Posted the entire article from the e Times of India as no link is possible.
Julio Ribeiro This time round the police was not blamed for Mumbai's tragedy. The politicians bore the brunt of people's anger. That is as it should be because over a period of time Mantralaya has been micro-managing the police force. Unless the police officials and men look up to their chief for instructions, for guidance, for correction, for rewards and punishments, they will not recognise him. In this whole episode the police commissioner remained largely silent. Each of his officers and men have godfathers or a direct pipe-line to influential politicians. If he cannot discipline his men or shift them according to their capabilities he is a chief only in name. Time for the home minister to don the uniform! Chhagan Bhujbal has been named deputy chief minister. When Bhujbal was home minister, the power of transferring police inspectors, who head police stations and hence constitute the cuttingedge of the force, shifted to Mantralaya. It advanced the fortunes of the transfer industry but clipped the wings of the police commissioner making him practically redundant. If lobbying for that position continued it was because of the residual prestige that the position enjoyed. It is a shame that successive police commissioners have surrendered without a whimper. What the people want is a professional force, not a politicised force , where the political class calls the shots. Politicians interfere in sensitive investigations to the detriment of the rule of law. The public has very correctly pointed fingers in the right direction. Let me clarify that R R Patil, who has resigned, was by far the most honest of the home ministers we have had of late. Unfortunately he was in the habit of micro-managing police operations by directly talking to the inspectors over the heads of their hierarchical superiors. He did this mostly in rural Maharashtra where he was more comfortable, but often also in cities where he may have been out of depth. He was certainly a better person then his predecessors but the effect on the performance of the force remained materially the same due to his tendency to micro-manage. The police force is the first line of defence against terrorists. The civil police is neither trained nor equipped to take on fidayeen terrorists of the type that attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Just ten trained and determined men defied the might of the entire force till commandos were flown down from Delhi. This is not surprising because determined terrorists have many factors on their side: the element of surprise, advantageous ground positions and hostages held at gunpoint. The necessity of maintaining trained commandos in Mumbai and other vulnerable cities needs to be addressed immediately. The need to patrol the seas in a more comprehensive and coordinated manner also needs to be studied. The Indian navy could be given command of this operation since it is a senior force enjoying superior fire power. There is a lot of uninformed criticism about the equipment of the civil police. The terrorists use AK-47 and AK-56 which are area weapons which fire bursts and kill at random in a wide arc. These weapons are meant for close combat battle but have been used by terrorists all over the world because they cause maximum terror by taking innocent lives. Such weapons in the hands of the civil police would not only be incongruous but dangerous. Suppose a Mumbai policeman has to shoot he will have to aim at the person who he wants to kill or maim. He cannot do so with area weapons. Hence the demand for this type of weaponry has to be rejected outright. Bullet-proof jackets, sniper rifles and sophisticated weapons would be needed for specially trained men. While we take a look at such details, the main task of preparing the police force to perform better not only in terrorist situations but also at normal times must take precedence. Policemen have to become more friendly with the people and this is the time to make them change. Human intelligence, or humint as it is called, will be more easily available if policepublic relations improve. Only good leadership can bring in this change. There is no dearth of good men at senior levels but the method of choosing the chiefs is not right and has given scope for lobbying and manipulation. The corrupt and the ineffective should be pensioned at the ages of 50 or 55 years as permissible under the All India Service Rules. If, for instance, these rules had been applied in Maharashtra, the current dilemma facing the state government in selecting its DGP would not have arisen. And they would not have had to entrust the Anti-Corruption Bureau to a wrong man. But before all this is done, the chief minister should take charge of the home portfolio instead of entrusting it to his coalition partner in a power sharing arrangement. This is of paramount importance since the security of life and property is the most important duty of the government and must be the responsibility of its most senior minister. The second step is to restore operational authority to the police hierarchy and make them responsible for performance. There should be no interference in postings and transfers particularly at the junior levels where all the problems arise. This should be the first demand of the people in order to ensure better police administration. The next demand should be that the courts should supervise investigations so that there is no injustice. In any case, political interference in investigations should never be permitted. These are the two main suggestions of the National Police Commission which were not implemented by any state government or any political party, but which the people should now demand for their own good. A group of citizens headed by B G Deshmukh, former cabinet secretary, Justice Srikrishna, retired judge of the Supreme Court, D M Sukhtankar, former chief secretary of Maharashtra, Deepak Parekh, industrialist, Gerson da Cunha, activist and convenor of AGNI, this writer and some others met and decided to lead a movement to remind the politicians constantly of what is expected of them. They invite all the citizens of Mumbai to join them in this mission. Details will be announced at 12 noon on December 8,2008 at an open-for-all press conference. -- Roland Francis Toronto +1 (416) 453.3371
