Jharkhand Elections: Cops in Palamu don poll campaigner’s cap!

THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK

Daltonganj, April 12: Cops in Palamu are in the new role of poll performers. They are out doing a campaign to increase the participation of eligible voters in voting here, which is due on May 13 for the Palamu Lok Sabha seat and May 20 for the Chatra Lok Sabha constituency.

First-time voters

From a warm hug to first-time voters to plain talking with women out in the jungles to collect firewood or herbs, cops in Palamu are creating awareness and rekindling the voters’ interest in polling.

With a gun in one hand and their bodies in war fatigue, cops in Palamu lisp to the villagers not to miss voting.

Left-wing extremism

It was something unimaginable in the 2019 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections here in this left-wing extremist district of Palamu, where there was a deep wedge between the public and the police, each distrusting and mistrusting the other, believing each as naxal or anti-public.

The cops then were seen as a despised lot by the public. Cops were seen as an instrument of atrocities, beating people with low incomes to extract information about Naxal hideouts, etc.

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Cops’ suspicion

On the other hand, the police, too, had an abundance of doubts and suspicions about the public, thinking the public to be in cahoots with the Naxals and more favourably inclined to support and protect the Naxals.

The scene is different today. Police and the public talk more than doubting each other now.

And its election time, and the cops want to do something extraordinary. It’s campaigning for more and more voting.

The moving spirit behind this new cop role is the lady IPS officer Reeshma Ramesan, the SP in Palamu.

Palamu SP Reeshma Ramesan motivates cops

Reeshma Ramesan told the Jharkhand Story correspondent late last night, “Our boys go on Ops (operations). They make it CBM (confidence-building measure). They sit with the villagers and talk to them like they love doing it.”

“Our police officers and the civilians played cricket with the village youths in Hussainabad sub division. It’s not just bat, ball, and wicket,” added Reeshma Ramesan.

“It’s more than that. It’s a cricket of voting as one tries to make more and more runs in the cricket matches, so one and all eligible should also vote without leaving any single vote uncast,” reminded Reeshma Ramesan.

Cops are excited

The job is enterprising, and cops are excited about it. One police officer took the tribal music instrument, the Maander, and thumped it elegantly. He sang a song in a tribal dialect that women would go to collect Mahua fruits, but on the day of polling, women would go first to poll.

Cops’ guns are in position as the guard level is not thrown to the wind since no one knows from which dark hole Naxals may pop up.

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