops if he could have his photo taken with them. They agreed and one of the cops gave him his semi-automatic weapon to pose with. This was a total dereliction of duty and just crass stupidity. Can you imagine a UK security police officer surrendering his weapon to have a picture taken, it is just unimaginable. The man could have actually been a terrorist, he could have been a schzophrenic, he looked a bit of a madman and he certainly was drunk. His strange behaviour was noticed and commented on by several other bystanders.
It later transpired that the man was a con-man, a common criminal. He had built up a large bill over a week at one of the beach shacks without settling his bill and had run off from a guest house owing over 4000/-. The local Goan people have this photo of the man but unfortunately it also shows the hapless cop who surrendered his weapon. The locals feel that it would not be wise to go to the local police. They know that the reprucussions from the police would not be in their favour, the negative fallout from the suspension of the errant police officer and the general defensive nature of the police’s pschye would all be detrimental to their own business activity. For example, there would be many trips to the police staion to answer questions and fill in paperwork. In other words, they feel that they would get penalised for bringing to the police attention a picture of a known felon and a cop who was not carrying out his role correctly. The wrong doers will go free and the victims will be persecuted.
This small but relevant example (which is typical across India) of the lack of civil responsibilty and trust highlights how far India has to travel before it can be truly recognised as a world player. If the democratic foundations of a civil society such as the rights of victims, fair play and trust in the police and the authorities cannot be maintained then the country will be seen as a fake giant. A giant with no backbone. India now has nuclear weapons but can we trust a country which allows ministers and police to be corrupt?
The Western world mainly has little knowledge of how India works. Most westerners who have never visited India have half-baked mixed up images of mysticism, beauty and poverty. The country is all of that and a lot more, however, many like me would abhor and be dismayed at how endemic corruption and the lack of will to combat it is.
