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God that failed
SAD’s 25-year dream
A landmark judgment |
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Stakes high on Syria
Teaching how to live
Police reforms: more talk than action
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God that failed
FOR Gujarat IPS officer D.G. Vanzara, who is in jail on the charge of carrying out fake encounters, Chief Minister Narendra Modi was like a “god”. But it was a “god” that he feels, in the hurry of marching towards Delhi, let followers like him down. Vanzara has caused a sensation by quitting the IPS and alleging that he “simply implemented the conscious policy” of the Modi government on encounter killings. There is a CD in circulation of a sting operation by a journalist showing certain BJP MPs trying to influence the judicial process in the Prajapati encounter case. Unless the allegations levelled in his letter are supported with some sort of evidence, Vanzara would not be taken seriously. As an IPS officer he was supposed to uphold the rule of law and not carry out illegal orders of any authority, no matter how high. There is a lesson for all those police officers and civil servants who court powerful politicians for plum postings and out-of-turn promotions, and carry out their biddings, legal or otherwise. Politicians at the end love only power and tend to use all those willing to be used and abandon them if in trouble or when the purpose is served. Some policemen of Gujarat, currently in jail, have learnt it the hard way. At the same time Vanzara’s allegations cannot be dismissed lightly because the now discredited IPS officer was once close to Modi as well as Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah. The CBI hopefully will also look into the officer's revelations along with probing various encounter killings in post-Godhra Gujarat. The BJP is fighting hard to defend Modi at a time when, prodded by the RSS, it is trying to contain internal differences over the choice of Narendra Modi as its prime-ministerial candidate. There may be political motives behind the latest developments, but what does it reflect on the personality of the man the BJP hopes would one day lead a nation of billion-plus people? The spectre of the 2002 Muslim killings will continue to haunt Modi till he is declared innocent by courts.
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SAD’s 25-year dream
Sukhbir
Singh Badal’s predictable re-election - or rather re-nomination — as SAD president has come at a time when he has had to make an assertion that all is well with the state's finances. While the denial from the Deputy Chief Minister itself suggests there is something seriously wrong, he can convince people of his claim in two ways — one, declare which account holds how much cash for the state government on which date, else he can address the indicators that make people suspect the claim. Pay the salaries and release funds for the various welfare schemes that have been on a hold for a while now. Otherwise, it is a claim versus facts as seen on ground. Under the present circumstances — when children are being denied their lunch at school for want of funds — it does not behove a person steering the future of the state to indulge in chest-thumping by declaring his party will rule Punjab for 25 years. There is no doubt he has done very well for SAD, but his claims on development in the state are becoming increasingly jarring. The state's dispensaries and hospitals don’t have the required doctors and medical supplies; schools don’t have teachers; teachers are not getting regular salaries; the drains were not cleared before the monsoon, resulting in flooding in many towns and villages; other than toll roads or those under Central schemes none are getting repaired. To be fair, the Deputy Chief Minister has not even made any claims regarding such ‘bijli-paani’ kind of development. He has spoken only of the glitzy variety — the kind that comes from real estate development done by PUDA and GMADA, or the sale or mortgaging of public land. He has promised “drastic change in both the economic and political environment of the state”. If SAD is to remain in power for 25 years, and life for people living anywhere other than PUDA estates is to remain as unchanged as it has been for the past six years, it is hard to see where the ‘change’ is coming from. Perhaps, praying for the next Sangat Darshan to be in your area is the only salvation.
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A landmark judgment THE first judgment using the amended Section 376 of the IPC introduced in April this year has brought a sense of relief for the victims of crimes like rape and molestation. The amendments, brought about after the horror of the Nirbhaya gangrape case, Dec 2012, that took into account recommendations of the Justice Verma committee and certain women's organisations have begun to bear fruit. In a judgment passed by the Additional Sessions Judge of Hoshiarpur, two culprits were sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a minor. In this case life imprisonment will not be for the usual 14-20 years, but imprisonment for the remainder of their lives. The verdict will not only work as a deterrent to such crimes, which are spiralling beyond comprehensible proportions, but also boost confidence of the victims to report such cases and take them to a logical end. The verdict is based on the sole testimony of the mother of the minor. It has taken into consideration the Indian social situation, where no mother would take recourse to the law unless it is absolutely needed, especially when a minor daughter is involved. Also, in this case, rape was concluded even in the absence of sexual penetration, giving the wider scope to ‘rape’ to enable punishment for those who violate children's right over their body. The verdict interpreted the amended sections in the light of the changed social scenario. On the same day though, another verdict given in an alleged rape case by the Delhi High Court, by a Bench of Justices V P Vaish and PK Bhasin held that a rape victim's word cannot be taken as “gospel truth.” It said if the victimised woman changes her testimony, and does not inspire confidence, her testimony should not be taken as truth. The verdict resulted in the acquittal of the alleged rapist. These verdicts reflect more pragmatism being exercised by the judiciary in dealing with different shades of crimes against women.
