Rogue men in uniform
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 07 2013 -

With the image and reputation of the State Police Department at stake, Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam, who also holds the portfolio of Home, has announced a slew of measures to be taken up in what appears to a last-ditch effort to clean up the rot within.

Accordingly, henceforth the State Government would be video recording the entire process of physical efficiency test (PET) for any recruitment in the State Police Department and all the candidates who have cleared the written test, viva voce and medical fitness test would be made to go through an 'integrity test' before giving away the offer forms for joining service.

Moreover, the candidates would be verified to find out whether they have or had any connection with any underground organizations.

The announcement of these measures may sound funny to many people because these are some of the nitty-gritty that the officials in charge of the recruitment process are expected to do.

But as we all know how the recruitment process in any department under the Government of Manipur is done, the State Police Department is today becoming synonymous with abatement of crimes instead of controlling them with many of its personnel found to have involved in numerous cases of crimes right from petty theft to killing innocent people and raping women. In such a situation, police-public relation is something alien in Manipur.

It's good that the Home Minister has admitted various loopholes in the recruitment process conducted in the past and assured that the State Government is trying its level best to rectify all these mistakes for making the State police force one of the best in the country.

However, to maintain that the case of abduction and subsequent killing of businessman Shankarlal Swamy in which two IRB personnel were involved has finally made the eyes of the State Government open, has only convinced the people that the Government has been willfully ignoring the public outcries against police atrocities all these years.

Apart from beating up protestors who are seeking justice and harassing innocent people on the road, there have been numerous cases of crimes in which State police personnel were found involved right from robbing gullible public of their money and mobile phones to hurling bombs at private residences and even hospitals at the behest of some UG elements, from smuggling narcotics to abducting people or killing them for random, etc.

They have come to live under the impression that the crimes committed by them would never be detected and if detected they have got nothing to worry about.

How this mindset and attitude of the police personnel have come to dominate them in the performance or non-performance of their duties is a question that needs to be answered by the Home Minister if he really wants to see the State Police force as the best force in the country.

And most importantly, the voice of the poor people against police atrocities should not be ignored and wait for the death of another rich businessman in the hands of some rogue men in uniform to get jolted from slumber and say then the guilty will not be spared.