Corruption is a very big issue in India nowadays, and everyone is talking about it. We even saw the results in the Delhi state assembly elections, where the Aam Aadmi Party changed the government solely on the issue of corruption. I was very excited after seeing the results of the Delhi elections, but sometimes things happen that make me feel like there is just no way to kill corruption in this country. Last week, I attended a friend’s wedding in Varanasi. After the wedding was finished, all of my friends returned home, but one of them parked his motorbike right in front of his home on the main street, which is usual in a city like Varanasi where there is no parking space available  anywhere.

At 2:30 AM, I got a call from the same friend saying his bike was missing. He called me seeking help to find the bike. We went together on the street asking people if anyone had seen our bike, and a person told us that he had seen two policemen taking the bike. We went to the nearest police station, and the officer there said that the bike was found unattended and hence sent to a bigger police station about a kilometer away from my place. At the big police station, we found everyone asleep except for one person standing by the entrance. We asked him about our bike and he confirmed it was there but said we needed to talk to the officer.

We went to the officer and found him sleeping on his chair. We tried to wake him up, but he was in a super sound sleep. Finally, after several attempts, he woke up. We explained our situation, and he said we would have to go to court the next day, pay a fine of Rs. 10,000, and only then would we get our bike. We knew he was lying. We requested him repeatedly to give us our bike back, and he finally agreed after talking with the policemen who had brought the bike from the street. He asked us to go back on the street to look for those policemen.

We had no idea where to find them. We requested the officer to kindly confirm their location by talking with them on the phone, but the officer just didn’t want to help us. He always seemed more interested in his sleep. Anyway, we returned to the same location and luckily found those police officers. We explained our situation and they were cooperative. They asked us to go back to the police station and have the officer talk with them. Back at the police station, we again found the officer sleeping. It was a serious pain to wake him up, but the mission was successful. He opened a register, looked at a few pages, and found the page where he had written the bike number.

Then he asked for the bike registration papers, which we did not have. The papers were with the friend who owned the bike. We tried calling him, but he did not respond. We went to his home, woke him up, brought him to the police station with all the papers, and waited. Right in front of our eyes, the officer closed the register and again fell asleep, asking us to wait. We didn’t know what to do. I laughed in anger, and we started talking among ourselves, like “This is our great India, this is the system,” things like that.

The awake policeman who was listening told us, “Now you are laughing too much, but imagine what would have happened if a thief had stolen your bike.” I didn’t know what to tell him, but I replied that we were laughing only because our bike was safe with the police. After waiting 15 to 20 minutes, we asked the awake policeman to wake the sleeping officer. Finally, the officer woke up, looked at the documents again, and asked for Rs. 500. We all looked at each other and asked why he needed Rs. 500. When we asked this question, he got upset, closed the register, and fell asleep again, asking us to go to court the next day.

We knew well that if we went to court, we’d have to bribe maybe 10 people, because everything is super corrupt at the courts too. It was already 4 AM, and we had no hope other than bribing him. We finally gave him Rs. 500 and got our bike back. But when I think about that policeman’s behavior, it makes me feel like our police exists to torture us and nothing else. The policeman had no interest in helping, always tried to make the situation more complicated, and was very rude, corrupt, fat, lazy, sleepy, and a bigger thief than regular thieves. And I have never met any policeman better than him. I have also never met anyone who said they found a helpful policeman.

I think it’s definitely time to dismiss the entire police system and bring in fresh people with different training. I’ve heard that our police are trained the same way as in the British Raj days. The police were trained to fight locals back then, and they are still trained the same way today. Our political system has never had time to improve the police system because they are also involved in looting the country. I’m sure this problem could be solved by bringing a new police act and using more technology, but I don’t see much hope, especially for my state of Uttar Pradesh, where governments come to power by playing caste and religion politics.

I have always believed that Indian police are somehow responsible for every problem we have, and if things don’t change soon, I guarantee the dream of India becoming a superpower will remain just a dream forever.