Upamanyu Chatterjee's character in one of his novels when asked for reason to join civil services, replies:
I once tried to help a friend, a PhD in engineering, who was beaten right outside his home by local goons, and his wife roughed up in front of children when she tried protecting her husband. I met everyone from local inspector to ACP and to the DCP, a fine 2004 batch IPS. I failed to get the FIR registered, despite the 2004 batch shouting at his underlings to take immediate action. The local goons who had roughed up were apparently close to the local MLA and there appeared little that could be done. My friend resigned to his fate, sold his independent home and moved into a gated apartment complex. I thought then that probably if I was in Indian Police Service, I could have helped him a little better.
I realise that I was wrong like the character in Chatterjee's novel, after reading this piece by R K Raghavan, a former CBI director and a very respected cop, in The Hindu today (full article link: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/the-mystery-of-police-reform/article17431239.ece):
"Because within the civil service, one is likelier to know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows a cop. Or so I believed eight years ago. Now that I am wiser, I know that the government can fuck you up bad, even if you are part of it - unless you suck, suck, suck. The civil servant can fellate with the best of them. I say, sir, can we roll another joint?"I believed that the nested somebodies in the sentence gets longer for people who are not in Indian Police Service. Yours truly being in Indian Trade Service, I thought that two or three somebodies coming in between was normal to reach the right cop.
I once tried to help a friend, a PhD in engineering, who was beaten right outside his home by local goons, and his wife roughed up in front of children when she tried protecting her husband. I met everyone from local inspector to ACP and to the DCP, a fine 2004 batch IPS. I failed to get the FIR registered, despite the 2004 batch shouting at his underlings to take immediate action. The local goons who had roughed up were apparently close to the local MLA and there appeared little that could be done. My friend resigned to his fate, sold his independent home and moved into a gated apartment complex. I thought then that probably if I was in Indian Police Service, I could have helped him a little better.
I realise that I was wrong like the character in Chatterjee's novel, after reading this piece by R K Raghavan, a former CBI director and a very respected cop, in The Hindu today (full article link: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/the-mystery-of-police-reform/article17431239.ece):
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| Knowing a cop doesn't help |
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