The great indian saga of bomb threats...Policing truths!!!

9 blasts in bangalore, the IT hub of India...17 blasts in Ahmedabaad, the second Mumbai of India....30 live bombs discovered in Surat, again a business hub in the west. Whatever be the plan, it was very simple but extremly well executed. Targeted to implant terror in a common man, is what it did and is what it was supposed to do. Media talked about it, politicians talked about it and we, the common man talked about it. News kept on flashing....All metros on high alert. People beware!!! We kept the track for few days and then we moved on, as we always do.

Had this been the only scenario, it would have been good. But the aftermaths were about to follow. The so called saviours of Law, The Great Indian Police, came into action. Patroling jeeps kept roaming, some also parked at busy signals to make sure that nothing suspicious happens in the area.

I live in saltlake, one of the posh areas in the motroplitan kolkata (if u consider kolkata ro be a metro). Saltlake was one of the locations in kolkata which always remained vulnerable to any bomb threat,not because the place is crowded but because sector 5, the IT hub of kolkata, is here. So it was very obvious in such situation that the Police strength would go up. Police wallahs from all corners of kolkata were poured into Saltlake, to avoid any bomb blast occurances. was this their real motive? was this they always wished to do?

The answer is NO. Once this blast issue lost the real heat out of it, they started doint what they really came for, what they really were looking for. The loot. Parked at all major signals, they started stoping all passing vehicles , generally after 10 in night. Checking them to find nothing, asking for papers, checking papers to approve your validity and then finding any stupid possible reason to threat you to that they could fine you for this. This kind of a situation is very risky for a typical IT guy like me because we generally arlook like baskets of dollars to them.

I adore Bangalore Police for one reason, they have setup a standard in this practise of terrorising common man and sqeezing money out of em. They would stop you and as a token, would ask you for papers. If you are in hurry just drop a 100INR note and leave. But certainly kolkata police have got to do a lot of work towards setting up such standards. On bad days, you will be stopped by them which will be followed by a long non ending personal interview.Once you come to know that they are not going to let you back free, you start negotiations. It generally starts with a whooping prices that might dare to match some of the M F Hussin's arts and ends up being a typical cheap fashion market shopping. But mind it, you need to be a very mean bargainer to them or else you will lost out a lot of your hard earned money. A word of caution: when you are negoating, do not see him as a Policeman and you as a simple vehicle owner, but see yourself as a customer who is about to buy a service which you never asked for,trust me you would stand better chances.

Police reforms have been a favourite topic for all the high end officials at GOI. They always demand for more power in the hands of Police for better law and Order enforcement. But they are so terrorising with the little that they have now in their hands, can we trust the devil to be noble after giving more powers.......