Fifteen thousand encounters since 2017! Can you imagine that? Fifteen thousand men and women shot dead in so-called “encounters,” and two hundred and fifty six “hardened criminals” eliminated in just one state. I say “hardened criminals” in quotes because what seems truly hardened today is not the criminal, but the conscience of those who fire the bullets.

Every time I open the newspaper, I read the same story: The accused tried to snatch the officer’s gun, there was a scuffle, the officer fired in self-defence. Curtain falls. Case closed. No witness, no trial, no judge, no jury—only one voice, the voice of the shooter. What a simple and convenient justice system! Why waste years in courts, when the trigger can deliver “instant justice”?

And now comes the latest revelation. A medical doctor has said he was forced by the police to write false autopsy reports, to show that bullets were not fired at point-blank range.

Now here’s the real nightmare. Suppose someone doesn’t like you. Maybe a business rival wants your land, a politician dislikes your post, or a neighbour envies your house. All they need is one phone call, one “arranged” arrest, and before your wife can shout, “He’s innocent!”, you’ll be gone. The paper next morning will say you tried to grab an officer’s gun.

And what do we do? Nothing. We nod happily as mandirs rise, thinking faith is concrete and marble. We smile as announcements of bullet trains and shiny airports fill our screens, never mind that some of our brand-new bridges are already cracking and falling. We are so content with the glitter of progress that we don’t notice the ground beneath us being quietly stolen. For every pillar of a new flyover, a little bit of our freedom crumbles.

While we are thrilled with the outer show of strength, we are losing the inner substance of democracy. For what use are our mandirs if truth is murdered in an encounter or lock-up? What good are our flyovers if justice lies buried beneath them? What speed will our bullet trains achieve when the tracks of freedom have been pulled out?

All this, while we, the people, remain silent. We tell ourselves that those killed in encounters deserved it. We believe that police bullets only find bad men. But history teaches otherwise. When the state learns that the people will not question a single gunshot, soon the guns find new targets—ordinary citizens who once clapped for “strong governance.”

Democracy does not die with explosions. It dies softly, while religious talks rise and trains gleam. It dies when we trade truth for lies.

So the next time you hear of another encounter, stop. Ask. Think. Because one day, it might not be a stranger on that list. It might be someone who once believed, like you do now, that this could never happen to them…!

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