Usually kith and kin of the dominant castes and elite of rural India who have swamped Parliament and state legislatures and imported them into urban bureaucracies and parastatals, India’s police personnel have yet to shed the colonial proclivity of shooting first and asking questions later.

This tradition of the police became very evident during the teargas and lathi charges on students who had rallied at the Jantar Mantar grounds in Delhi to protest the NEET-UG exam paper leak in May and CBSE-OSM scandal shortly thereafter. The assemblies under the banner of the Cockroach Janata Party were legitimately and peacefully convened in an officially approved protest site (Jantar Mantar), and demanded that Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan accept accountability for botch-up of these exams which had to be re-written by millions of students.

These legit protests provoked police violence against school and college students that has shocked the country. Delhi state cops in uniform, aided by some in mufti and RAF (Rapid Action Force) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), were seen on national television and social media reels attacking protesting students with iron nails-studded batons, firing pellet guns while also availing the opportunity to grope women students. This application of disproportionate force and loutish behaviour of lawmen in uniform has not only outraged public opinion, it raises questions about how policemen are recruited and trained.

Evidently, law and order personnel have little awareness that they are public servants licensed to use no more than reasonable force in any given circumstance. Nor do these ill-educated lumpens in uniform seem aware this is a new-age of CCTV, 24×7 live television and social media reels in which any type of violence can’t be kept under wraps. Now that Pradhan has been held accountable for exam paper leaks under his watch, there’s a good case for Union home minister Amit Shah being called to account for excessive police and paramilitary violence in the national capital.