Criminalisation and politicisation of the police force is an issue guaranteed to put tempers on a high boil, especially that of the ruling party.
Instead what played out in the Assembly on Monday was a dull and insipid debate on the issue.
Moving an adjournment motion on the issue, Congress MLA and former home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said policemen indicted in criminal cases were still retained in the force. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said everything was fine.
It sounded as if one side was raising allegations just for the sake of it and the other side was mechanically rejecting them. Thiruvanchoor's allegations were more rhetoric than specifics.
He spoke of criminalisation in the force and how it was made to do the bidding of politicians bidding but somehow did not bother with substantiating his claims with solid examples.
This allowed the Chief Minister to laugh away the charges. Had specific examples been given, the Chief Minister would have had to be careful and detailed in his reply.
Any factual error could return to haunt him.
To be fair, Thiruvanchoor did give an example, regarding the status of former Thrikkakkara CI Sunu who was accused of rape and against whom 15 departmental inquiries were instituted.
The Congress MLA said Sunu was reinstated in the coastal wing. The Chief Minister said the policeman was suspended.
Unwittingly, Thiruvanchoor also used differing figures, one large and another small, to reinforce one argument. It seemed convenient.
He attributed the large number of law and order cases registered in Kerala, 27,297, to police inefficiency. If so, then zero cases under nine Pink Police stations in Kerala should have been feted.
But Thiruvanchoor said this was sign of incompetence.
The Chief Minister pointed this out and said registering law and order cases demonstrated nothing but a sensitive force.
However, he was silent about the zero cases registered by Pink Police in nine districts.
Quoting a reply provided by the Chief Minister himself, Thiruvanchoor said that since 2016 there were 828 policemen in the force against whom there were criminal cases.
The Chief Minister turned this argument on its head. He said this was merely 2.56 percent of the total police strength of 55,000-plus.
A very pertinent question begged to be asked at this point. This was asked only later, by Opposition Leader V D Satheesan.
But Satheesan's was a walk out speech to which the Chief Minister is not expected to respond.
He can reply only to the person who moves the adjournment motion on an issue, which in this case was Thiruvanchoor.
Satheesan said the Chief Minister, even while conceding that 828 policemen had criminal proceedings pending against them, had refused to answer other more valid posers.
"We had asked the number of such people who were posted in the law and order wing. To all such questions, the Chief Minister's official response was that these were not compiled," he said. "This means we have no proper records of criminals in our police force," he added.
Satheesan then reminded the Chief Minister of specific cases where policemen with criminal bent of mind seemingly had political patronage.
He spoke of a CI who had to be terminated at the behest of the High Court.
"This officer had 30 criminal cases against him and an internal enquiry by a senior officer had found him guilty in all these 30 cases. Yet you restored him," he said and added: "Under whose influence was he taken back?"
Whenever the police is in the dock, the Chief Minister's stock defence is that the morale of the force should not be hurt.
Satheesan referred to an incident in Kozhikode Medical College where a security personnel was badly roughed up by a DYFI leader and his henchmen.
When the city police commissioner took stern action, the CPM's Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan called a press conference and used threatening language against the police.
"Who authorised the CPM district secretary to articulate the CPM's police policy," Satheesan asked. "Did this not hurt the morale of the force that was trying to do justice," he said.
He also referred to the incident at Thalassery, Kannur, where a migrant child was mercilessly kicked by a person for leaning on his car.
"On the first day, the assailant was let off by the police without taking any case. Under whose instructions was the accused allowed to leave the police station that night," Satheesan asked.
Had Thiruvanchoor asked these questions, the Chief Minister would have been forced to reply. As it turned out, these posers were left unanswered.
