Kejriwal apologises for Gajendra Singh's death, but Delhi Police won't say sorry

Now that Arvind Kejriwal has apologised, can we expect a sorry from the Delhi Police for being a mute witness to Gajendra Singh’s suicide?

There is no doubt that Kejriwal and colleagues are guilty of serious lapse of judgment, of being shamelessly insensitive to a man’s death and carrying on with his political spectacle while a farmer’s died at the venue.

Kejriwal can apologise now but words — heartfelt or otherwise — can’t absolve him of his lack of responsibility, inability to think on his feet and the moral and ethical crime of continuing his speech when he should have been trying to rescue a desperate man.

Perhaps Kejriwal can forgive himself and move on. Maybe his conscience will not lacerate him for his failure as a leader and as a human being and he will sleep peacefully at night after getting this load off his chest. But, for everyone else, including Gajendra’s family, Kejriwal’s error of judgment is unforgivable.

But just hanging Kejriwal’s head in the hall of shame isn’t enough. The Delhi Police’s role in the case should also be properly scrutinised for its failure to act, both before and after Gajendra’s death. If Kejriwal is guilty of moral and ethical lapses, the cops present at Janatar Mantar can’t escape opprobrium for dereliction of duty. If Kejriwal watched Gajendra die, like Dhritrashtra witnessing the disrobing of Draupadi in the Mahabharata, the cops should be held accountable like the other darbaris who could have prevented the crime.

It is clear from TV footage that a) cops were present at the venue, b) they were fully aware that Gajendra had climbed up a tree; and b) even after he tied the noose, not one man in khakhi attempted to save Gajendra.

In the FIR filed by a cop who was at Jantar Mantar, the police claim they tried to do everything to save Gajendra. But the TV cameras, newspaper photographers and other bystanders taking pictures have not thrown up a single image of the police ‘trying its best’. What we have instead are visuals of cops watching like spectators, smiling at the entertainment and mumbling something into their wireless sets. If this is the standard protocol for cops when they come across a person threatening suicide, if this is how they have been trained to handle crisis, god save the capital.

It is evident that the Delhi police has become an extension of the Centre’s ego, symbol of its politics in the fight against the Kejriwal government. Any criticism or indictment of the Delhi Police will weaken the campaign holding Kejriwal responsible and make the Central government equally responsible for Gajendra’s death. Home minister Rajnath Singh is unlikely to be gung-ho about any probe in the role of the cops. He has, in fact, given them a clean chit by reading out their FIR in the Lok Sabha as if it was irrefutable truth.

This is the same police that had filed FIRs against eight innocent youth for the ‘murder’ of Delhi police constable Subhash Tomar during the agitation after Nirbhaya’s rape to allegedly deflect attention from its own failures. If the cops were taken on face value then, the youth would have still been facing trial . Delhi Police, as its history of controversies shows, doesn’t automatically qualify for a clean chit.

In any other state, holding a fair enquiry into charges of dereliction of duty, procedural lapses and other misdemeanor would have been easier. But in Delhi the police and the local government are cast in the role of adversaries — unlike other states, the police chief doesn’t report to the CM or is liable to respond to magisterial probes, which are the norm in such cases. It isn’t surprising that the police has already refused to cooperate with an enquiry ordered by the Delhi government .

So, how will we get to know the truth about the Delhi police role in the incident? It would be unfair to let the cops escape scrutiny just because Kejriwal and his party are facing a probe. It would be a travesty of justice also if the Delhi police officers are allowed to sit in judgment over the conduct of their own field staff at Jantar Mantar—an internal enquiry can seldom be unbiased.

Let there be a thorough probe into the AAP’s role in the death of Gajendra Singh and the harshest punishment for the guilty. Simultaneously, the Modi government should put the Delhi police also under the scanner.

It would be a dangerous precedent to allow officers accused of ignoring the call of duty go scot free just because politicians want to use them as tools in their blame game.

Someday, we shouldn’t forget, the same party might be in power at the Centre and in Delhi. But the cops would be the same.