The identification with the crowd could not have been more complete. Of course the policemen in Bhagalpur, who recently participated in the violent public assault of an alleged thief, had their distinguishing uniform and motorbike. These were put to maximum use as the lawkeepers, unkempt and their feet shorn of boots, merged with the crowd, matching its fervour with their ferocity, to deliver summary justice in a case of snatching. After a bout of sound thrashing, the victim was tied to the motorbike and dragged through the streets till the rope snapped and the man fell unconscious. Had it not been for the disconcerting presence of the media, the incident would have been passed off as another instance of hands-on police intervention in crime control. It is by such ‘efficient’, although entirely unpleasant, ways that the police in this country have got used to performing their public role. The barbarity with which the police put down the Naxalite struggle in Bengal and the insurgency in Punjab may still disturb, but it is the success stories that count. Which is why there is so much enthusiasm to repeat them over and over again in Naxal-infested Andhra Pradesh or jihad-torn Kashmir or insurgency-afflicted Manipur and Assam. National laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act bestow on the uniformed men the authority to kill at will. Third-degree torture in custody, as also custodial deaths, are normal police procedure. And encounter killings are such a major hit that extensive intra-state coordination takes place to carry out a plan of action.

The public performs a curiously ambiguous role in all this. While it celebrates the encounterwallahs on silver screen, it finds it difficult to stomach in real life the brutality of the cold-blooded killers in the force. It would have been impossible to apprehend and bring to book those responsible for the recent fake encounters in Gujarat had there been no public outrage against the police method of eliminating ‘terrorists’. The public conscience is, quite obviously, less incisive when collective aggression comes into play, as in the Bhagalpur incident. But, often, it is the ineffectuality of the police and the system that promotes such lawlessness. Turning street heroes to placate the mob will neither serve the purposes of law nor restore order. What is at stake are some very basic human rights. The public, but more importantly, the police, need to be made aware of them.