Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes is a Latin phrase that the Man from Madras Musings had picked up somewhere and stored for showing off in future. And the opportunity it seems has come. Translated into English it says, “Who will guard the guards?” and that is what came to MMM’s mind when he read a news item concerning regulating the police force in our city of Madras that is Chennai. In short, who enforces law on the law?
A New Law on The Law
Apparently, the latest missive from up top in the force is that the constabulary in charge of traffic ought not to congregate under trees in small groups waiting to pounce on traffic violators but to focus more on regulating traffic by standing in ones and twos at various hotspots. As to how this latest in an already existing list of regulations will fare is anybody’s guess. MMM is of the view that this too will pass and remain in the books for future generations to wonder at. Of course, if it does get implemented in letter and spirit, there will no happier person than MMM who has often been pounced upon for imagined violations.
Stalking Their Prey
MMM wonders if you have noticed it but of late, the enforcers of law have taken to forming collectives, most often under shade-bearing trees. MMM is the last to look askance at this behaviour for in his view these men and women are more to be pitied than censured. They are forever in the heat and dust dealing with wanton violations of traffic rules and yet earn the ire of just about everyone. Who would want to work like that? And yet they do. And so, if they collect under trees, may they do so by all means is MMM’s considered view. But it is their habit of stalking their prey and pouncing on them out of nowhere that MMM has much to complain about.
Going for the Kill
The modus operandi is quite good and even in this there is a pecking order. The seniormost in the herd, and often this person is the bulkiest, prefers to remain seated on a two-wheeler deep in the shade of a tree. He/she is seen engrossed in conversation with a couple of middle-order constables while the hunter-gatherers peer through the branches at the approaching traffic, their khakhi forming a perfect camouflage against the tree trunk. As the traffic lights change, these foot soldiers brace themselves, awaiting the first wave of violators. As they approach, these brave linesmen and women jump on them and steer those caught away to the tree.
You could be in the deepest of Africa watching the migration of wildebeest.
The Division of Spoils
An interrogation of sorts then begins, the senior person raised from torpor with amazing alacrity conducting it, with the others around him/her acting as yes-persons. There is necessity for transactions to be conducted with speed for there is a line of victims awaiting judgement and as this grows, some of them make good their escape, confident that the worst that can happen is an e-challan for violation which any day is to be preferred to the endless wrangling that can happen under the tree, subject to the heckling of the yes men, the snarky comments by the senior policeman and the interested gaze of passersby.
Will This Change Anything?
All of this, if we are to believe that latest law, will soon be a thing of the past. MMM wonders if our roads will not become a tad dull, without this daily dose of drama unfolding under our very noses. But then violators and violations will still continue to give us plenty of local colour.
This article appeared in Madras Musings dated March 16, 2025 and can be read here