Thread by @KumarSeshadri

There are many liberals who were first shocked about the encounter killing of #AsadAhmed and then horrified by the killings of #AtiqAhmed and #AshrafAhmed in custody. I count myself as a liberal, too, but I find these criticisms bereft of logic.

A 🧵 to explain why.

(1/n)

We would all like our justice system to operate with full due process. But that it doesn't is shown best by the fact that the term "encounter killing" is unique to India. You don't hear this term in Western countries. Outside India, these are known as #extrajudicialkillings (2/n)

Liberal commentators have denounced the killings of these three gangsters without due process as the complete failure of the law and order system. They are right. But this failure is not new. The first encounter killing in Mumbai happened in 1982 in Wadala.

(3/n)

Commentators today agonize about how people are celebrating the culture of state-sponsored encounter killings, but they didn't seem so aghast when this 1982 extrajudicial killing of Manya Surve became a big budget hit Bollywood movie called #ShootoutatWadala (4/n)

International human rights organizations have condemned India for decades for the culture of extrajudicial killings.

Encounter killings have become so normalized that most TV serials in India that feature cops make reference to it.

"I will encounter you" is a common line. (5/n)

An example of such a serial was the serial on the Tamil channel #SunTV called #Anandam

This serial featured a cop called "Encounter AC Durai" whom criminals in the show feared because of his willingness to kill them through "encounters."

(6/n)

indiaforums.com/forum/topic/60…

Anandam (meaning "Joy") ran from 2003-2009, and the character AC Durai, who was extremely popular and played by the actor Sakshi Siva, was introduced in 2006, 17 years ago. I recall that the UPA was in power at the centre then. Similar characters are seen in all languages. (7/n)

So pretending that India lost its innocence only in 2023 is shamelessly dishonest. We have always had a corrupt and impotent law and order system that is beholden to power. Innumerable movies have been made on this theme and the need, therefore, of extrajudicial vigilantes. (8/n)

Old-timers will remember the 1988 #AmitabhBachchan superhit film, #Shahenshah in which Amitabh plays a cop who pretends to be corrupt in order to appear to be compliant but doubles as a vigilante bringing criminals to book.
(9/n)

Shahenshah even had a famous line by Amitabh.

"Rishtey se to hum tumhare baap lagte hain; naam hai Shahenshah."

Saying "I am your dad" is gangster language, but the line and the movie were hugely popular.

So idolizing extrajudicial killings and lawless cops is old. It didn't start in #YogiAdityanath's UP in 2023.

(10/end)

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