DC Edit | Probe Must to Find Truth in Haryana Cop Deaths

It is important that a thorough and impartial investigation takes place in order to bring out the truth behind the back-to-back suicide of two police officers in Haryana leaving behind notes blaming the system, even if the government and society must be able to introspect into their conduct as reflected in their two notes to understand and address the larger malaise.

Both the notes point to witch-hunting and wrongdoing by superiors and colleagues in the department. While Y. Puran Kumar, an IPS officer of the 1992 batch, alleged harassment based on caste by his superiors and colleagues in his note dated October 7, assistant sub-inspector Sandeep Kumar Lathar, who apparently shot himself a week later, accused his deceased superior officer of corruption and links to gangsters. The government has a responsibility to investigate all the allegations contained in the notes and bring the truth before the people. It has been acting at an unacceptably slow pace and has transferred a senior police officer blamed in the suicide note of Puran Kumar. It must move faster with the realisation that the alleged culprits are in the police department and in important positions.

The allegation contained in the note of Puran Kumar who was in the rank of inspector-general about facing harassment and discrimination based on his caste for being dalit will shock only those who are nescient of the social reality of northern India. The millennia-old phenomenon refuses to loosen its hold in these parts despite the long struggles by enlightened people. The Indian Constitution has several Articles mandating the State to use its instruments to come down heavily on casteism. Article 14, which guarantees equality before the law, Article 15 which proscribes discrimination based on, inter alia, caste, Article 16 which offers equal opportunities and permits reservation for socially and educationally backward communities and Article 17 which forbids untouchability in all forms all document independent India’s resolve against caste discrimination.

Yet one area where 75 years of governance based on this Constitution has failed is casteism and its impact on social life. The deceased officer would have no chance of rising to his position but for the reservation he was offered albeit under the provisions of the same Constitution but he was not allowed to enjoy its fruits, if one were to go by his allegation. The very same caste factor which had the Constitution handhold him to an important position extinguished them all. This is the reality of India as it traverses through the Amrit Kaal of its independent existence and envisions itself as a developed nation by 2047.

Mahatma Gandhi had practically called off the independent movement he was leading and channelised all his energies into addressing the issue of caste in the 1930s knowing full well that India will be no better even if the British left, having handed it over to the existing social order. A century later, India faces the same dark reality.