SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA
ARCHIVES

Varsha Bhosle

Cop Land

Before our lives were interrupted with nukes, the events which I'd scrawled on my to-do list read: Husain and Sita, Ghulam Ali, Jansher Khan and Shiv Sena. Unfortunately, with master opportunist Pritish Nandy bent on putting me out of my supposed job (read Defending Thackeray), I resorted to putting up my feet, drawing me bottle of gin, and drowning myself in the magic of filmi nostalgia... And that was how I began musing on police encounters, Mumbai's police commissioner Ronnie Mendonca, and "Inspector Vijay" -- thanks to the 25th anniversary copy of producer-director Prakash Mehra's, or should I say Salim-Javed's, Zanjeer.

Truth: I was astounded by the political incorrectness of it all. Here was a film co-written by the liberal Javed Akhtar (pinko activist Shabana Azmi's husband), which extolled the renegade cop, glamorised violence, and in which the Voice of Conscience (played by "police commissioner" Ifteqar) actually says, "Mujhe tum pe faqr hai" ("I'm proud of you") when Vijay embarks on his personal vendetta against arch-villain Teja.

From start to finish, the theme of Zanjeer is Revenge -- that which is so non-PC, so abhorred, in today's political clime. And yet, this was the tremendously successful film which made Bachchan the Big B and launched a non-ending spate of movies romanticising organised crime, extra-legal action by cops and the common man, violence and vengeance -- the best of these movies penned by Salim-Javed, and the very best by Vijay Tendulkar (Ardh Satya, 1983). Liberals, all...

On its own, the film plays so-so today. Without the bottled rage of Bachchan, which the writing-duo correctly trapped and propagated in several films with Bachchan as either the renegade cop or the hood-with-a-heart-of-gold, the movie would've been another dud. What sets it apart is only Bachchan -- the clenched jaw, the dead-seething eyes, the inert fury, the sang-froid... Oh yes, the many avatars of Vijay remain Indian cinema's only perfectly-delineated Angry Young Men. (It's just too bad that Bachchan began concentrating on his supposedly comic turns and neglected his forte. In his quest for surpassing the superbly all-rounded Dilip Kumar, he's degenerated to the pathetic Lal Badshah of today.)

In the opposition, there's the po-faced Ajit with his now- legendary renditions of "Mona darling," "smart bu-oy" and "maine hi unhe qatl kar diya." The communal-integrity scheme is provided by Pran (Sher Khan), that spry old man who did better acrobatics while miming Yari hai imaan mera than most of the lads do today. Jaya Bhaduri is as yech as ever -- and that's my opinion you can't change, so don't bother with your crummy mail.

But that was all an afternoon's amusing fantasy. Now for some reality bytes from cop land:

Police Commissioner Mendonca said things to The Times of India which are bound to get the liberal-secular world up in arms: "The scrapping of TADA is one of the main reasons (for a spurt in crime)... TADA was an important weapon to check criminals but that option has been closed to us now... In the past, my officers and men who tracked down dreaded criminals opened fire in self- defence and killed them in encounters. But now petitions have been filed and cases between 1995 and '97 have been reopened and the officers are busy consulting lawyers and attending courts. Because of these developments, my men now hesitate to shoot at criminals... The law is supposed to protect them, but they do not get support. It is high time we discussed various aspects of the criminal justice system."

I wondered, who was responsible for getting the Act scrapped? Certainly not the great Indian middle-class which quietly goes to work every morning and returns spent every evening, too tired to file public interest litigations and participate in demonstrations. It's a certain type of agitator who, with a lot of time on his/her hands and a very definite agenda in mind, is liable for the conditions in which crime has proliferated. Sure, liberal artists may advance movies which makes the janata awe- struck by cool robbers and factious cops, but when it comes to physical existence, oh how that rationale seems to vanish...

