Opinion: Santals now refugee in homeland?

The quick action by a High Court bench which forced police to remove handcuffs from three injured Santals is praiseworthy. It protected them from being subjected to further inhumane and degrading treatment.

Santals in Gaibandha were forcibly evicted from their homes. They are being denied their right to life which has been guaranteed by the constitution as a fundamental right. They are forced to pass days and nights under the open sky. They are made to live lives like refugees in their own homelands.

But police did not stop here. They took much more excessive and insensitive action by putting handcuffs on three injured Santals even on their hospital bed. What can be more degrading and inhumane treatment than this?

In such a situation, the HC bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice Krishna Debnath yesterday ordered to remove handcuffs from injured Santals who were arrested by police in a case filed in connection with violence on November 6, the day they were evicted.

READ MORE: Human rights HANDCUFFED

What police did in Gaibandha should not be considered in isolation. There were many incidents in recent times which testify unwarranted behaviour by the law enforcement agencies' members. But they were not held accountable for their wrongdoings, excepting some cases.

Holding them accountable is probably now difficult for any partisan government. It is because whenever a political party in power used and abused the police forces for their narrow partisan interests. This has been going on for a long time. Therefore, the government has lost morality to hold the police accountable for any wrongdoing. This gave birth to the culture of impunity which has gradually created a largely lawlessness situation in the force. Still, there are many good officers in the law enforcement agencies, but they themselves are helpless with the situation.    

So, what police did with Santals is just a manifestation of the present situation in the law enforcement agencies.

The actions by police determine state of a nation: civilised or uncivilized. It is because police use the state's policing powers to maintain order in the society. This power is very coercive. To control abuse of the powers, to ensure legitimate exercise of the powers and to protect citizens from arbitrary use of the powers by the law enforcement agencies, the state enacts some criminal laws.

In our country, there are some such laws. The supreme law of the land, the constitution gives people some fundamental rights including right to life and liberty, equal protection to law. The constitution also prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment with people.

Some criminal laws were also made including the ones--anti-torture law of 2013 prohibiting all sorts of physical and mental torture by the law enforcement agencies. But no legal provision could protect Santals from their present inhumane situation. It happened as the police did not act according to the law and Santals were not entitled to the legal protection.   

The rule of law arrived much before the democracy with introduction of the common law into the British colonies before the Glorious Revolution in 1698 and the growth of the constitutional convention. But equal access to law took centuries to implement.

Acute deficiency in our democracy keeps worsening the state of rule of law resulting in poor governance. Santals in Gaibandha were denied their constitutional rights--equal protection of law.

This incident exposes inability of the state to treat every citizen equally. Santals are citizens of the state, not refugees.

By refusing the government's aid on Monday Santals give the message: they want their rights as citizens, not mere sympathy. 

Shouldn’t we collectively be ashamed for what we did with them?