`There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself’ (Raymond Chandler, in The Long Goodbye)
Some storms don’t peter out easily. Such as the one triggered by the discovery of 20 loose gelatin sticks outside the Mumbai house of India’s richest man, Mr Mukesh Ambani. This storm has just started to spiral out of control, in the process threatening the reputation – and possibly the future- of Maharashtra Government, the carefully curated public persona of NCP supremo Mr Sharad Pawar and bringing to the fore the unholy nexus between unscrupulous politicians and trigger happy cops who go by the fashionable name of `encounter specialists’ in India’s commercial capital.
As Perry Mason, that enormously popular fictitious legal eagle created by Erle Stanley Gardner, would have remarked on the ongoing Mumbai drama, `the fat is in the fire now’. What is also noteworthy is that a number of retired IPS officers, including Maharashtra’s own celebrated cop Julio Riberio, have started turning the heat on the “unholy’’ police-politicians nexus. Former IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre who retired as the state DGP, as also a noted author and a man of upright reputation, Mr Vibhuti Narain Rai, also feels the same about the goings on.
CLEAN UP THE SYSTEM
Speaking with Indian Masterminds, Mr Rai says the time has come to cleanse the system and restore people’s faith in good governance. “No doubt, it will require lots of resources, planning and patience. But that’s the price we should be willing to pay if we want to set the things right. Anything less then this and we will be fooling ourselves’’ he said.
But more than anything else, it’s the activities of Mumbai’s disgraced cop and so-called `encounter specialist’ Sachin Waze which has invited the ire of the IPS lobby. Mr Rai feels that people like Waze are the monsters created by the noxious system where politicians and police officials scratch each others’ backs for mutual benefits. Waze’s arrest, and the susbequent turn of events which would have unnerved even the script writers of Ram Gopal Verma’s acclaimed Bollywood thrillers, has just let the genie out of the bottle.
When the system gets poisoned, nobody remains unaffected. Why, in such situations even the media starts resembling a thumb-sucking infant, trusting each and every smile thrown at it. As Mr Rai points out, if only Sachin Waze had not become drunk with over-confidence, and subsequently made a few costly slips, “he would still be treated like a cult figure by newspapers and television channels, his photo-ops regularly getting splashed all over the print and digital space.’’
Sachin Waze’s faltering, leading to just transferred Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s sensational allegations of corruption against the Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, unleashed a political storm which even a seasoned fire-fighter like Mr Sharad Pawar is finding quite hard to put down.
IT’S A TIP OF THE ICEBERG
According to Mr Rai, however, what has surfaced in Mumbai is just the tip of the iceberg. “And it’s a pity,’’ he says, “that we still do not have a completely law abiding police force in the country. On the contrary, we end up hero worshipping these encounter specialists, hiding their monstrous illegalities, even making films that glorify their so-called bravery.’’ The former DGP of Uttar Pradesh adds that in many cases these encounter specialists are not satisfied with with ill-gotten wealth. “They often become film producers and builders,’’ he says.
A hard-boiled criminal, at times donning a police uniform, is often characterised by a cold-bloodied mentality, points out Mr Rai. Giving a chilling example, from the days when he was a serving IPS officer, he recalled, “I once met such a criminal who had become a successful politician. I asked him how many people he had killed in his life time. He looked at me, gave a loud laugh and replied, `kaun yaad rakhta hai yeh sab kuch’ (who can remember all these things). It was that cold-bloodied laughter, devoid of any human feeling, which I remember to this day.’’
A cold-bloodied mentality, whether in criminals, cops or politicians, can lead to murder and much more. Maharashtra is just waking up to this reality.
