Police is the favourite whipping boy in India BY V BALACHANDRAN RESPECTED POLICE MAN
The favourite whipping boy in India is the state police. Not necessarily because of their own failures, but more because the other arms of government "pass the buck" of their failures to them. In fact, it is high time our police offices displayed the board "the government buck stops here", similar to what President Truman did in 1945, taking the responsibility for others' actions. If the Congress leadership messes up with their diplomacy with Baba Ramdev or Anna Hazare, they hand over the tangled situation to the police. When our civilian bureaucracy fails to rehabilitate millions of project-displaced persons, the situation has to be tackled by the police. When foreign sponsored terrorism strikes India, the Central government transfers responsibility to the state police, but merely in terms of jurisdiction. When the Mumbai municipal corporation fails to fill the potholes that appear on the city's roads soon after the first rains, it is the police that suffers the wrath of the motorists stuck in traffic snarls. Things reached such a disgusting state that on 18 June a Mumbai daily published the photograph of traffic policemen in full uniform carrying head-loads of rubble to fill up deep potholes on the Dadar Flyover, which the Mumbai Municipal Corporation had failed to repair despite several requests.
Recently when five Pakistani sailors from an Iranian vessel, rescued by the Indian Navy in January from Somalian pirates, got caught in a bureaucratic tangle over travel documents, the buck was passed to the Mumbai Yellow Gate Police Station who had to feed them and house them. No one made any enquiries on how they undertook this responsibility. All the concerned people looked the other way. It must be said to the credit of the local police that they earned a lot of goodwill in looking after these poor young men. I hope that the Karachi police will be equally magnanimous in looking after the six Indian sailors rescued by PNS Babur from MV Suez on 19 June.
Things would have been better if others allowed the police to do their job and then expected them to take responsibility for their actions. But that does not happen. Recently, a national daily reported that a huge contingent of Tamil Nadu policemen had been asked to "protect" 135 family members of the Karunanidhi family. It is sad that our free press did not publish this news while the DMK was ruling the state. Another national daily reported on 14 June that the number of policemen utilised for "protecting" the influential elite in Mumbai rose by 340% from 2,213 in 2007 to 9,735 in 2010. During our 26/11 enquiry, Mumbai police officials told us frankly that they had no manpower left for patrolling, investigation and crime duties.
Very often, new procedures introduced by the political leadership, based on their whims and without understanding the difference between macro and micro level supervision, add to the police woes. A classic example is the weekly performance review introduced recently by Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil after journalist Jyotirmoy Dey's murder, virtually taking over the city police leadership's functions. Thirteen zonal deputy commissioners have to be present at the Secretariat by turn and wait with their entire police station staff for the Minister's review of the state of crime detection, instead of being available to the public.
This reminded me of my experience with one such well meaning politician. A veteran Congressman from Western Maharashtra, who had earlier spurned all official appointments, was inducted in the Maharashtra Cabinet in 1974 by the then Chief Minister V.P. Naik. He was given the rank of Minister of State only since all the other slots were full. He was given the charge of the police to mollify him. He played havoc with us by replicating the deputy commissioner's job. He asked me to teach him VIP security since he wanted to impress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was arriving the week after he took charge. He checked each police picket posted on her entire route, checked the Raj Bhavan where she stayed, and all security arrangements during her functions. He positioned himself near her like a bodyguard. Finally, he wanted to travel in the security car just behind the PM's car. It was with greatest difficulty that I dissuaded him from travelling in the escort car by quoting the "Blue Book" regulations issued by the Intelligence Bureau.
The favourite whipping boy in India is the state police. Not necessarily because of their own failures, but more because the other arms of government "pass the buck" of their failures to them. In fact, it is high time our police offices displayed the board "the government buck stops here", similar to what President Truman did in 1945, taking the responsibility for others' actions. If the Congress leadership messes up with their diplomacy with Baba Ramdev or Anna Hazare, they hand over the tangled situation to the police. When our civilian bureaucracy fails to rehabilitate millions of project-displaced persons, the situation has to be tackled by the police. When foreign sponsored terrorism strikes India, the Central government transfers responsibility to the state police, but merely in terms of jurisdiction. When the Mumbai municipal corporation fails to fill the potholes that appear on the city's roads soon after the first rains, it is the police that suffers the wrath of the motorists stuck in traffic snarls. Things reached such a disgusting state that on 18 June a Mumbai daily published the photograph of traffic policemen in full uniform carrying head-loads of rubble to fill up deep potholes on the Dadar Flyover, which the Mumbai Municipal Corporation had failed to repair despite several requests.
Recently when five Pakistani sailors from an Iranian vessel, rescued by the Indian Navy in January from Somalian pirates, got caught in a bureaucratic tangle over travel documents, the buck was passed to the Mumbai Yellow Gate Police Station who had to feed them and house them. No one made any enquiries on how they undertook this responsibility. All the concerned people looked the other way. It must be said to the credit of the local police that they earned a lot of goodwill in looking after these poor young men. I hope that the Karachi police will be equally magnanimous in looking after the six Indian sailors rescued by PNS Babur from MV Suez on 19 June.
Things would have been better if others allowed the police to do their job and then expected them to take responsibility for their actions. But that does not happen. Recently, a national daily reported that a huge contingent of Tamil Nadu policemen had been asked to "protect" 135 family members of the Karunanidhi family. It is sad that our free press did not publish this news while the DMK was ruling the state. Another national daily reported on 14 June that the number of policemen utilised for "protecting" the influential elite in Mumbai rose by 340% from 2,213 in 2007 to 9,735 in 2010. During our 26/11 enquiry, Mumbai police officials told us frankly that they had no manpower left for patrolling, investigation and crime duties.
Very often, new procedures introduced by the political leadership, based on their whims and without understanding the difference between macro and micro level supervision, add to the police woes. A classic example is the weekly performance review introduced recently by Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil after journalist Jyotirmoy Dey's murder, virtually taking over the city police leadership's functions. Thirteen zonal deputy commissioners have to be present at the Secretariat by turn and wait with their entire police station staff for the Minister's review of the state of crime detection, instead of being available to the public.
This reminded me of my experience with one such well meaning politician. A veteran Congressman from Western Maharashtra, who had earlier spurned all official appointments, was inducted in the Maharashtra Cabinet in 1974 by the then Chief Minister V.P. Naik. He was given the rank of Minister of State only since all the other slots were full. He was given the charge of the police to mollify him. He played havoc with us by replicating the deputy commissioner's job. He asked me to teach him VIP security since he wanted to impress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was arriving the week after he took charge. He checked each police picket posted on her entire route, checked the Raj Bhavan where she stayed, and all security arrangements during her functions. He positioned himself near her like a bodyguard. Finally, he wanted to travel in the security car just behind the PM's car. It was with greatest difficulty that I dissuaded him from travelling in the escort car by quoting the "Blue Book" regulations issued by the Intelligence Bureau.
No comments:
Post a Comment