When a constable laid hands on the neck of a DIG’s father right in front of him.These days, there is much talk about "people-friendly" conduct for security forces, but even high-ranking officers have realised that this is nearly impossible in practice.

In Gujarat, Ravindra Nath Bhattacharya was serving as a Deputy Inspector General (DIG). During the summer, he went to his home in Calcutta. One afternoon, while he was napping, his mother woke him and said that his father had gone to the Lalbazar police station two hours earlier because the police had picked up a boy from the neighbourhood.

The DIG went to the station and saw his father sitting there. He asked the officer seated at the desk, "Where is the SHO (Bada Babu)?" He received no answer. He then had to introduce himself and mentioned that the Joint CP, Mr Talukdar, was his batchmate. Only then did the officer salute him. In the meantime, his father had stepped out. The DIG asked for his father to be called back. As the DIG and the station head stepped outside, the SHO ordered the sentry, "Bring the elderly man into the chamber."

Right in front of the DIG, the sentry grabbed his father — a retired Legislative Assembly official — by the neck and barked, "Hey, old man, where are you running off to? The 'Saheb' is looking for you." The DIG shared this personal account during a weekly police meeting during his stay in Rajkot.

A former Superintendent of Police (SP) in Bihar, who eventually became the DGP, shared a similar story. Originally from Uttar Pradesh, he received a telegram from his family informing him that his father, who lived in a rural area, had been arrested. His father had gone to mediate a dispute between two groups in the village. When the SP went to the village and met the SHO, he was told: "When the fight between the two groups was at its peak, the DSP came to control the situation. Your father told the DSP that his son is an SP. The DSP lost his temper and shouted, 'So he claims to be the father of an SP? Lock him up too!'"

S.C. Dixit, a former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, once suggested that every police station should have a water fountain (pyau) inside. He believed that citizens troubled by the heat would drink water and offer their blessings. However, Vikram Singh, who also became a police chief, rejected the idea, saying, "If police offer water, people will wonder what else they’ll be forced to 'swallow.' No one will come to a police station just to drink water."

Then there is a story from the Covid era. In Visakhapatnam, a young government doctor was heading home from the hospital in his uniform. The police, patrolling under strict orders, picked him up, put him in a jeep, and took him to the station, accusing him of violating Covid protocols. When his mother arrived at the station, she was treated rudely.

The next morning, the news hit the papers. In Amaravati, Justice Rakesh Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court took suo motu cognisance and issued a notice to the Police Commissioner, ordering the concerned SHO to appear in court. When the order wasn’t followed, a contempt case was filed against the Chief Secretary and the DGP. The matter was handed over to the CBI. Six people were arrested, and the SHO was suspended.

Finally, a story from Kashmir. Mohammad Shafi Qureshi, who served as the Governor of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, moved back to his home in Sant Nagar, Srinagar, after retiring. On his very first day, while travelling from the Srinagar airport, his Ambassador car was stopped by a military officer in a Gypsy who unleashed a barrage of verbal abuse. The driver’s fault was that he wasn’t giving way to the Gypsy. Qureshi told me, "My wife remarked sarcastically, 'Where has all your high-and-mighty status gone now? You just sat there listening to those abuses.'"

Qureshi had to introduce himself just to save his dignity on the highway. Between Anantnag and Srinagar, his car got a flat tyre. As he stood on the road, CRPF personnel on patrol approached him aggressively and snapped, "Stay inside!" The former Governor looked at the officer’s nameplate and asked, "Are you from Mandsaur or Neemch? There used to be a Governor named Mohammad Shafi Qureshi in Madhya Pradesh." When the officer, surnamed Patwa, confirmed he was from Mandsaur and asked how he knew Qureshi, he replied, "I was the Governor there."