Kerala Police is offering drug counseling to actors, arresting journos - what about catching criminals?

Kerala Police has been keeping busy these past few days and weeks. Anyone has any doubts?

Senior police officials have ‘counselled’ Malayalam film actors such as Shine Tom Chacko and Sreenath Bhasi to mend their drug habits. Arrested rapper Vedan and booked hotshot directors Khalid Rahman and Ashraf Hamza, in relation to possession of drugs. Let’s not forget the courtesy extended to another actor Vinayakan after his latest outburst in public. For sure, Kerala Police is only there to serve and correct…

And it’s not just drug-related issues that Kerala Police is busy with. They had plenty of time to arrest one of Kerala’s most influential digital news media journalists Shajan Skaria – of ‘Marunadan Malayali’ fame - over what many would agree has to be one of the flimsiest charges anyone could come up with. Shajan’s arrest was played out late night in front of live TV, casting aside any propriety given to an accused when booked by the police. (For no-Malayalees who don't know Shajan, think of him as a combination of Arnab Goswami and Ravish Kumar...)

This is the same Kerala police that at various points had failed to get anywhere near Shine Tom and the other actor Siddique when they came under the scanner. In fact, the two actors took their own sweet time to come in for questioning by the Police.

So, looking at all these happenings, one does need to say that the Kerala Police is keeping busy.

But what about catching some hard-core criminals? This is where Kerala Police is coming up short – again and again. Sure, there have been some drug busts of ‘couriers’, but what about putting some sort of stop to the supply-lines and actually going after the sources of the drug menace in the great state of Kerala?

Is it beyond what the Kerala Police can do? Are they best left to offer career counselling to Shine Tom Sreenath Bhasi and various actors and directors?

This is probably why the tackling of the drug menace needs an India-wide policy and rulebook than left to the whims of any individual state. A federal agency has to be in the vanguard to work on prevention and enforcement of those specific rules to target and eliminate the drug trade within India. Sure, this would fly against the entire Centre vs. State framework that has defined Indian policing through the decades.

But India and its states have not faced as insidious a social menace – and looming catastrophe – as getting caught up in drugs and what it does to the country’s young. The saddest part is that this is no longer a concern of what it does to the youngest and most vulnerable in society. The worst of social media has already filtered through every pore of India – adding drugs to that is beyond thinkable.

This is why India needs toughened up rules to take on the vile perpetrators in the business of drugs. And the force to tackle them.

Kerala Police, by the looks it, are just not cut out for action – they are better left to do some drug counselling…