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Can we have a DGP (Lathi Charge)? The Question Isn't Academic

S P Singh

Two seemingly unconnected situations are fast emerging in Punjab. 

An ever increasing tendency by the repressed to assert their voice in ever shriller ways; and the acute crisis faced by the research scholars in Punjab universities who are at a loss for subjects to research and are merely copying predecessors' theses.  

Here is a piece of unsolicited advice: why not research into the history and philosophy of the saving grace weapon of Punjab Police, the ever ready ubiquitous Lathi, the immensely successful ammunition-less crowd control device deployed so frequently in the service of the people by the police. 

As one watched Punjab Police's brave cops brutally bashing up gold medallist volleyball player Gurvinder Singh of Moga, national kabaddi players Joginder Kaur and Manjit Kaur and hundreds of other unemployed teachers despite a serious handicap – there were only 6-7 cops to bash each scared-to-death unemployed teacher since recruitments into police haven't taken place for long now – the unparalleled service rendered by the Lathi once again escaped encomiums in the media. 

The quick-fix Wikipedia on the Internet refers to Lathi as "probably the oldest armed martial art of the world". Of course the cops must have believed such non-academic sources without a doubt though at times they do use the still older weapon: throwing rocks at the protesters. After independence of India in 1947, the abolition of Zamindari system led to a decline in lathial armies but the cultural sensitivities of the Punjab Police have kept alive the heritage of Lathi. 

Newspapers in Punjab now routinely splash photographs of cops dragging a middle-aged woman by her hair, a bunch of uniformed policemen raining lathis on unarmed young nurses, athletically-built six-footers running after young unemployed elementary school teachers raining blow after blow of the 6'-long-lathi as the teachers' turbans fly and clothes are ripped in the melee.  

On July 3, unemployed Physical Training Instructors walking towards the official residence of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh got a taste of Patiala hospitality's lathi-face. Teargas shells and water cannons were served as appetizers. Within the week, in Rampura Phool, unemployed ETT teachers received worse treatment when they tried to protest during a Congress' rally being addressed by state party president Shamsher Singh Dullo. The heritage of lathi was on full display, signifying perhaps the Chief Minister's keen sense of heritage conservation.  

With schools having 37,000 vacancies of teachers, and lathi-facing teachers complaining that of the nearly 5,000 ETT-course teachers, most haven't found employment, the logical reasoning behind this strategy of controlling the educationists through lathi charges is now very clear. Lathi costs less than a teacher. It's economics, stupid. 

Eight teachers retire every day in Punjab, nearly 240 in a month, nearly 3000 in a year. Number of teachers recruited by the Amarinder regime is zero. Clearly it needs to recruit more policemen. And buy many more lathis. Sponsor perhaps a lathi-heritage mela too. 

Therein lies the basis of our suggestion to the research scholars. Lathi is not just a crowd control weapon. It is a rank academic subject. With the renewed focus on amelioration of senior policemen's career advancement, who knows we may soon have a new DGP (Lathi training) too?  Then why not a Lathi Charge Professor? After all, we do have now hundreds of lathi-charged teachers!

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