The news of five young adults who were caught impersonating as police invites hilarity on the first look. But the act cannot be simply laughed away with, taking it as a petty crime committed by some local goons. Those five were caught while frisking passersby at Heingang area. It is more than clear that they were trying their hands on easy money. They would have gone away unnoticed with their trickery, had they not come across a police personal who was from the same area. The personal on suspicion enquired about their ID card. One pressing question is: why did they choose to impersonate as policemen? Is it the fascination of the uniform, or something else? The answer is the latter, and this is a telling commentary on the image of the police. We would say those impersonators have done a correct reading of the state police force; of their actions on the roadsides, of how they abuse their power to threaten people needlessly. People generally follow their command because of the inordinate power they have in their hands, and also their track record of bumping off people as they wished. The common people obey their command out of fear, not out of respect for the law, which is submission rather than cooperation. Fear is the name of the state constabulary, while coercion is the decree of statecraft. We are not aware of the educational credential of the five impersonators. But they took a wily decision to disguise as policemen in order to earn easy money on the road in broad daylight. Their inefficiency was in the execution. They should have done a bit of investment in preparing uniform instead of borrowing from a ‘quasi-force’ like the VDF.
VDF, which are a proxy appendage of the state force, has been found to be involved in many crimes in the state. We agree with some social commentators who have rightly maintained that the state government is ruining the human resource potential of the state by instituting a quasi-force like VDF. The VDF are the lowliest paid ‘employee’ of the government. But they are the most used and misused of the personnel, apparently working overtime as a proxy of the regular force. With no job security and absolutely no provision for professional growth, VDF has become one of the vulnerable forces that commit crime for easy money. One is never sure of how they are trained. Most of the personnel are from the lower strata. They have joined the force out of hopelessness, leaving college midway. This is primarily because they consider it futile to continue their education. The current trend does not apply with the VDF, but also other jobs which are in the unorganised sector of the state economy and its failure in creating job avenues. With a few colleges as exception, most of the students who are in the higher education are already engaged in some kind of job. The deceiving mantra of ‘earning while you learn’ has made inroads into the young minds. Some do it out of economic compulsion. And some for easy cash to meet the life style in vogue. What is worrisome about the Home department of the state is its lack of concern of the ever rising crimes in the state, wherein VDF personnel are involved. There seems to be no plan to revamp the force. The force should not be allowed to continue in the manner they function for too long. Either scrap the force or absorb them into the regular force of the state with proper orientation in terms of training and job security. This will be a better option although the regular personnel of the state police force are not any holier either, IRB personnel often in the news for all the wrong reasons. Incident like the recent one in Heingang will continue to rise if the authorities fail to take urgent step to rectify it.