The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday tapped into the groundswell of public outrage over the abduction and rape of a child at Aluva to make their case that the police have dismally failed ordinary citizens in Kerala.
Notwithstanding the fact that the police relied on security camera footage to identify and arrest the suspect within hours of the crime, both Opposition parties alleged that the law enforcement repeatedly failed to deliver on their core duty of protecting the life and property of citizens. They drew a parallel between the recent incident and the almost comparable abduction, rape and murder of a child belonging to migrant parents at Aluva on July 28this year.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the police learned little from the July incident. The law enforcement was monomaniacally focussed on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s security. “The crime occurred less than a km from the Aluva Palace where Mr. Vijayan was under heavily armed police guard,” said Mr. Satheesan said.
Mr. Satheesan said patrolling and community interaction had hit an all-time low. Policing circumvented poor neighbourhoods. Police presence on the streets was dismally low. Women, children and victims of crime got no justice at police stations.
He contrasted the “overzealous arrest and manhandling” of the 94-year-old human rights activist ‘GROW’ Vasu with the police’s “recurrent failures” to insulate society from criminals.
Mr. Satheesan said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] had created a culture of political impunity from prosecution by protecting criminals and interfering in daily policing at the station house level and upwards.
‘Crimes on the rise’
BJP State president K. Surendran said crimes against women, children and marginalised sections of society were ascending in Kerala. Poor people, especially migrant workers, were particularly vulnerable. The police seemed to care little for the security of people experiencing poverty. “Even children sleeping with their parents have no security under the current disposition,” said Mr. Surendran.
He said the CPI(M) preferred obsequious and complaint officers with scarce ethics in law and order positions instead of fair-minded professionals. The government has eroded the department’s professionalism, he added.
Both parties said they would launch agitations highlighting the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s policing failures.
