The Maharashtra Director General of Police, Arvind Inamdar, is unlikely to forget Rameshwar Mohod in a hurry. Neither are the people of Nagpur. Six years ago, while serving as a constable with the Nagpur police, he had slapped Inamdar, then Special IGP and the Nagpur Police Commissioner, at the latter's residence after a heated argument.He had gone to Inamdar representing residents of the police quarters where he lived, which was seeing a shortage of water at the height of summer in 1993. He came out of the meeting with a bang, followed by his sacking and perhaps little for his colony residents. But Mohod's passion for representing obviously hasn't cooled. Now, he is seeking to represent a much larger section - the West Nagpur Assembly segment, from where he is standing as an Independent.However, as far as issues go, the ex-cop has just one: the police and what to do with it. Mohod has spent the six years since his dismissal working for the Police Kalyankari Sanghatana, a body he floated to ``fight forthe welfare of the police''. Now, that ``fight'' has got transferred to another level. The former constable has adopted the woes of the lower rungs of the police machinery as his agenda and is confident his image as a ``crusader'' will stand him in good stead and make him a force to reckon with. His eyes and hopes rest on the more than 5,000 constables and their family members living in the city. Says Mohod: ``Only (when I am successful) will the other parties pay attention to the problems of policemen, who till now remain a punching bag for one and all.''Mohod especially criticises senior IPS officals who, he says, have formed a class of their own and exploit both the lower rungs and the public. According to him, the present police system is one of the many legacies of British colonialism, where the police were used to quell uprisings by Indians. He says this ``tradition'' persisted after Independence with IPS officers picking up from where the White officers left. ``This is the biggest reason why theIndian police has not been able to strike a friendly note with the masses,'' he fumes.The former constable is equally critical of police laws, which have not seen a change since they were formulated by the British. According to him, these have led to inequality in the society. ``The poor continue to be exploited while the affluent enjoy immunity,'' he says. ``The British Bobby is always presented as an ideal policeman. Why can't the Indian policeman, who was also created by the British, come up to that level?''His solution is a spate of reforms, including scrapping of the Police Manual of 1861, which is almost gospel for the police, a rise in the minimum educational limit for entry into the police department from the present matriculation and fundamental changes in training programmes. He feels training institutes currently teach policemen to blindly follow superiors on ``the pretext of discipline''.Himself a matriculate, Mohod strikes a chord among his former colleagues when he talks about theseissues, particularly about lower-rung policemen being made scapegoats by senior officers in sensitive cases. But whether this support translates into votes remains to be seen. The policemen are especially doubtful if Mohod would be able to deliver. ``There have been previous experiences when someone from our community has (been elected to) the legislature but has not succeeded in bringing significant relief to our problems,'' a constable says, giving examples of AICC general secretary Sushil Kumar Shinde and Yavatmal legislator Uttam Ingle. Both have served in the police force.Another factor which goes against Mohod is the allegation that he has laundered funds that he collected from policemen for his Sanghatana for personal gains. Mohod doesn't exactly deny this. With a wife and two kids to support, he says he has no worries about earning bread and butter, that his sympathisers ensure they can meet both ends meet. When things get worse, he admits, he digs into Sanghatana donations for survival.Mohod'sefforts to get the Police Kalyankari Sanghatana recognised as a union have also not met with much success. In fact, his activities have landed him behind bars a number of times. The last time was a few months ago, when he was booked for creating unrest in the force by organising a convention of policemen at Jalgaon.But as Mohod has shown, hurdles such as these don't bother him. He is still breathing fire, now with a ``gas cylinder'' as symbol and the slap that started it all the spark.