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I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers. — Khalil Gibran
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Stakes high on Syria IT almost seems as if
West Asia is perpetually stuck in a crisis mode. It is a region now where multiple crises co-exist easily, where regional actors now seem perennially preoccupied with fanning the flames of sectarian strife and where external actors are perpetually involved in fruitless crisis management. So even as the Egyptian military junta was the focal point of regional and global attention because of its ruthless assault on the supports of Muslim Brotherhood, the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime has changed the calculus for everyone. Now even Barack Obama finds himself at a place where he would have least liked to be at the beginning of his second term as the US President - on the verge of starting a fourth war in West Asia in little more than a decade. Obama's foreign policy has so far been caution writ large. But Bashar al-Assad has called his bluff. For nearly a century now the world has been united against the use of chemical weapons, so horrifying in World War I. Waging war against his own people, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has used them previously during the past year, but never on the scale of the August 21 attack in which thousands of people were affected and at least 1,400 killed. Rockets loaded with a nerve agent were allegedly shot into residential neighborhoods of the Damascus suburbs, constituting one of the deadliest uses of chemical agents since they were outlawed nine decades ago. The Obama administration has publicly asserted that the Syrian government used the nerve gas sarin to kill Syrian citizens. The French government has emphatically suggested that the suspected chemical attack near Damascus last month “could not have been ordered and carried out by anyone but the Syrian government”. This was the 'red line' that Obama had publicly suggested Assad would not be allowed to cross. So now the credibility of the American foreign policy is at stake. The argument goes that if there is no response, the Assad regime would use them again, on an even larger scale, and other dictators in future conflicts would calculate that they, too, could use these ghastly weapons at no cost. The problem has always been that Obama has had no larger Syria policy so far. For more than two years he has insisted that Assad must go, but has taken few steps to hasten that departure. During this time millions of people have been displaced from their homes, Al-Qaida has found a safe haven in the country and violence has spread to neighboring Lebanon and Iraq, with Israel, Jordan and Turkey also at risk. There has been an extraordinary failure of leadership by the US President. While deciding on intervention in a fateful Middle East war, the President has chosen a minimalist option, which is likely to fail. Not surprisingly after raising hopes that attacks were imminent in Syria, Obama had to back down in the face of opposition from the US Congress facing widespread ridicule. Syria's envoy to the UN suggested that Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron — who last week ruled out military action after failing to get parliamentary approval - had "climbed to the top of the tree" but didn't know how to get down, and so had deferred the decision to the lawmakers. The Syrian Opposition Coalition released a statement urging Congress to support military action, saying that if the international community does not respond to Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons, it would set a dangerous example for other dictatorships around the world. But in Washington, London and Paris, the spectre of Iraq war looms large and domestic politics in these countries is by and large opposed to the nascent military plans being drawn up by their respective governments. Syria today stands at the heart of the geopolitical struggle for influence between Saudi Arabia and Iran in West Asia. There is little likelihood that a war against Syria would remain limited. It will engulf the whole region as Syria is the only major ally left of Iran in the region and Tehran will do its utmost to protect the Assad regime in Damascus. Because of this, The biggest danger for the Western forces is that they might get drawn into a more protracted struggle, “mission-creep”, risking an open-ended military commitment that many fear might be as dangerous as another Iraq
or Afghanistan. At the moment, the most attractive option for the West is to engage in short swift punitive strikes against the Assad regime targeting military sites linked closely to the regime — the headquarters or barracks of elite units so as to get the regime's attention and to persuade him not to resort to chemical weapons in the future. This will be politically acceptable and will give an appearance that something is being done. But this is unlikely to solve the problem and may even prolong the ongoing civil war in Syria. The West also doesn’t want many of the groups fighting the Assad regime to win because of their extremist ideology. Obama's heart is not in this war but he has few good choices left. He has boxed himself in a corner and now he needs to show that he can lead from the front as opposed to leading from behind which has become his mantra. But the stakes are huge not only for the US but for the larger international community which has been preoccupied with various West Asian crises for far too
long.
