Saturday evening, I was in Apollo hospital to collect my health check-up reports, the apollo hospital in front of Jyoti Nivas College, Koramangala. When I was coming out, what I saw was very sad. Moral policing by NSUI just in the front of City police, It was like police was supporting NSUI members (law breaker or members of taking-law-in-own-hands).
Let me first declare that I have not done any other research prior to the act or post the act I have seen. But I have a few questions regarding the same as a normal citizen.
Scene: (what I saw) - There is one cafe near apollo hospital, I saw some NSUI members were shouting with slogs - "NSUI Zindabad", and some more in kannada. They had taken "Hukkah" out from that cafe (It seems that that cafe had provisioning of hukkah in its premises) and shouted for a few minutes. Till that time all police jeep also came there and they were just become the spectators of NSUI doings. Local channel cameraman were also there. NSUI members shouted some slogans with those hukkahs in hand, and then one by one they broke all the hukkahs on the road just in the front of all the police cops. After that they were giving interviews to local channel reporters. The police standing there were just making sure that NSUI members can do what they intend to without any problems. Police cops also kept those broken hukkahs in their jeep while NSUI members were talking to reporters.
(I am not sure whether serving hukkah is legal or not as per the Karnataka law)
Now, after seeing all these, a few questions came to my mind -
(1) Police's job is to provide support to people who were taking law into their hands or to protect the common citizens?
(2) Why cops allowed NSUI members take law in their own hands? If hukkah serving is illegal, why did cops didn't recover those from the NSUI members and destroy it themselves or taken along with them?
(3) After NSUI members do all the taking-law-into-their-hands work, who will clean the broken glasses on road? BBMP? Someone from the moral-police just come and block the road for sometime, make the road dirty and full of broken glass (injurious to common citizens) and citi police just watching them (I should say supporting them), so that NSUI members can do un-interrupted?
(4) Mr. Mirji, I was quite impressed by the quick and correct actions as soon you join Bangalore top position, those actions were very much towards the citizens' safety and their common people's interest, but then what is this? Why were your men just spectators of all drama? Why didn't they recovered the hukkah themselves (if that is illegal) and took it away with them? Why did they allow NSUI members take law into their hands?
I may be wrong in concluding anything but as a common citizen, I just can think of above questions.
Deepak
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valid questions
Valid questions - Deepak. Is this the new face of NSUI? I had a totally different picture of the organisation.
Also, I had a totallty different picture of city police
It was sad to see the city police cops, just mute spectators, or they were facilitating the NSUI people to break those glass-made hukkahs. Why didn't they recover those hukkah from NSUI people or cafe and took with themselves?
Deepak
in front of college?
you mention that this was in front of Jyoti Nivas college..the law states that cigerettes/tobacco and by-products cannot be sold within 100mts of any educational institution..
So having a Hokkah joint was illegal in the first place..and sometimes the cops hands are tied because these joints are run by the powerful..so get a 'enabling' team to get things in place might really be debatable..
Also these hookah joints are known to peddle narcotics..thats one more reason that these are shut for good!
Also confiscated ivory is burnt..hence breaking of the hukkahs aint really that wrong if you see in the right light!
btw I would have lit up the place if I was there! ;)
Oh ya, you are right. But still why police is there?
Ya, you are right, I didn't think of the same why it can be illegal. Even there is a notice on the jyoti nivas college gate as well, but I am not sure whether really that is being followed in 100 m vicinity, and all the small shops are following it.
Anyways, as I already said, I really didn't like the way they did it, why didn't they handed it over to the police instead of taking law into their hands? Why breaking the glass in middle of the road, causing a lot of trouble to normal people, and police just watching all the drama.
And, since all this is illegal, what did our police do further to take action against that cafe and I am not sure whether they order any investigation on narcotics there?
I am just agains the "taking-law-into-hands" approach that too in front of police.
Deepak
Good cause (and supposed
Good cause (and supposed moral high ground) does not make illegal actions legal. There is Police and Justice System for a reson. Shop may or may not have been legal, but actions you witnessed were certainly illegal.