For example, in Zanjeer, the Voice of Conscience has several PC dialogues: "Aap kaam karenge to usool aur qaanoon ke mutaabiq," or, "Qaanoon ki hifaazat karte-karte, qaanoon ke daayre se bahar chale jaate hain -- aap paabandiyon ko nahi bhulenge." Yeah right. For the next thing we know, Ifteqar is proud of the hero *because* he refuses to name his attackers and has decided to take the law into his own hands...

The truth is that popular cinema has fed the practical principle of the ends justifying the means for far too long to the silent majority for it to take an evil view of police encounters anymore. They'd rather see crime drop than TADA flop. But that's too much to ask when the issue is cunningly communalised...

The crux of the opposition to the Act was that it fell "far short of international standards" and that the legal procedural dice was loaded against the mainly-Muslim defendants of the Bombay bomb blasts -- things like provisions for long remands in custody, detention without charge or trial, prohibition of anticipatory bail, trial in camera, onus of proof on the defendant, and confessions made to the police admissible as evidence. All of it was compounded by the alleged police brutality and coercion.

But from the other corner, Mr Mendonca says, "We have been battling the mafia for long, but what can we do when a man like Dawood (Ibrahim), whom we have arrested on a number of occasions, is released on bail even when booked for non-bailable offences? The police alone cannot combat organised crime."

For example, when Javed Sayma aka Javed Talib Shaikh (peanut- seller) aka Javed Fawda (hitman for the Abu Salem gang) was killed in August 1997, the Samajwadi Party led a delegation to protest against the "innocent's" death. Thereon began the Encounter Probe, with Samajwadi Party counsel Majeed Memon (who also represents most of the Bombay blasts accused) taking centre stage, and with inquiries into the death of other gangsters also being opened... The police maintain they got the right man and with good reason. Human rights activists think otherwise.

Mr Mendonca said that, in court, "these people came out with a false affidavit by some Fernandes. They could not produce him in court. Now the court will decide... But others have now joined the issue. PUCL, CPDR, Human Rights. They want all cases from 1995 to 1997 to be taken up."

As things are, in Bombay, the ratio of police personnel is 2.78 for every 1,000 people, while for Calcutta it is 5, and Delhi, 4.57. Now, there is a Special Operations Squad being instituted to work on the city's underbelly: The police commandos are being trained like their army counterparts and are to "tackle the gangsters and underworld elements, who are now equipped with the most sophisticated equipment." I anticipate the usual liberal- secular row when the SOS embarks on its society-cleansing agenda...

"But why is it that all of a sudden there is a talk about a so- called breakdown in the law and order situation?" asks the canny Mr Mendonca. I wonder... Is it because the state government repels the pinko-ruled press...? Is it because the ones with the communal agenda -- like Samajwadi gonzo Abu Asim Azmi -- need a way to safeguard their vote-banks? Is it because of the recent arrests of ISI spies? Our chatterati seems to be regrouping...

And exactly what does the police have to put with? Well, during the court proceedings, when the police counsel cited the IPC section which states that a cop has the right to fire at a suspect when there is reasonable fear of bodily harm being caused to the cop, the judge said, "These exceptions come into play when it is clearly established that the victim fired first. Have you succeeded in doing that?"

Eh..? You mean WAIT for the victim to fire, DODGE the bullets and THEN save yourself...? I don't get it. Our police don't even have available the kind of sophisticated weaponry the mafia has!

Mr Mendonca says: "My request to the people is to see things in the correct perspective." You know, that perspective may not necessarily be the one espoused by the Azmis and Memons and Punwanis and Setalvads. There is a real, bloodied and charred world writhing outside that idealistic la-la land existing only in, er... angelic minds. It's a world crying out for more national security and personal safety. It's a world quite sick of the righteous few, pen-pushing intellectuals pontificating via the English media -- for whom, battling the so-called communal- divisive-fundie-forces is *the* solution to all of India's problems.

And finally, from my pal Apoorv Srivastava, something to lighten the blasts: Does anybody know why Pakistan hasn't yet conducted a nuclear test? Because, the User's Manual is written in Chinese...

How Readers reacted to Varsha Bhosle's recent columns

Varsha Bhosle