India’s Police Lawlessness – OpEd
India’s Police has a reputation of operating like lawless militia. Kidnapping is their competence, not protecting citizens.
Reports of a British citizen, Jagtar “Jaggi” Johal being lawlessly arrested and tortured by police in India on November 4, 2017 in Punjab define the criminal functioning of India’s police. In a hostage style kidnapping, Mr. Johal’s face was sacked with a bag by police while he was abducted without any warrant or evidence. After that, Mr. Johal’s genitals were reportedly electrocuted as he was forced to confess murdering the leader of the Hindu supremacist party, the Rashtriya Swyamsewak Sangh (RSS). When no evidence was found against Mr. Johal, he was alleged for another crime – and this time for the unsolved murder of a Christian priest and for something even more obscure like “disturbing communal harmony.”
Mr. Johal’s lawless detention was justified and extended by India’s Police Court — without any evidence. The British Foreign office has yet to make a statement about this reportedly egregious abduction by India’s militia police involving their citizen.
The persecution of Sikhs in India, including their unlawful arrests, assaults, torture and other forms of brutality is longstanding. Sikhs have long endured abductions, disappearances and extrajudicial killings by the militia police in India. Mr. Johal’s capture not only proves the India’s lawless police principles, but also India’s systemic and pervasive practice of persecution of Sikhs.
Persecution is in fact institutionalized under the Indian constitution. Repressive laws against minorities are legislated to cover up torture, rape, mass murder and other forms of crimes against humanity. Police courts often overrule fundamental rights of individuals. Judicial process is non-existent. Captured individuals are subjected to abuse, mistreatment and police sadism.
Fundamental human rights are deprived. Criminality is rewarded. Committing crimes is considered nationalism. The framers of India’s constitution rejected all natural rights to establish a casteist Hindu India. State sponsorship of Hinduism is instituted against minorities and lower castes. Calling India, a democracy is a fantasy.
Britain has a responsibility to protect its own citizen who has been falsely accused of a crime in a foreign country. Britain must act to demand the immediate release while standing up to this lawlessness of Hindu state viciousness. In the undeniable existence of these above facts, the British government also needs to evaluate its relationship with a country that claims itself to be a democracy, but practices the opposite.
*Harmeet Singh is a contributor to Eurasia Review and a Scientist living in Chicago, IL