First time I saw the ransacked toll-booth next to BIAL exit, I had similar thoughts. Wonder what happened to all those guys who tore the booths apart.
Concur with Ravi and Deepak
Ravi and Deepak have it right. The law has to be enforced by the police and the justice system. Two wrongs do not make a right. Nobody has the right to ransack and destroy private property when legal remedies are available. If police does not act on complaints, these guys should have pressurized them into acting.
attack on humans
I dont think breaking non living things like a hukkah is not that big an offense, and very much pardonable. That can be compensated easily by money, NSUI has that much money I guess. Even if thos activists are prosecuted court will let them off by minor fine, nothing more. But the graver offense is assaulting a person caught of theft or similar petty offense. People hit them black and blue, I have personally seen a chain snatcher being hit in Bangalore and he started bleeding (inside mouth i guess). They even hit on private parts of the caught theif. In North India even lynching happens, but not here.
Moreover, we should appreciate NSUI people helping law enforcement. BBMP recently banned hukkahs even in open cafe's, owners can approach a court if that law is constitutional.
@ rackstar - no big and small in a principle
Again, breaking a hookah may be a relatively small, low value item. But then who is going to decide what is okay and what is not?
The law is the law. And enforcers of the law cannot discriminate.
Let me illustrate the point in a different way. My phone got pick pocketed in a bus once. It was a relatively expensive phone and I lost a lot of contact information, but I could easily afford to buy a replacement and the bother of getting lost contacts was worked out soon enough.
Imagine if it was a daily labourer in my situation who in many instances relies on the phone to get work. Even if it was a cheaper phone, the loss for him is much more.
Both of us go to the cops. Cops really do not care for cases like this. They will not even file an FIR (I have tried). But the impact of the crime is different between me and the other hypothetical guy. If they ignore and do not try to register cases, establish if there is a pattern and try to maybe break a pick pocketing gang, the menace will never go away.
The law is the law. The police have to uphold the principle and act and not stand there and make value judgements and decide whether to act or not. We are all better off in the long run that way.
Police was there, and they would have done their job
Agreeing to people that hukkah are illegal and banned by BBMP, and this area was within 100 meters from a college, gives another reason to call it illegal, but my whole point is - Was the police spectator there, to facilitate the take-law-into-hands activists? That's the only point I am trying to make here.
Today, we might all agree that those NSUI did for a right cause, but as we know from the history that there might be other moral policing cause which is perfectly legal but immoral from NSUI or any such organizational's angle, then what? Police is not showing the right way.
Deepak
Sure route to Pakistan
btw I would have lit up the place if I was there! ;)
@ Srinidhi - I am shocked at the above quote from you, even with the attached emoticon, which I hope meant that you are not serious. Quite like Sanjay and Ravi have elaborated, enforcement of the law is the exclusive job of the police. If you notice delinquence on their part on any particular issue that you are specifically vexed about, there are enough remedies (check this, for instance), failing which, of course, you have the "Anna Hazare" route. Whatever, if we follow the NSUI route, we will also ultimately end up like Pakistan.
First time I saw the ransacked toll-booth next to BIAL exit, I had similar thoughts.
@ Ravi - your above comment quite exactly reflect my thinking on the subject too. The question that arises is "aren't we seeing this form of 'justice dispensation' a bit too often for comfort? Then it was the KRV; today, it's the NSUI. And, tomorrow, if there's something going on that one doesn't quite like, what prevents him from making common cause with these groups, and staging a similar act? This to many, I am sure, is still quite fresh in their memory.
The state government had been opposed to the idea of locating the toll plaza at the given spot. So, when the NHAI decided to go ahead all the same, will it be wrong in assuming that the state gave a signal to the KRV to stage the 'people's protest'? Here too, likewise, somebody seems to have given "supari" to NSUI to enforce an unclear law, after 'buying over' the police.
Quite the sure route to Pakistan!