Meerut madness

It is entirely possible that the police who went on the rampage in Meerut8217;s Company Gardens on Monday, beating up couples and dragging them to police stations, believed that they were doing the right thing. Their rampage, which even had a codename, 8216;Operation Manju8217;, bore the characteristic stench of official sanctimoniousness. It is also entirely possible that had their exertions not played out before a horrified national primetime audience, it would have caused neither outrage nor invited corrective action.

Yet 8216;Operation Manju8217; emerges from the same mindset that orders the shutting down of dance bars in Mumbai, or rules that couples dancing in a Chennai hotel are guilty of gross moral impropriety. It comes from the same instinct that drives the Shiv Sena to tear down Valentine8217;s Day posters and the PMK to throw eggs at Kushboo for her plainspeaking. In fact, the actions of the Meerut8217;s police are just one remove away from the pre-modern barbarism that marks panchayat justice. Just two months ago, a panchayat in rural Meerut had ordered the tonsuring of a young couple for having the temerity to fall in love with each other 8212; they were then forced to beat each other. So should anybody really be surprised if police officers in their wisdom round up young men and women, pull them by the hair, slap them soundly and generally humiliate them? Of course not.

The heartening aspect to this sorry episode is the quick and unequivocal public condemnation that followed it, with even the supposedly conservative parents of the 8220;erring8221; youngsters voicing their anger. As one father remarked, the police do little when it comes to punishing the real offenders, but go berserk on soft targets like these young people. The NHRC has ordered an inquiry and the issue has even figured in Parliament. These are signs, possibly, of a new impatience with moral policing and a new-found respect for the individual rights of citizens, including the right to privacy and free movement. If this is indeed the case, then it is to be wholly welcomed, because a nanny state in khaki on the rampage is a fearsome prospect.