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Rising police unrest bodes ill for the nation

The recent unrest in the Delhi Police following a clash with lawyers in Tis Hazari courts was a manifestation of a simmering discontent among them over a period of time.

Rising police unrest bodes ill for the nation

Sore point: Gone are the days when police personnel in the lower ranks carried out the orders of their superiors, unquestioned.



MP Nathanael
Former IG, CRPF

The recent unrest in the Delhi Police following a clash with lawyers in Tis Hazari courts was a manifestation of a simmering discontent among them over a period of time. The volcanic outburst set the police top brass switch gears to the firefighting mode and quell the protests before things got out of hand. And succeed they did. But the fact that the police personnel protested in thousands in front of the Police Headquarters did not go down well with the powers that be, though the Police Commissioner could have done precious little consequent to the High Court’s decree against the police officials transferring two and suspending two others.

The unrest in the rank and file of the Chhattisgarh Police last year went almost unnoticed.  What started as an expression of the disaffection brewing among the disgruntled elements soon gained momentum and almost the entire police force resorted to a state-wide strike to press for the fulfillment of their demands. Their families, too, joined them in the capital at Raipur. As many as 81 women were arrested and later released and 150 others, mainly from political parties, were also arrested for supporting the agitation. Several policemen were suspended while some were summarily dismissed. The dismissed personnel obtained a stay on their dismissal.

Bowing down to the pressure, the Police Headquarters came up with a slew of measures to ameliorate the lot of the police personnel. 

Earlier, under intense pressure from 1.8 lakh teachers who were on strike demanding the regularisation of their services, the Chhattisgarh  Government acceded to their demands. This was signal enough for the policemen to come up with their demands for better salary, perks, service conditions and weekly day off.

The Rajasthan Police too witnessed more or less similar kind of protests when 250 policemen proceeded on leave en masse just when the then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was to visit Jodhpur to inaugurate a building of the Intelligence Bureau in October 2017. The absence of such a big strength of policemen prompted the administration to give a go-by to the usual protocol of presenting a guard of honour to the visiting dignitary. The cause for such a near-mutinous situation was a rumour floated around among the ranks that their pay would be reduced by Rs 4,500. Despite their protests for over a fortnight prior to the Home Minister’s visit, the top brass did not seem to have made any efforts to defuse the situation.

Down south, Kerala Police personnel were almost on the verge of launching an agitation following an alleged assault of a driver by the daughter of Additional Director-General (Armed Police) Sudesh Kumar, in June last year, when the state government promptly intervened by transferring out the ADG. The fault of the driver, Abdul Kareem Gavaskar, lay in turning up late to pick up the wife and daughter of the official for their morning walk in a park. The daughter, Snigdha Kumar, in her ire, allegedly hit the driver hard on his neck with her mobile, causing injuries to him. Complaints were lodged with the police, both by the driver and by Snigdha. The matter caused a flutter in the rank and file of the Kerala Police. Out came other factors of disaffection, like the misuse of orderlies by police officers, misuse of vehicles and even deployment of policemen at the residences of politicians, bureaucrats and socio-religious leaders. The unsavoury incident prompted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to announce that the system of detailing orderlies would be scrapped as it was a ‘degrading practice’.

The system of deploying policemen at the residences of senior police officers and even retired police officers has been a sore point, causing disaffection among the constabulary in almost all states and even para-military forces. As many as 1,644 police personnel were reported to be working at the residences of senior police officials and politicians in Kerala. 

The Ministry of Home Affairs, too, had taken a serious note of the fact that a large number of personnel were reported to be working at the residences of serving as well as retired officers. 

In November 2017, a large number of BSF personnel were moved to Chandigarh from Bengaluru, Jammu, Rajasthan and Gujarat to make arrangements for the marriage of the daughter of an IPS officer on deputation to the BSF as Inspector-General serving in Bengaluru. This garnered much media attention.

Gone are the days when police personnel in the lower ranks carried out the orders of their superiors — unquestioned. Until the 1980s, candidates having passed the eighth standard were recruited in police forces. These days, even though the minimum education required is matriculation or higher secondary, a large number of graduates and even post graduates turn up to be recruited as constables. The degree of their knowledge and awareness is almost comparable with that of senior officers. Their human dignity can in no way be violated and they are well aware of their duties and the purpose for which they have been recruited.   

While discipline, indubitably, needs to be enforced in all police forces for efficiency and smooth functioning, welfare aspects cannot be ignored. Wrongdoings of senior officials observed by the lower ranks tend to create disaffection in the rank and file which can erupt as a volcano at a time when the senior officials least expect it. Senior officers need to feel the pulse of the lower ranks to avert any mass uprising by the personnel whom they command. Distancing themselves from the rank and file can be disastrous. 

In the paramilitary forces, they have quite a few channels for the redress of grievances, like roll calls, personal interviews and Sainik Sammelans and the state police too have mechanisms, like the Sampark Sabha in the Delhi Police. But whether these are held regularly and given all the serious attention due to them is the moot question.

No state can afford to have its police machinery come to a standstill as it is fraught with serious ramifications. Senior police officials with a high moral rectitude are held in high esteem by the rank and file and a word from them is taken as a command followed to the word.

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