| Very, very long editorial, just the first paragraphs here. You'd think the answer to the posed question would be obvious. |
By Shah Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahman
Â…the sapling that the ppolice have nibbled on even slightly neither blooms nor does it ever bear fruit. The saliva of the police is poisoned. I know a young man who was as intelligent and educated as he was good natured. He did emerge, albeit wounded, from the hands of the police. But now driven insane in his youth, he is spending his life at the Baharampur insane asylum.- Chhoto Boro Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore was well aware of the saga of the police, it was his good luck that never allowed him to come into contact with the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) – the hybrid of the policee and the army. If he had, he would have realized that these days if one falls into the hands of this species, one need not go through the hassle of ending up in an insane asylum. Instead one may get a one-way ticket and go directly to the afterworld.
Nevertheless, the quotation from Rabindranath Tagore allows us to infer that there is not much difference in qualitative terms between the police of the British Raj and the modern police of the “democratically elected government. The nature of both is similar as are their activities. In fact, it is often heard that our modern police force uses the same 303 rifles that the British police used. The railway system, the judiciary and others – including the police system - are the processes which we have acccepted from the British in absolute good faith. Hence, reformations in this field have been scarce. Their uniform may have been changed, perhaps weapons other than the 303 rifles have been added to their repertoire, a canine force has been added; but their nature remains as it was in the past. Complemented by illimitable corruption, it has perhaps been possible to deal with the movement of the opposition party by using this force, but the law and order situation could not be kept in control. Thus, these special arrangements are necessary with the escalation in public discontent, and when the opposition makes law and order an issue in their campaign. The army arises as a liberating force, and the police, Ansar and BDR appear with them. The sum of these parts is the Rapid Action Battalion or RAB. |