Police database move is unwarranted

The move by Bengaluru Police to launch a software to collect details of non-Kannadiga tenants in the city, including that of expatriates and those from other states, is not only discriminatory and dangerous, but smacks of jingoism. The details of foreigners on an extended stay are anyway available as they are required to register themselves and also inform the local police about any change in their residential address. Some of these foreigners do indulge in crimes, including drug peddling, and change their place of residence without informing the police, but this is true of all criminals, not just expatriates. Crimes like thefts, chain and mobile snatching, rowdyism and drug-pushing usually thrive when the jurisdictional police officer fails to gather intelligence and act or is complicit in the crimes. The much-touted neighbourhood watch scheme, which could have addressed some of these issues, has been a non-starter, compounded by the fact that local police officers rarely interact with resident welfare associations or other groups that usually have their ears to the ground and can complement the work of the law enforcing agencies.

Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality before law and equal protection of law to all people within the territory of India, while Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth. Under Article 19, a citizen has the right to freely move throughout the country, reside in any part and practice any profession, trade or business. Hence, the proposal of the police to collect a database of and profile non-Kannadiga citizens is unconstitutional, illegal and is liable to be challenged in court and struck down by it. Given the concerns over data security, such a database and profiling can be dangerous as it would make it easy for anti-social elements to target people of a particular country, state or community, especially during riots, if they are to obtain access to the software, which does not seem difficult these days.

Bengaluru Police and the government should understand that the discrimination inherent can have a cascading effect, with other states and countries adopting a similar stand against Kannadigas. Incidents of attacks on Kannadigas living outside the state have been reported in the past. It will only be natural for other governments to reciprocate in equal measure if Karnataka goes ahead with this prejudiced move. Instead, the police should first set its own house in order, strengthen forensic and investigation capabilities and intelligence, weed out corrupt and inefficient officers who are unable to control crime. The public at large cannot be made to suffer for the deficiencies of the police force.