Amid hype, don’t smudge the dope taint

  • | Thursday | 12th July, 2018

One of the areas was Guru Nanak Pura, but the report carried the earlier name of the locality — Banbhatteyan da Mohalla. Romana defused the matter deftly and even invited us to pose for a photograph with some policemen who had been rewarded. Nobody could sense anything was wrong with it, seemingly innocuous as the report was concerning the basic civic amenities. The report was about areas in the city facing water scarcity and mentioned the affected localities. But one cannot help recount an incident that took place some years ago in that Malwa town.

BROAD STROKES SANDEEP SINHA Iam afraid I am jumping on to the bandwagon, much like the Punjab politicians, trying to outdo each other on the drugs issue. It is not the drugs issue that caught my interest but the name of one individual — Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Gurjit Singh Romana — who has been described as ‘tainted’ in media reports and whose transfer back to Bathinda from 6th IRB, Ladda Kothi, Sangrur, has raised eyebrows. It is not my brief to give the DSP a clean chit or hold him accountable for acts of omission and commission. But one cannot help recount an incident that took place some years ago in that Malwa town. The local pullout of this paper had been launched and soon after, it had carried a report by a colleague, now a public relations officer with the Government of Punjab. The report was about areas in the city facing water scarcity and mentioned the affected localities. One of the areas was Guru Nanak Pura, but the report carried the earlier name of the locality — Banbhatteyan da Mohalla. Nobody could sense anything was wrong with it, seemingly innocuous as the report was concerning the basic civic amenities. The next day, as early as 6 am, my phone started ringing. “Our religious sentiments have been hurt by the report in the paper. We want an apology,” the callers said. Spoken in chaste Punjabi with a rural hint, I failed to comprehend which report they were talking about. The phone calls came in a barrage. No sooner than one caller would disconnect, another would call up. I was taken aback with this sharp reaction to a very general report. Later in the morning, one of the callers identified himself as a lower-rung officer in a government department and told me that it was an earlier name for the locality and was considered ‘derogatory’, a casteist slur. I pleaded that we did not know this. The callers were persistent and insisted we carry an apology. We ignored their request. The situation threatened to turn out of hand when one of the callers informed that about 500 people were going to gather at a religious place and set the office on fire. We still did not budge and the local pull-out was released that night without carrying an apology. They were so well informed that they knew what exactly was happening and late at night called up the seniors in Chandigarh to say the apology had not been carried and reiterated their threat. Finally, a call came from the head office to end the matter and carry an apology on one of the pages in the Main paper, which we did. The police were duly informed. It fell to Gurjit Singh Romana to resolve the issue. The next day, we were asked to visit the police station near the Multania flyover where some of those who had claimed to be offended had also been asked to come. “Tussi khabar padhi hai,” the SHO waved the paper at them. “Nahin ji, saanu kisse dasya,” they replied. This was the fact of the matter. A report had been published in a newspaper, which nobody had read, in a language which was Greek to many of them, yet religious sentiments had been aroused and a mob incited. And this was before WhatsApp came along. Romana defused the matter deftly and even invited us to pose for a photograph with some policemen who had been rewarded. Today, when one reads about sacrilege incidents, lynching and other mob-incited incidents, one is forced to wonder how much of these incidents are based on reality and hearsay? As Sir CP Scott said, “Facts are sacred, opinions free.” So, while it is for the Police Department to decide on the ‘taint’ of one of its own, one recalls an article by a very senior police officer in this newspaper, who reminisced about three things an SHO had taught him during training: Gal-baat chust (be sharp in conversation); kaam sust (be slow in taking action as most complaints are false); and record durust (be strong on paper). After all, the police do most of their work on khauf (fear). No doubt, there are black sheep in any profession but the law does indeed provide for being presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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