Chennai: “If this is the mauling we must take from all sides for handling just an Assembly bypoll, we dread to think of our plight during the general election”. That was a fatigued police constable packing to go home after spending two days and nights at the counting centre at the Queen Mary’s College late Sunday.
Sounding pretty depressed and bitter, the man in his early 30s was referring to the media interaction by TTV Dhinakaran after receiving his certificate of victory from the RO at the counting centre. The ebullient victor had lashed out at the police force accusing the officers and men of behaving “like goons” and “slaves of the government”.
“If you want to be a henchman, go to Ayodhya Kuppam (fishing hamlet notorious for violent criminals); do not be in the police force”, thundered TTV.
He had throughout his RK Nagar campaign targeted the police for attack and even named the state intelligence chief Sathyamurthy accusing him of functioning as the handmaid of the government.
Not just TTV, almost all the opposition leaders, including DMK’s working president M. K. Stalin, had alleged that the ruling party had distributed money with the active participation—not just collusion—of the police while the Election Commission remained ineffective.
“We get shouted by our superiors for almost nothing. We get blamed by the public for almost nothing. And the opposition leaders accuse us of acting as the slaves of the ruling party. In addition to all this pain at poll time, we get very little facilities by way of proper food and rest throughout this period”, said another policeman, watching his colleagues pushing a van that’s broken down in the college campus.
“Criticism of police has always been there. For the police, their failures are trumpeted and successes brushed down. It has always been an occupational hazard. As far as the criticism from opposition party politicians, it has to be borne in mind that police is doing their job as per the Constitution. The City police is a committed force led by very good Commissioner” said R. Nataraj, former DGP.
