https://aliahd66.substack.com/p/new-india-comes-a-calling-156
New India comes a-calling
Yesterday, though a Sunday and a national holiday for Gandhi Jayanti, I had the police landing up at my door. An inspector from the local thana, accompanied by another cop, knocked, invited themselves in, took a seat in my drawing room, took down details of occupants of the flat and inquired after our background.
The inspector also asked after the whereabouts of a certain J___ Khan, the first name I forget. He seemed reassured on learning – from his queries on my background - I once wore uniform. Hopefully, he reasoned that J Khan was not about to spill out of the closet.
The visit was soon followed by a woman claiming to be on election-roll update duty, who wanted to know who all occupy the flat. Having read WhatsApp messages advising that miscreants are visiting houses under this guise only to get a measure of whether the house is worth breaking into sometime later, I shut the door on her face. Perhaps, this visitor was only trying to advise me to link my Aadhar card with my Voter Identity – which is not required by the rules but is reportedly being encouraged by the powers that be.
In the normal course, I would also not have been surprised by policemen turning up, since community policing involves a link between citizens and the police. This requires the police on occasion to touch base with residents on their beat, though I had not been so privileged ever so far.
However, the timing of this visit was curious on another account – and therein lies the tale.
When the regime was going after the Popular Front of India (PFI) last week, a strange message turned up on one of the WhatsApp groups of the society I stay in – of which I am not part. A member of that WhatsApp group asked if any fellow member was aware why my flat had been checked on by the police – including mahila police – early evening that day.
A few well-wishers from the WhatsApp group inquired from us if this was true and if there was any trouble they could help with. We reassured them that it was a falsehood, since we were home all through the day and no police had knocked on our door.
I was not surprised why we were chosen for a mischievous mention by the WhatsApp group member in question. He has a reputation for getting into scrapes with others in the society. When he was a busybody in the society committee, he had got saffron flags placed on each of the two blocks of the society and on its gate. He had also required the guards at the gate to wear a saffron scarf. Without any consultation with anyone in the society, he overnight set up an open-air mandir in a quiet spot on the premises. He took to inviting his right wing comrades over for jamborees on the society premises.
To rule out personal animus, I add that I once had declined to pay up extra society charges, citing lack of consensus in the society on these. I only echoed others similarly accosted by him. (The society committee later dissolved in squabbles, with the administration taking over its running.)
What intrigues is how the Hindutva flagbearer at community level got wind of an impending action of the police. I can only marvel at how deftly he managed to put us under cloud using the nation-wide crackdown that day on PFI, diligently - and purposely - conveyed into all drawing rooms by the media all day.
What no longer surprises is the bit of profiling indulged in by the police. I wonder how things might have turned out if I did not share with the visiting policewallah the fraternity of the Belt.
I also wonder if the call-on by the police was at behest of our friendly-neighbourhood Hindutva footsoldier. Its bad enough he was in the know. Not that it would help knowing if most with a name as mine are being discreetly visited by state functionaries these days. What if the data toted up fetches up in the wrong hands? Or, worse, if it is indeed meant for the wrong hands?
But the key takeaway is that not only are reassuring neighbours around but the police officer was most cordial as he went about a seemingly distasteful - from his demeanour - task. Thankfully, New India is not quite here, as yet.
