Our Men in white... A letter from the other side -Pratyush Parashar Das

Kolkata, the city of Joy, seems to be passing through a phase of depression. It has been beset with one problem after another, with no apparently no respite in sight.

Take the recent agitation by the medical community to protest the violence meted out to them a week ago, an agitation which had brought our state to its knees, with many people clamoring for medical support, but getting or receiving none.

Thankfully, the stalemate ended about 3 days ago, with the doctors and the other assorted medical staff resuming their normal duties.

Barely had our city heaved a sigh of relief, when it was plagued by yet another problem, a problem far removed from the hospitals and hospices of the medical machinery.

It was about a cab-driver getting attacked by a bunch of unruly bikers, who had taken to terrorizing vehicles and cans on that route. Luckily, for the cab driver, he had model Ushoshi Sengupta as his passenger, for it was she who had recorded the whole incident on her mobile phone and reported the matter to the police, who had allegedly initially refused to file the complaint.

This incident was deeply traumatic for her as it was late in the night when she was returning from her work, at around 12.10 am. Indeed, it raised questions about the lack of women safety late at night, particularly at some of the major traffic intersections and crossings.

She took to social media the next day to talk about this incident and raised the necessary questions.

Even this matter was being gradually swept under the mat, when the city had yet another problem, which was all about bikers and their Tom Cruise-inspired deeds, a problem which I have spoken about before, and a problem, that seems to be a particularly rampant and recurring evil.

Now, all of you might be wondering about the common link joining all these incidents, right?

Well, it’s a pretty simple answer: the cops.

Yes, our cops were and are the common link of these three apparently unrelated incidents.

After all, as the famous saying goes, “When elephants fight, the grass suffers”.

Be it the agitation at NRS, the attack on model Ushoshi’s cab or be it the helmet-less F1 racers, it is our cops who have had to take care of it all, not to mention, only in passing, the recent and ongoing violence at Bhatpara.

For us civilians, it is very easy to blame the cops for everything that goes wrong. We read our newspapers, and then pass snide comments about the lack of law and order in the state, without even sparing a single thought for the people who actually take care of the law and order in the state.

The cops have so much on their plate at any given time that it is nearly impossible to man every single situation that pops up, some of which we fuel.  

Post-the NRS agitation, the measures which the cops promised to take were setting up a helpline for doctors with a panic button, restricting the number of patients to two in the emergency wards, increasing the number of police personnel stationed in and around the hospital campuses etc and so on.

For the cab driver problem, they promised to man more of the checkpoints at night, increase police personnel, increase CCTV footage, install motion sensor cameras for detecting wrongful or unlawful activities.

For the biker problem, they promised to take the same measures as for the cab problem, along with seizing the bikes of the errant riders and checking for the rightful documents.

Now tell me something, my dear readers, is this simply possible to really do so much and manage to stop the flow of everything that ha been going on? I mean, the cops are, at the end of the day, human beings too, right?

And yet, we blame them for almost everything that goes wrong, and then expect them to fix all of them, with the snap of a finger.

What I am going to mention is a fictitious letter written by a cop, who was unable to take leave to go visit his family back home.

Such is the tragic situation that prevails. Indeed, these cops give up everything, their family, their time, and sometimes, their lives in pursuit of law and order, and in the end, what do they end up receiving for their untiring efforts?

Do they perhaps receive a pat on the back, with accolades being heaped on them? No! Instead, they are criticized and blamed, sometimes, very unfairly, even when they are not at fault.

It is therefore my sincere request to all my fellow citizens, to support them, for it because of them, that we are able to pursue at least some semblance of normality in our day-to-day lives.

Jai Hind!