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Teaching how to live IF you can read this piece, it may be due to your first teacher at home, the mother, and the second, the equally important person in your life when you were a little baby and started going to the school, the teacher. Both should, therefore, be honoured, respected and thanked for what you are today. “To teach is to learn”, says a Japanese proverb. A good teacher is one who lives all his/her life as a student — learning. The first and the best natural teacher is the mother. Mahatma Gandhi said, “If you educate a man, you are educating an individual, but if you educate a girl child, you are educating the family, society and the entire nation”. It is, therefore more important and essential to give education to women. The next best teacher, of course, is the school teacher. A mediocre teacher tells you. A good teacher explains. A superior teacher demonstrates and a great teacher inspires and teaches you how to think independently. A good teacher also helps students realise their potential with the dual objective of “educating for living and educating for making a living”. The teacher should not simply impart knowledge of facts, but of values and aim at making children good human beings. What is the difference between a station master and a school master? Simple: A station master minds the trains and a school master trains the minds. A good teacher will make man a universal man, as enshrined in our scriptures. “Vasudheva kutumbkum” (the whole world is one family) and Gurbani too says “Manus ki jaat ek o pehchan vo”, again, meaning almost the same. Dr S. Radhakrishnan, a great scholar and former President of India, always preferred to be addressed as a “teacher”, and not by any other high-sounding title. His birthday, which falls on September 5, is celebrated as the Teachers' Day to honour teachers. Unesco started observing October 5 as the “World Teachers Day” from 1994, and now over one hundred countries celebrate this day to pay respect to the teaching community. As the Vice-Chancellor of Benaras Hindu University, Dr Radhakrishnan was invited by Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, and offered the assignment of an Ambassador to Russia, a plum post of high prestige. The only condition Dr Radhakrisnan requested for was that three months in a year he would like to spend at Oxford, teaching and learning. The request was readily accepted by an equally learned person, saying: “There is no better choice than you to represent India and its culture abroad.” He proved his mettle when after a meeting with Stalin (on Stalin's request), the tough dictator, who seldom gave audience to foreign dignitaries, happily remarked, “I have never met a personality of the kind of Dr Rashkrishnan, who during his hour-long talk made no reference to his country and talked about everything at the international level, primarily world peace, poverty and universal brotherhood. In a lighter vein, but largely true in the present scenario (unlike the good past times of committed and dedicated teachers), a teacher was out on a pilgrimage. He first met a rickshaw-puller, then a railway coolie, and lastly, a cobbler. None of them charged him for the services they rendered. And they all said the same thing: “Sir, how can we accept money from our
teacher?”
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Police reforms: more talk than action
Safety
and security are core needs of humans. The police performs this essential role in the modern democratic society by providing security to the citizens. It is the most visible coercive arm through which the writ of the state is executed in modern societies. Perceptions of police efficacy matter because on it hinges the legitimacy of the state. The police is to the government as the edge is to the knife. Lately, the knife is appearing to be more and more blunted. Police effectiveness, or rather the lack of it, is sharply in focus these days. On the one hand stories about their brutal behaviour, insensitivity and abuse of power are being reported almost on a daily basis, and on the other, it is also a fact that the same police is unable to even protect itself against powerful groups. Policemen are routinely killed by terrorists and Naxalites, and now even thrashed by MLAs. The widespread perception that the police is a tool in the hand of the ruling elite implies that it is both a victim and an oppressor. Either way, its performance and effectiveness is called into question. Despite all the attention and acrimonious television debates, very little has actually been done to address or even identify the real issues. The truth is that improving police performance is a long haul and everyone is looking for a quick fix. It’s like applying Band Aid on cancer. Sadly, there is very little empirical research in India to understand complex issues related to policing. What are the real issues and how do we deal with them. To begin with, we all want our police to be effective and an agency of public service, somewhat like the London Bobbies. A little historical perspective will be sobering. What’s wrong Effectiveness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Good policing means different things to different people. Effectiveness is a multi-dimensional concept and in most developed countries, it is measured through key performance indicators (KPIs), specific processes and outcomes, backed by independent third party surveys and evaluations. It is harder in India as no prescribed KPIs, surveys and evaluations exist and crime is routinely under-reported to present a false picture. In any society, the police performs a variety of tasks, many of which like crime prevention, order maintenance and enforcement, are not easily measurable. The role of the police is also not uniform across societies and depends largely on its social, political and cultural context which makes the task of evaluating police performance and effectiveness harder. In India, although the issues of Police effectiveness is ultimately about what and how much the police has accomplished in the eyes of the public. The biggest problem however remains the severe shortage of manpower. The police to population ratio in our country is abysmal, and even within that the scarce resources are often cornered by the powerful (example VIP security). Such shortage has multiple consequences like stress and work overload (16-18 hours) and lack of quality time with family (Delhi SHOs spend six nights a week at police stations), resulting in lack of motivation, frustration, irritability, poor mental and physical health. Numbers, however, do not tell the whole story. The present selection practices take into account physical and academic qualifications only and we often end up recruiting policemen with wrong attitudes which no training can change; not that training itself gets much importance. Poor housing, low salary and social status (an entry level policeman in Los Angeles earns the same money and respect as a doctor) also add up. The police does not work in a vacuum. Interference, not only by politicians, but also by other powerful groups like the media, local rich and even senior officers and judiciary is a blasé fact of life. Corruption is rampant in society, as also in police, although as the protector of law, the police needs to be held accountable to higher standards. Its leadership has largely become ineffectual in arresting this decline either due to lack of functional autonomy or lack of courage. The entire criminal justice system is collapsing and there is a larger moral and institutional decay which encourages lawlessness.
