A pattern is being repeated here. Create the problem in the first place by undermining the institutions of governance. Charge the police and security forces with rescuing what is a hopeless situation. And when they do, with limited resources and support available to them, hang them. Punjab was the blueprint, Kashmir is a facsimile, and no doubt this model of civic helplessness followed by outrage can be repeated endlessly.

The Gujarat episode, in the details that are in the public domain, if true, without question represents a gross abuse of police authority that must be punished with the full force of law, but to use this as a peg to hang all the good work that has been done by police personnel across the country in the continuous fight against crime and terrorism, in the face of what in any civilised society would be considered as unacceptable constraints, is nothing less than an act of betrayal. A round of collective chest-beating about our police forces, without seriously addressing the shortcomings of infrastructure, resources and manpower that handicap the men and women charged with protecting our civil society, will ensure that the lessons of Gujarat are learnt and, as quickly, forgotten until the next time.

The writer is SSP, Haridwar