In the middle of a pandemic-induced lockdown, Delhi Police celebrating the birthday of two little girls is a classic example of misplaced priority and is problematic at multiple levels.
This seems to have become a trend as police in Mohali, Hyderabad, Kota, Assam, among others, also were seen doing the same. Most of these birthday celebrations have been for people from relatively affluent backgrounds.
Police, who are among the first responders in this tough fight against Covid-19, shouldn’t behave like cheerleaders, especially at a time when the nation needs them to fulfil bigger and more important responsibilities.
When 135 crore people are under lockdown, it is the duty of the police force to take care of citizens and come to their aid in difficult situations.
There are disturbing reports coming from all over the country on how people are struggling to get food, medicines and other essentials during the lockdown. Shocking and heartbreaking stories of how people are surviving on boiled leaves have also emerged.
But the police force suddenly has all the time and resources to show up at rich people’s houses with birthday cakes. This isn’t cute.
India’s police force, which is among the world’s most understaffed, can’t deviate from their core duties now. They must prioritise and their primary focus should be to ensure food and assistance for every citizen, especially the poor, who are struggling to earn a single meal.
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Cakes for rich, lathis for poor
The police force that is showing their humane side by surprising the rich with birthday cakes have been brutal with India’s poor, especially the migrant workers.
This is the same police force that has beaten up delivery boys and made them crawl on the road. The UP Police ‘punished’ migrant workers, who were going back home on foot, by forcing them to hop like frogs for allegedly violating the lockdown.
Police force in Kerala’s Ernakulam was accused of lathi-charging migrants and stranded people. Their fault: they were just demanding to go back home during the Covid lockdown.
Recently, 16 migrant workers were killed after being run over by a goods train in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad. The fear of being roughed up by the police on the road forced them to walk on railway tracks.
A video surfaced from UP’s Meerut where police can be seen overturning vegetable carts in a congested area near a Covid-19 hotspot. Such high-handedness has been only directed at the poor, while the rich get birthday cakes.
Also Read: Poor not afraid of Covid but of dying of starvation, says Gujarat HC, asks for ‘humane touch’
Who pays for the cake?
Social media users have panned Delhi Police for celebrating little girls’ birthdays when “people are dying” of hunger in India. While some rued the fact their tax money was being spent on cakes, others called it a PR stunt.
The police seems to have picked up the trend of celebrating people’s birthdays during lockdown from the UK Police, which in early April had surprised a seven-year-old boy by turning up at his home on his birthday.
Since then, there’ve been stories from the north, east and south of India about police celebrating birthdays.
These gestures, albeit, kind and humanitarian, can’t be seen independently, because the police are not deployed for birthday celebration in a pandemic, which is a much bigger humanitarian crisis.
Views are personal.