New Delhi (July 24, Field Marshal fortnightly) Admittedly, Australia’s High Commissioner to India John McCarthy has a tough time these days. From a laid back approach to men and matters Indian, the diplomat has found himself on the back foot to defend his country’s police.
“This is not an issue about racism. This is an issue about terrorism,” he said repeatedly after Bangalore doctor, Mohammed Haneef‘s tryst with justice in Australia hit the headlines. Every body is worked up from the government to the Haneef’s family. The doctor’s young wife, Firdous Arshia (26) is livid with anger at the treatment her husband (27) is getting in Brisbane. “The Australian police are stupid”, she said as she appeared before TV cameras in front of her father’s house, two days after her husband was charged with supporting a failed terrorist plot in Glasgow, UK.
The twists and turns in Haneef’s case justify her anger and also the growing feeling across India that police in Down Under are no different from our own protectors of law. This should have come as a surprise to quite a few Indians who keep so much in store in the biblical fairness of the White Man and to all those who look to the far away shores as the modern El’ Dorado.
Consider the bare facts of the case. Haneef goes to Brisbane in 2006 on a four-year work visa. Arshia stays home as she is expecting her first baby. Haneef logs on the net and chats with his second cousin Sabeel Ahmed in Britain three days before the car bombs were discovered in London and Glasgow. UK police tumble on ‘leads’, and ‘incriminating’ evidence. Sabeel has the SIM card purchased by Haneef before he left the Halton Hospitl in Cheshire to strike riches as a doctor in Australia. The SIM card was recovered from ‘the flaming jeep’ at Glasgow airport on June 30. And the rest is history as the saying goes.
From Kashmir to Punjab, from Delhi to Bhopal to Baroda, and from Bangalore to Hyderabad, and of course from that ever tantalising Mumbai to the for ever ‘dying’ Kolkata, police are known to act in ‘the interest of the state’ on ‘mere suspicion’.
First arrest, flood the media with ‘an aggressive campaign of selective leaks’ and then search for evidence. This has been the police motto. Even as the victims languish behind bars as under trials for years.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) did not act differently in the Haneef’s case in a manner of speaking. In fact, they took a leaf out of Indian police manual, ‘ignored’ the bail granted to him by a local court and revoked his visa so that they can ‘detain’ him in the country.
So, what moral high ground India can occupy vis-à-vis the Aussies? That is a much larger issue the South Block should grapple without much obfuscation. The state governments are unwilling to undertake police reforms even after the Supreme Court highlighted the urgency and fixed a deadline for action.
A new brand version of McCtharism is sweeping the ‘civilized’ First World. The Australian anti-terror law speaks of four descending levels of ‘fault element’ behind each crime: intention, knowledge, recklessness and negligence. The police ‘declared’ Haneef as a terrorist but charged with him recklessness. It is a clear signal that the police is not confident of nailing Haneef. Yet, the very same evidence was used to cancel his visa and to prevent him from flying to India to see his new born daughter.
Haneef’s arrest and the vote bank politics have woken up India to the emerging global reality. For the moment the only consolation is that saner elements are still able to call the shots at home and abroad and expose the bumbling cops and their ministers.
BYTES BITE
1.
Australia would be outraged if one of its citizens was treated the same way as Haneef overseas: Ian Brown, President, Australian Law Alliance (ALA)
2.
The Australian Federal Police acted as bumbling keystone cops and have become a laughing stock: Peter Beattle, Queensland Premier ( chief minister)
3.
It is very dangerous business when politicians start interfering with judiciary: Senator Bob Brown, Greens leader.
4.
Howard government has placed incredible political pressure on the police to tarnish Haneef’s reputation: Senator Kerry Nettle
5.
I appeal to the Prime Minister to please, please help me out: Firdous Arshia, wife of Haneef
6.
Govt is unhappy with turn of events. Haneef was detained even after a judge said he is a man with an impeccable track record: E A Ahmed, Minister of State for External Affairs
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