Day 273

Toll 582

Police

We all now know about ‘the 6 trillion dollars sale to achieve the 5 million tonne economy’. – Thanks to Shakti D for the line.

Question is: who will guard all these privatised assets?

Would our, taxpayers, money go into paying salaries of police and para-military forces standing guard on private factories and assets or would new private owners raise their own security forces and has been in vogue for the last few decades? You know, like the private security guards for apartment complexes and corporate offices.

That brings us to the apprehension I have had for years now: obviously, like with everything else, government will stop funding state police forces. Police forces will see huge reduction in jobs. New recruitments will reduce. India will have bigger and bigger private militias.

That would take us to South America or closer still to Afghanistan. I hope the police forces and para-military think about it when they next raise their batons and open their prisons and file FIRs against those protesting rise of crony capitalism. It is in each individual police personnel’s interest to reflect upon what the government they defend will do with them.