Setting it right Is the situation hopeless? The diagnosis of the disease suggests three broad remedies: Capacity building, efficient resource management and external environment management. The first refers to not only a substantial increase in the police based on scientific principles and humane workloads, but also to recruiting and training the right people. The world over, psychological profiling and personality testing is an integral part of selection procedures as a wrong personality job-fit leads to serious problems and higher costs in the long run. Technology can be used as a force multiplier to reduce costs and manpower and at the same time improve effectiveness. Close-circuit television cameras and surveillance technologies are a case in point. We need to move towards evidence-based policing which provides clinching proof for convictions (DNA, call records, GPS locations, etc.). Secondly, scientific management of human and material resources is lacking as the police is perpetually in a crisis management mode. Effectiveness is often at the cost of efficiency. There is little emphasis or opportunity for developing vital professional and behavioural competencies like communication skills and adaptability. A police station is the hub of all police activities. All important operational duties are executed and coordinated through it. It is the cutting edge of the police delivery system and public perceptions of the police are largely influenced by the quality of service delivery at these levels. The need of the hour is to insulate the police stations from unlawful interference and increase the manpower and facilities. An increase of manpower of 50-100 civil police at a police station may prevent the deployment of 1,000 armed police later on. But perhaps the biggest challenge is to protect the police from unwarranted interference and ensure functional autonomy. Police reforms have been discussed ad nauseam but the beneficiaries of the system (politicians and bureaucrats) will not give up their privileges easily. No one does. The criminal justice system needs reforms across the board. Plea bargain, summary trials and time-bound processes need to be introduced even as the quality and quantity of prosecutors and judges is improved. The police has always had a love-hate relationship with the media. The rules of engagement have yet to evolve and both sides have to develop mechanisms for a mutually beneficial relationship. Finally, the police needs to be judged on its performance in core areas and not on municipal issues.
Beyond tokenism All this is easier said than done and therein lies the rub. It requires long-term vision, planning, commitment and perseverance, qualities which are perhaps unfashionable in the age of 10-second television bytes. Instead of considered action, we have frantic activity giving the illusion of action. The political class alone is not to blame. Much can be done by the police leadership, but here also packaging often trumps substance. To return to the metaphor: Band Aid does not cure cancer, but it is visible. The dangerous corollary: complacency and smugness of false virtuosity while the poor and powerless keep falling through the cracks. Pardon the mixing of metaphors: The beast needs surgery, but we keep putting more lipstick. A pretty pig with lipstick is still a
pig. The writer is an ADG-rank IPS officer of the Odisha cadre, currently doing doctoral research on counter-terror strategy for deradicalisation at
IIT, Delhi.
How to ensure effectiveness
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The behaviour of the police in every country depends very much on its origin and ethos. The Indian Police in its current avatar was originally created out of colonial interests as a direct consequence of the first war of independence (1857) to ensure the police system’s subservience to the executive and to remain authoritarian in its contact with the public. Needless to say, it was neither accountable to the people nor to independent institutions and was never meant to be a service organisation like the Metropolitan Police of London. Ironically even after India became independent, the same police system still remained intact. In view of the changing paradigm, the old models of police effectiveness are no longer valid and new. More relevant yardsticks are required which take into account the satisfaction of the public with the standards of service being provided and generates the trust and cooperation of various sections of society. The problem is that the old mindsets do not change so readily.