Hundreds of policemen demonstrated outside their headquarters in New Delhi yesterday to demand action be taken against lawyers involved in brawl with officers over a parking dispute at a court complex.
“We want justice,” one of the placards at the protest read.
Policemen also said they wanted more backing from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which directly controls the capital’s police force.
Dozens of people were hurt and several vehicles torched in an outbreak of fighting between police officers and lawyers at Tis Hazari court complex last Saturday.
The fight began over a parking dispute, lawyers said, and both sides have blamed the other for instigating the violence.
On Monday, a policeman was attacked by lawyers at another court complex.
At yesterday’s demonstration, protesters said they wanted lawyers who had attacked their colleagues to be swiftly and strictly prosecuted.
They also demanded greater protection.
“If you want to suspend us, do it. We’ll sit at home. But we haven’t joined this profession to get kicked around,” Mahendra Singh, a policemen at the protest said.
Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik tried to pacify the protesters.
“The government and the people have a lot of expectation from us because we are the protector of the law, and we must act like a disciplined force and maintain law and order,” he told them.
But those words of advice didn’t cut much ice with the protest refusing to end.
A clear divide between senior and junior policemen emerged with the many protesting policemen alleging that top officers failed to stand by them.
“If you beat up a cop in uniform, its not the person who is beaten up but the uniform that is humiliated. This will only ensure the breakdown of law and order,” said a protesting police officer.
The overwhelming feeling from the unprecedented protest is that the police chief’s word of comfort was “too little, too late”.
Lawyers, for their part, have also been protesting, with some threatening to go an indefinite strike.
The Delhi High Court turned down an appeal by the bar association to ban media reporting incidents of violence, including clash at the Tis Hazari Court complex.
Instead, the court issued notice to the Bar Council of India (BCI) and other bar associations in Delhi on an application filed by the Home Ministry seeking modification of order on November 3 for no coercive action against lawyers who were involved in the court incident.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lashed out at the police and said they have been turned into a political entity that works like an “armed wing of BJP.”
In a series of tweets, AAP spokesman Saurabh Bhardwaj, who is also a lawyer, alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party has emboldened Delhi police so much that “we are living in a police state”.
The city government has been accusing the Delhi police of not being able to manage the law and order situation in the national capital.
“The police are least concerned about basic law and order issues in Delhi. Police officers are so arrogant. Delhi police have been converted into a political entity and works like an armed wing of the BJP,” Bhardwaj said.
He also wished that the Advocates Bar Association had taken a stand for the rights of common man.
He also appealed against politicising the issue.
On Sunday, a court ordered an inquiry into the first incident and asked police to suspend two policemen and transfer two senior officers, legal news portal Bar and Bench reported, further angering policemen who said they were being unfairly punished.
Social media users mocked the showdown between those tasked with upholding the law.
“What times we are witness to! Agents of law and order – lawyers and police – are up against each other. This would go down in history,” tweeted a former radio presenter.
“I thought if police unnecessarily beat up someone, lawyers are there to demand justice. Now, lawyers are doing the beating up, and police are demanding justice,” tweeted Ramesh Srivats.
Delhi policemen take part in a protest yesterday, following a confrontation with lawyers that left dozens injured. Several hundred policemen took part in the rare and angry protest.
