Political message in handcuffs

George Floyd’s arms handcuffed at the back, face pinned down to the ground, and eventually the latter’s resultant death that sparked violent riots across the US — the US police’s procedure of handcuffing at the rear is quite traumatic, as it can cause tendinitis and tearing of shoulder ligaments. In India, the hands are handcuffed in the front, a far more comfortable method of restraining an outlaw.

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Decades ago, when I was an impressionable youngster, it was a common sight to see accused/suspects in handcuffs being walked to the courts and back. Some cops would hire a rickshaw, as prison vans came on the scene much later. No one paid much attention to the daily routine, unless the person happened to be of known notoriety or of some eminence or of a political kind. In that case, suddenly hundreds of spectators or supporters would gather and walk along excitedly, many a time creating boisterous scenes. When I joined the police service in the ’70s, I found out that our training manual had a full chapter on the use and maintenance of handcuffs!

I also found out that handcuffing was being used not only as an aid to subdue an outlaw but also by the political class as a means to humiliate rivals. Pressure would mount on the local police officials, either for handcuffing or ‘not-handcuffing’, once it was known that the arrest was imminent or the person was to be produced before the court. Some officers would take a stand, but many others would just succumb.

Once handcuffing even created quite a piece of bitter history in Haryana’s politics. In 1973, CM Bansi Lal was ruling the state with an iron hand. Devi Lal, another towering political leader, was his arch rival, and was protesting against some farmers’ issues when he was arrested and lodged at Ambala jail.

Incidentally, a case stood registered at Sirsa too against Devi Lal, for pushing and assaulting a police officer, during another public protest there. It is said his being lodged in jail was used as an opportunity to effect his arrest in the Sirsa case as well.

The police was pressured to handcuff him and take him to Sirsa from Ambala (a long journey) in an ordinary Haryana roadways bus. The aim, as the public saw through it, was to humiliate a political rival.

But the political climate changed in 1977, immediately after the Emergency was lifted. Devi Lal became the Chief Minister, and now it was his turn to pay back in the same coin. Bansi Lal was arrested on some charges in his own home turf, Bhiwani, and was handcuffed. The photographs of Bansi Lal in handcuffs were splashed in newspapers the following morning.

As an upshot, observing its frequent misuse and realising its potential for mischief, the Supreme Court, in 1995, declared handcuffing as illegal — a practice violative of human rights, and only to be used in exceptional cases, that too, not without the prior permission of a magistrate!