For those with the simplistic understanding of Government, there are only two ways that responses can swing to the many cases of police beating that has/has been happening in India under lockdown: I don't know what to do but this is ridiculous or the police know what they're doing so the person must have done something wrong. For those with more nuanced understanding, it will be: The police have a stressful job handling the lockdown, a part of which is a small percentage of error or this is wrong and the result of the lack of sensitisation. For those with a heart, it will be: this is wrong and this must stop.
Ever since India has been under lockdown till April 13th, the police have been given unusual superpowers to maintain law and order. This, itself, isn't unusual. What is, though, is the eagerness they are ready to use the stick with, when people are moving about within rules of curfew and when they aren't. All states have allowed shops selling essentials to remain open , among other establishments, and individual people to get their food stock from these shops. Yet, cops have been stopping people from ensuring they don't starve at home and make sure they send them home with a beating.
There was a man who had stepped out to get milk and who was killed. Two medical personnel in Telengana and Noida were stopped and harassed. One man was shot in Karnataka after he retaliated. There are videos of the cops kicking them first. More and more videos surface everyday of violence that on-duty cops choose as their method. The Goa authorities have asked for action on people who move out of the house to buy essentials while ensuring there isn't enough stock. Some of these have been addressed, while some have not and the new ones continue to take place.
There could be multiple reasons for this behavior. One is that they don't know what to do and they have been given clear instructions to prevent something, as instructed by their higher ups, so they desperately embody those instructions and draw no lines when handling violations. What we do know for sure is that cops are the robots of State machinery. They don't speak their own mind, or exercise any such freedom. They simply follow orders, any orders that their higher up gives, with no empathy even if they feel it or it is natural to.
It could be a deep instinct to be the State machinery they are supposed to be, and nothing else. Unlike politicians, they don't have an agenda. They only serve to keep society at the legal status quo of the day, and enforce it. Any protest against them should be directed at their bosses - the politicians in power. Given the present scenario, however, using lathi power to keep status quo does not help.
The goal, now, is to keep COVID-19 away and they seem to be taking a very parent-child attitude with it, along with their lathis. The problem there is that we - law keepers (police) and its beneficiaries (citizens) - are all equals and must be treated so, to begin with. Discipline by the rod is the opposite of people being equals. Power/hierarchical relationships between equals are dealt using the principle of consequence. What you do is let them suffer the natural consequence (which means taking them to jail, marking them for self-quarantine or something similar). Yes, there are many adults who display juvenile intelligence for their age, even in a COVID free world.
There is a burden of people screwing up by not staying in and that effecting the end result of a COVID-19 free country (which is anyway the one we want to be thankful for). Their folly will become the nation's folly and the Government's burden. And if the Government insists on taking parental control over people with this premise, it only worsens this burden.
When dealing with unruly children, parents have the choice of working towards the goals of either changed behavior or a changed child (who will give them changed behavior). With the first one, you miss out on the other. That is also the Government's/long arm of the law's dilemma. They can either achieve the status quo that they want and leave a very confused people, or build people to whom the message is clear and understood (and who will also comply for most). And just like it is with parenting, the bigger-minded leaders take the second option - which is a longer route. It involves more care, kindness and concern for a much wider, sustainable goal.
This concern is necessary once you recognise that your errant citizens are indeed children (with their understanding of COVID-19 safe behaviour) and need to be handled like they are. They are not essentially capable of understanding the adult things you are teling them (if they've been informed well enough). You need to explain things to them better, or differently so that it sinks in. Speak at their level. Give them space to learn. Specially educate them by assuming they are dumb (regardless of how much of that is true). What you do not do is bust into their juvenile thinking with a rod because they don't understand. The defensive responsive instinct that comes along with their mindset will ensure that they will eventually never learn. You will have to keep on disciplining them and they will continue to stay stubborn. They will never understand enough to keep the discipline we need so that everyone's safe and your lathi will keep you busy. To avoid the lathi, you'd need to aim deeper and crack the root of the issue.
If they still don't seem to understand, eliminate their struggles since you want to keep them since the burden falls on your head. Not everyone can probably afford to work from home or live equipped enough under lockdown. A lot of what they do is under some kind of desperation or disassociation. This lockdown is not a kind phase for most humans anywhere. It does things to you that you're never probably aware you're doing and why. We've never been here and will do strange things in response to how such a thing makes us feel.
Strange times require kindness and not fear. There's enough fear as it is without the stick. The point of tough love is not drive people further away from you beyond the point of redemption, or towards that point. With the police acting as trained and the Government restricting their burden, the people are left behind. Sometimes parents do inexplicable things because their children really need to stay away from danger, more than ever. With citizens and governance, that doesn't work because we are never parent-child, but equals. If a section of them aren't, it rests on the incumbent Government to make them equals. It inherited the responsibility. If it won't happen overnight, then more-than-regular kindness and sensitivity is in order to account for the imbalance.
In a scientifically aware and more or less intelligent generation, it is not lathis that will beat the corona virus out of society but more noteworthy use of brains, and scientific and medical intelligence instead. Let's save our lathis for another day and hope that day doesn't come.
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