From 'Buffalo soldiers' to the 'Secret Garden', top cops in India have a handful

Azam Khan's eloped Buffalos gace us a hearty laugh last year, especially at a time when the neighboring state of Bihar was facing bomb-attacks at the election rally. With terror threat looming large on India, what politicians do (instead of focussing on the security set-up) leaves us with a guffaw on ourselves.

Are these the very representatives that we elected, after standing in queues under the hot sun? Never mind, at least our intentions were clear.

But, what politicians here intend to do with their security set-up is yet to be ascertained. Hence, the much-respected sentries have new-founded (though not that respected) responsibilities for themselves.

Roles to 'die' for

A soldier or a police cop is the protector of the city who maintains law and order. Perhaps, politicians in the state have forgotten that. A recent case of blatant shameless was spotted in West Bengal when a TMC leader asked his guard to tie his shoelace. Minister of Planning Rachpal Singh in the TMC Government was criticised mercilessly, but the thing gradually died down.

Ba(i)g it as they say. Shakeel Ahmad Beig, a senior officer in the Jammu & Kashmir police bagged an opportunity for a luxurious lifestyle for being 'senior' in ranks. In a instagram goof-up by his own son, who wanted to show how 'kingly' his father was, the cop was seen having a subordinate tie his shoes.

In a similar case in 2012, the Uttar Pradesh government was forced to suspend an Additional Superintendent of Police who allegedly got his shoe lace tied by a constable. ASP VN Tiwari was immediately discharged of his duties when a picture of his emerged.

[Read: Guard caught on tape tying Bengal minister's shoelaces]

But the Buffalo hunt in the same government last year was genius when Azam Khan sent UP's top cops from Rampur after his buffaloes. District chief superintendent of police Sadhna Goswami led the probe into the theft from the farmhouse in Pasiyapura village under Thanaganj police station of Rampur.

Never may have the cops been so meticulous in their probe in a bomb scare than in tracking the hoof marks of the buffaloes to the missing chain. It goes without saying, the hunt came to closure that very day when the buffaloes were found. Some speedy investigation! And to top it all, sniffer dogs were also use (no wonder the Delhi bomb squad is not seen with sniffer dogs, forget the gears, during a bomb scare these days).

How about the garden sentries? Manjhi, it seems was not allowed to pluck fruits from the garden of the CM office in Bihar. The sentries are to be blamed again. Manjhi of course had other people in mind-say for example Nitish Kumar. How insulting...really.

[Read: Nitish Kumar deployed cops in my garden to prevent me from picking fruits: Jitan Manjhi]

Money wasted in potician's interest

Mind you, India lacks bomb squad professionals and security forces in proportion to the terror threat. According to The Hindu, the Delhi police has 11 bomb disposal squads-one for each district-who conduct regular anti-sabotage checks and attend to bomb threat calls.

But these teams are not properly equipped to deal with a crisis situation. When we say "not equipped", we do not mean sparse gadgets or weapons, but intellect.

A police officer said,"The squad is using all the latest equipment to detect bombs but just the equipment won't do anything. The officers have to do their job properly on-the-spot for which they are not trained."

[Read Indiatimes story: DIG Beig, Our Jawans Are Not Your Servants!]

On a similar note, another police in the department complained of scarcity of staff,"There are only 54 personnel including inspectors, sub-inspectors, head constables and constables in both the BDS and BDT. This is much less than the sanctioned strength for the department."

It has been reported that Delhi, being the capital of the country, gets close to 2000 bomb-related calls and the officials have to cater to all of them. If the above-mentioned is the situation in the capital city, one can well imagine what the other states might be lacking.

OneIndia News