How ridiculous is it that simply not knowing a language can make one unsafe and vulnerable to this extent? It was a weird feeling learning about that because I had just flown from Bengal to Nagaland in a flight mostly filled with Bengalis and Nagas, in a flight that had no safety instruction, announcement, signage, reading material in Bengali or Nagamese. In USA, Sureshbhai didn’t know the language of Alabama and was in danger. In Kolkata airport, most CISF personnel don’t know Bengali. In Chennai's main railway stations, most RPF personnel don’t know Tamil. In the Indian Union, the Central government airlines and railways don’t care about the mother tongue of a section of its customers and puts peoples lives in danger on a daily basis. Why?

Many brown people of the Indian Union have been protesting American police brutality and racism with extra vigour this time – one way to get back at the communal harmony tips that USA president Obama has been giving to brownland. USA certainly has a pathetic record on this count. Mostly white police typically patrol mostly non-white areas to assault and arrest mostly non-white people who are then tried in courts full of mostly white judges. But change colour/race to caste/religion and the previous sentence does not seem to be true only for distant USA and hits uncomfortably closer to home. One solution that has often been advocated in USA is to ensure that security is entrusted with locals, so that the force is racially representative and socio-culturally literate about the context in which it operates. If we cut to the subcontinent, a radically opposite pictures arises. Here, the security apparatus carries forward the British colonial policy where ethnic insurgents from one area (say Nagaland) are typically dealt with by sarkari armed forces that hail mostly from another area (say Bihar and UP) to ensure “peace and prosperity”. Why is it always the case that most of the security forces deployed in Nagaland dont know any Naga dialect, those deployed in Chhattisgarh don’t know Gondi, those in Manipur don't know Meitei. Is this purely accidental? Is lack of mutual understanding between combatants, between armed forces and the people, a pre-condition for ensuring smooth and efficient security operations? What does 'smooth and efficient' or for that matter “security” mean in such cases? What's going on here, in our name? Why do they fear making local language literacy a pre-condition for deployment of forces? Sections of the audio excerpt from Sureshbhai's attack communication log haunts me. One policeman asks, “Do you understand?”. Another policeman says, “I don’t know what his problem is, but he won’t listen”.

While the Alabama police should be held accountable, the communication between police personnel in audio form and even a video of the confrontation and attack on Sureshbhai is on public record. If brown people in USA are dealt with this level of transparency, can we not expect at least that amount of transparency from brown policemen in brownland?

There is no security without compassion. There is no security without empathy. There is no security without legitimacy in the eyes of the people being purportedly 'secured'. All acts that lack these qualities when done in the name of “security” are sins in the eyes of gods, even if some paper document says otherwise. (IPA)