In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
A crackdown on people violating the Covid19 lockdown took a humiliating turn in regions of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as police officers made the violators do frog jumps on an open street, ostensibly to teach them a lesson. Who knew the coronavirus pandemic would become a back to school special?
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Speaking of going back to school, Rishikesh police officers who encountered some foreign tourists walking along a river dealt them lines in lieu of sending them to jail. The tourists, reportedly from Mexico, Australia, Israel and Austria were made to write “‘I did not follow the rules of lockdown. I am very sorry” 500 times.
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In an effort to be with the times, Jaipur police warned residents not to step out of their houses unnecessarily. If found, they vowed on their Twitter to shut the violator in a room and play a widely-derided remake of a classic — Masakali 2.0 — on loop.
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Andhra Pradesh police decided to take the punishment in another direction — they forced violators to do squats, sit-ups and the infamous murga on the streets, as they took photos to self-congratulate themselves on their hilarity.
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In line with the Ayush Ministry guidelines, Pune police cracked down on morning walkers by forcing them to do another kind of exercise that comes pre-approved from the Prime Minister himself — yoga.
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Police in Meerut realized they didn’t need to dole out physical punishment to lockdown violators; they simply had to make use of the Internet. They took to social media to name and shame lockdown violators, calling them “Friends of coronavirus.”
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Karnataka police decided to make use of the free labor they could get out of lockdown violators. Upon catching people out and about, the police made them clean public places, such as a popular lake.
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Amidst the humiliating, absurd punishments is a common, dangerous one cops all around the country are doling out to migrants in the form of lathi-charge and other kinds of beatings. At the end of the day, the police has been entrusted with keeping the peace and ensuring people are inside. Treating human beings as puppets or their own personal punching bags is never going to be ‘cool.’
