Yathish Chandra G H assumed rock star status in Kerala after he confronted Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan with a disarming smile and a casual question. The IPS officer in charge of security on the fringes of the volatile Sabarimala could not let the BJP leader throw his weight around and defy a regulation on private vehicles to the base of the hill shrine. "Would you take responsibility for the traffic snarl?" he asked the minister and went viral.
Yathish Chandra has been a newsmaker throughout his career. He famously walked into a party office in Angamali to smoke out activists who blocked a national highway during a hartal. He landed in an unenviable situation when a seven-year-old boy pointed a finger at him and told the human rights panel that the officer beat up his father protesting the installation of a gas pipe at Puthuvype near Kochi.
Yathish Chandra is back in Thrissur after a stormy session of duty around the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa Temple, where the police has had a hard time bringing back order after protests triggered by a Supreme Court order allowing all women to go up the holy hill. The Thrissur police commissioner is busy coordinating the force in the city and receiving complaints from the people.
The 33-year-old was all smiles when asked about the social media memes comparing him to the matinee cops presented by Suresh Gopi. “I am not a hot-headed cop. Policemen can never satisfy more than 50 per cent of the population. When you have a duty to evict a house, the house owners will comment your work. The evicted people will only have ill will towards you. That is the plight of the police.
“I only did my job in Sabarimala. I am an officer responsible for implementing the directions of the government. My likes and dislikes do not matter. We keep away our beliefs and opinions when we carry out the government’s directions,” he said.
Anger management
Does Yathish Chandra ever fly off the handle?
“You can ask anyone. I never get angry even to my subordinates. I leave my tension in the office. I do not carry my work home. At home, I am just an ordinary husband helping wife with cooking and other stuff.
“I want to finish all my work with honesty. I can’t care about religion, caste or politics in the line of duty. I do not deviate from law. We have been trained to deal with agitations. There is not a single case against me.
“We did not beat up children in Kochi. Women protesters were dealt with by women cops. The police are just carrying out government decisions, not ours. We feel sorry when we are blamed for it. I find solace in god in such situations. I used to go to Sabarimala every year. I bowed before Lord Ayyappa four times this season. I also started going to the Guruvayur temple after I was posted in Thrissur.
Branding honest cops
“Some people have been going about saying that I am related to actor Sheela and I am a Christian. It’s funny. Nobody had bothered to ask me. I am not related to Sheela. I do not even know her. I am from Davangere in Karnataka. I am yet to watch a Malayalam movie. I have been hearing a lot about Suresh Gopi of late. I only know him as a Member of Parliament. I have also heard of Mammootty, Mohanlal, Prithviraj and Nivin Pauly.
“I find it hard to digest how people segregate themselves on the basis of religions and castes. We had just survived a flood. We were not Hindus, Muslims or Christians those days. We were all humans. Many policemen plunged into duty even leaving their families alone in those times of distress. I even skipped the wedding of a close relative.
“Yet, when everything is over, some people are asking about the policemen’s religion and caste. What’s the use? The cops were good then. How can they suddenly turn bad now? This is not my individual sorrow. This pain is shared by all the policemen in Kerala.”
You left your job as a technology professional to be a police officer.
“My father Halappa was in the Karnataka government service. My mother Sidha Gangamma a housewife. I am their only son. My ambition as a student was to get the best-paying job. I completed an electronic and communication engineering course and got a job with Motorola in Bengaluru through campus recruitment.
“After two years, I joined an MBA course with an eye to going abroad. That is when my friend, Sreenivas, told me to try my luck with the civil service. To be honest, I had no idea what an SP was or what a DCP was. I looked up the internet to see what were my chances if I passed the civil service exam. I chose geography as my main subject. I did not quit my job or join any coaching. My study aides were internet and more specifically, YouTube.
“I did not make the cut in the first attempt. I was short of a few ranks. The next year I took it easy. In the third attempt, I prepared well. I had also applied to a job as a deputy superintendent in the Karnataka police. I secured the 211st rank in the general merit category. I was selected to the Karnataka police as well but I chose the IPS.
First memories of the job
“It was not difficult to work in Kerala. Politicians are well-educated. They do not try to throw their weight around. People respect the police because they love them, not because they are afraid.
“I had never heard of the SFI, KSU or the ABVP until I was posted as a station house officer at Vadakara. Nobody had heard of campus politics in my hometown. Personally, I am against campus politics. I vote as per the current situation and the chief minister candidate. I do not want to vote for a party always.
Learning Malayalam
“I learned to speak Malayalam at Vadakara. I still have some hangups. What is a revered greeting in Kozhikode may be insulting in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Kerala has many practices contrary to what I am used to. I had to visit some houses as part of investigation when I was posted in Kannur. Those may be big beautiful houses but when you get inside, they may be half done. My father built a house in 1993 with a bank loan. When he ran out of money, he completed the works in the inside so that we could start living in the house. Then we gradually finished the works outside and painted it. When he bought a car, he chose Maruti Alto. Father thought it was enough for a family of three.
Being a foodie
“I believe that we live to eat. I am a vegetarian. I love the Kerala sadya with payasam. But I can’t handle coconut oil. Isn’t it a hair oil. I have peculiar food habits. We buy four litres of milk every day. I drink almost a litre. I drink a large bowl of yoghurt three times a day. I also drink about a litre of buttermilk. I want loads of ghee in my food. I am such a foodie that I could tell the ingredients by tasting the food.
“Exercise is a lifestyle for me. I used to gorge on pizza and burger when I was an IT professional. I had put on weight. I started doing exercise regularly during IPS training.
“I do exercise for an hour a day. I am not trying to bulk up, but to increase my stamina. We may be required to work for up to eight hours a day without a single break. Some days we may have to sit in office for eight hours. I have to be fit to work like that.
“I liked the PM’s fitness challenge. If citizens are fit, the country will be fit too. I sought permission from the director general of police and participated in the challenge and posted a video of it.
No ifs and buts
“I married Shyamala, a friend from my engineering college days, with the permission of our families. Our son, Vishrut, goes to the kindergarten. My parents live with me now. Everyone at home speaks Malayalam by now. Whenever some controversy erupts on television, my wife would tell me I would not had to go through it all had I stuck to information technology.
“Whether I regret leaving behind the IT sector? I do not have a clear answer. I did that for five years. I completed six years in the civil service. I do not get paid as much as in the IT sector but I could not have expected the love and respect I get now had I stayed on as a technology professional. I can’t say that I will not go back to the IT sector.
