Reforming the State police :: Looking 'within the law'
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 11, 2012 -

A sit-in-protest staged by womenfolk at Major Khul to denounce gang-rape on April 07 2012 :: Pix - TSE

Reforming the State Police Department will need more than the suspension of some rogue cops involved in rape, abduction or smuggling drugs. These acts, by their very definition, are against the law and anyone found involved in these kind of activities should be nailed and subjected to the due process of the law of the land.

Home Minister Mr Gaikhangam has been sending out all the right signals and this is fine, but what should be kept in mind is the plain fact that reforming the State police will need something much more than merely penalising some rogue cops who have been caught on the wrong side of the law.

This is not to downplay the swift action that has been taken up against the IRB men accused in the rape of a housewife, the penalty imposed, pending inquiries, against the IRB men held while trying to smuggle ephedrine to Myanmar as well as the suspension of four cops on other charges.

The swift action that has been taken up against the uniformed personnel is something which has not been seen in a long, long time and while this has definitely sent out a positive signal, what the new Home Minister must keep in mind is that reforming the police set up cannot begin and end with the punishment of some rogue cops.

There is the growing need to look beyond the realm of the 'law' itself and study the behaviour of the uniformed men on the street. The badge of arrogance has been worn with nonchalance for far too long and this is something which the new Home Minister should keep in mind while going around with the task of giving a new face to the State police.

The question is how the Home Minister intends to go about with the business of removing this badge of arrogance.

One key answer to this question would be to extend the perspective beyond the blatant act of violating the law by the men in uniform and take into consideration their behaviour, which may not be against the law, but which nevertheless insults and tramples upon the dignity of the common people.

Rapists and smugglers, irrespective of who they are, should be punished because it is against the law and seen in this context the action taken up against the rogue cops should not come as anything extraordinary.

The extraordinary will come only when the Home Minister gets down to the basics of dealing with what otherwise has become 'ordinary acts' of the cops while dispensing with their duties.

Wrong schooling is one point which the Home Minister stated during his address on the 42nd foundation day of the National Students' Union of India on April 9.

The schooling that the Home Minister talked about can range from the environment in which one is brought up to the academic years and while the State Government cannot be expected to play a significant role in this period of one's life, what it can do is focus attention on the police schooling that all personnel in the State police are expected to undergo.

The focus should therefore shift to the Manipur Police Training School at Pangei and stretch this a little more and the attention should focus on the very process of selecting the personnel.

This is one point which has been stressed repeatedly in this column. How professionally run is the State police school ?

This is one area on which the new Home Minister can train his eyes on. As long as corruption exists in the selection process, then it may not be wrong to write off any attempt at reforming the State police.

How sincere is the Home Minister on this front remains to be tested. Corruption is the mother of all the indiscipline and ineffectiveness of the State agencies and nowhere is this more palpable than the State police.

This is one point which must be sincerely addressed to if Mr Gaikhangam wants to come anywhere near his stated purpose of reforming the police.

Another question is whether the leadership in the police hierarchy has been able to inspire confidence amongst its personnel or not.

It will certainly not be an easy task before the Home Minister, for the rot runs deep, but a beginning has to be made somewhere and while law breakers from amongst the uniformed personnel should be dealt with firmly, the need is to look beyond this and study how the cops have been behaving and responding to the need of the people 'within the law.'