Two governments in a fix

I am talking of Punjab and J&K. The AAP government in Punjab knows not what it should do. It is faced by popular disgust with the murder in cold blood of well-known Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. The singer’s security cover, along with the security cover for 400 or more protectees, had been removed, just a few days prior to his being gunned down. This became the talking point for the chatteratti and added spice to the entire affair.

How many individuals can the State protect? Only the locals can provide that cover. And that they will do if they are convinced that it is in their own interest to do so.

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In Punjab, more than any other state, the entitlement culture has acquired strong roots. Many are the VIPs who think they are important enough to merit official security cover. No state has limitless manpower to protect individual citizens. But some citizens, like a popular singer, caught in the cross-hairs of criminal gangs would merit protection.

The better solution would be to strike such terror in the bosoms of the underworld that they would not dare to operate when a KPS Gill (citing an example) is around. Nobody would need individual protection if that type of fear could be kindled in wicked breasts. But the emergence of such a police leader comes only once in a lifetime. In the ordinary course, the state will have to dig deep into its resources to find personnel to guard vulnerable protectees.

I am not surprised that CM Bhagwant Mann’s government was desperate to free its police manpower from guarding individuals and assigning them to protecting the general population, which is really any government’s mandate. The AAP administration was in a hurry to prove its worth. Reducing individual security cover, specially where it is only given to titillate an individual’s ego, would cut ice with the general populace. And so it was attempted, but in a hurry.

Only in this one case it misfired as Moosewala was the obvious target of gangsters out to make a quick buck through extortions. Mann would require to pick on an officer who can take on these gangsters, one by one, and emasculate them. The trick is to choose the right man for the job. Punjab has no dearth of such men.

When I assumed charge as Mumbai’s Police Commissioner in 1982, I had to tackle the notorious underworld. Unlike terrorist gangs that do not recognise the Indian State, underworld gangs flourish by bribing the police and politicians. The most important quality I required of an officer to take them on was a man of integrity, not interested in getting rich at any cost. I had marked out one such officer in my previous assignment. I asked for him by name and my request was granted.

The officer, YC Pawar, belonged to the state police service, and incidentally to a Scheduled Caste. His motivation was to prove himself as superior to an IPS officer and also to officers of the ‘forward’ castes. It was YC who bottled up the main gang lord, Varadarajan Mudaliar, who operated in the eastern suburbs of the city and had politicians and senior police officers eating out of his hands.

I am indebted to YC for adding heft to my personal reputation as the Commissioner who tamed Mumbai’s underworld. Without officers like him, it will be well nigh impossible for a police chief to attain success.

Mann should not restore individual security to each of the 400-odd protectees. He has told the court that the exercise was only temporary since manpower was urgently required on June 6, the anniversary of Operation Bluestar. He should revise government’s undertaking to the court to restore security to only those who were genuinely in danger. That alone would free close to a thousand men for deployment on the streets in uniform.

The travails of the J&K administration are infinitely more complicated. The BJP leaders at the Centre have adopted the stick as their preferred instrument of solving a complicated terrorism problem. J&K is facing a classic form of the nationalist variety of terrorism. This form was prevalent in Ireland for 200 years before it turned dormant. The Basques in Spain and partly in France and the Kurds in Iraq, Syria and Turkey have indulged in this form of terrorism for decades.

The only classical method of neutralising this form of terrorism is to go hammer and tongs after the brain-washed terrorists to eliminate the menace. Simultaneously, the state needs to win over the hearts and minds of the community to which the terrorists belong.

This part of the response is more complex. It worked in Punjab in the most unexpected way! KPS Gill’s policemen, egged on by their charismatic leader, made the life of the Sikh Jat in the villages so painful that they succumbed and started surrendering the terrorists embedded within the peasantry into the hands of the security forces. This they had been reluctant to do all along since they felt that the ‘boys’ were fighting for the ‘quam’ and not for themselves.

The open communication maintained by some of the more enlightened police officers (like my friend Chaman Lal) helped to hasten the process of reconciliation. Unfortunately, Modi and Amit Shah do not believe in the carrot part of the policy. In my understanding after spending over three years in Punjab, and discussing measures with the police and army officers in Northern Ireland, the stick alone will not work. The cooperation of the Muslim villagers and residents of the Valley is vital for peace.

To start with, our two great leaders may have to listen to voices that had won the hearts of the Valley’s separatist leaders. The mainstream parties of the Valley will also have to be roped in if a solution is to be found. Full statehood to J&K should be restored on a priority basis and an elected government installed to restore normalcy. Strong-arm methods alone are not going to help. Those need to be used also, but only with dyed-in-the-wool terrorists, whose number is limited.

The Centre used surprise and deception to good purpose in its opening gambit two years ago. It was a smart piece of police work. It facilitated the beat policemen’s job on the ground in those balmy first days. But old hands like me knew that such tactics do not ultimately succeed. The denouement was bound to come and come it did in the heartless targeting of Kashmiri Pandits, teachers and an assorted number of Hindu labourers. How many individuals can the State protect? Only the locals can provide that cover. And that they will do if they are convinced that it is in their own interest to do so.