Why being a traffic cop in Delhi is terrifying

There are very few of us who haven't had a disastrous cop encounter. Around ten years ago I had been speaking on my mobile phone at a traffic intersection just before the lights turned green. At that point, the traffic had halted but the phone was still at my ear, while I started the car and took a right turn.

It was barely 30 seconds before a cop leapt out of nowhere and flagged me down. Even as I did the usual thing of begging abject forgiveness, he informed me that I would have to pay Rs 1,000 as fine. Foolishly I did not argue as I thought this must be the correct sum (I am, after all, the daughter of a good cop) and immediately handed it over. But when I asked him for a receipt, to my horror, he dodged between cars and disappeared. As I was holding up traffic, and getting late for a meeting, I just let him go. But I remember that case as an early lesson that traffic cops need to be handled cleverly, carefully and quickly! Some of them might be scrupulously honest, but most are not going to care about making a little on the side.

And yet, this week once again we were reminded that it can also be a thoroughly dangerous profession, when a policeman was beaten up for challaaning a couple of men for driving a two-wheeler without a helmet. Was this gratuitous violence the correct reaction? Did the cop "ask for it"? Have there been far too many instances where the police acts first and asks questions later? Otherwise, why are traffic offenders reacting with anger, and why is there a perception that the police are only there for self-aggrandisement?

Unfortunately even if the worm is turning (as when the woman flung a brick at a traffic cop, some weeks ago) do alleged culprits have to resort to violence? Do these so called "traffic offenders" actually think that wearing a helmet is a superfluous demand and that is why they lashed out? Or is the real problem that these "offenders" do not want to be in the clutches of a policeman, however briefly, and use violence defensively?

More importantly, this present disregard of cops by Dilliwalas is now a real cause for concern. Once the fear of the law enforcer has been removed, what possible security can we hope for? To some extent, perhaps the constant barrage of abuse that has been showered on the police by the Delhi government has also been responsible for the downgrading of their image. The Kejriwal government is actually targeting the home ministry through the Delhi Police, in order to demand a full statehood, but it is the police force that is suffering.

The uneasy relationship between the police and the lower income groups has now been further exacerbated because the Delhi government does not even try to hide its contempt. There is also a growing suspicion among their critics that the AAP politicians do not want police control to improve law and order, but because they think it will give them unfettered power over their opponents.

It is perhaps precisely for this reason that the central government must work harder in improving the police record in Delhi. They must pump in more money into police training and good salaries and the long awaited police reforms. And they must systematically weed out corruption.

At all costs, a way must be found to halt the insidious campaign by which the Delhi Police, especially its top cop, is being demonised by the Delhi government - to an extent that quite soon the ordinary citizen might lose all respect for the force. And, needless to say, the Delhi Police, especially the traffic cops, must also not give any cause for complaints.