PICTURE PERFECT POLICE By SHANTONU SEN
Director Generals of State Police and Chiefs of all Central Police organizations held their annual conference on 29th and 30th November 2014 at Gauhati. The Prime Minister’s Speech on the final day was awaited with some expectation as it was his first such occasion. His picture of the police of his dreams has been revealed.
On the morning of the 1st December 2014 news paper reports mentioned his concept of SMART Police , his remarks, at some length , on the negative picture of the Indian Police that Bollywood is prone to paint. He even suggested a delegation meeting movie moghuls to put an end to it. Some parts of the media also mentioned his observations on the martyrdom of 33000 police men since independence and why their deeds are not part of police training syllabus. He laid stress on under cover policing and the importance on intelligence work of Police. Good intelligence will mean less use of strong arm methods by the police, he said He visualized all police stations having their web sites. People would watch them to search for acts of justice and grace performed each day by the particular police station. He was convinced that police performs many good deeds each day. Since then some observers have taken swipes at the ideas he expressed. Karan Thapar on Head Lines Today hosted a channel discussion where he himself disparaged the concept of SMART Police as being a just an off the cuff, yet another, aside the PM makes with no intention to build on them or even have plans to do so when he is making them. He encouraged the panel to agree with him. The panel , finally concluded that the P M has not spelt out any road map for a future SMART Police with the minute that though he did not immediately disappoint he has only postponed it !
Our Prime Minister has shown to all and sundry that he wants a different India. He has spoken of changes he wants List them and find he has many. Some of them are on; black money ; clean India; make in India; skilled labour; zero bank account; youth trained and skilled to flood the West; rural health insurance; nicotine ban, at least, nearly so; clean Ganga Jamuna. To this list add a picture of perfect police and the SMART Police.
What is the Police that PM desires ? His police will be strict, sensitive, modern, mobile, alert, accountable, reliable, responsible , techno savvy and trained. All qualities compressed in the acronym SMART. The concept is dreams, yet undreamt, assuming reality. A police that will deliver on the intelligence front, a police that will learn from the mistakes of its martyred colleagues and a police that will have people looking at web sites installed in the police stations for its good deed of the day.
Not every thing is falling into place. Apart from the panel discussion there are other jarring responses to our PM ‘s vision of a future India. His dreams are facing reality checks. It has started in small doses. One has only to read the blogs in our national morning papers.
“ Those who only stand and wait also serve” wrote Lord Tennyson when he was blind. Massive numbers , surely, are at one with P M ‘S vision of India. As of now sheer inertia blinds them into mute entities. None of his visions is likely to see much progress if left only to his Cabinet colleagues. No one of them has had any dream to match the P M in the area of his responsibility And the bureaucracy? When has it dreamt for others? It is these millions who “ stand and wait” who can help him to approximate his goals. He has to find a way to energize them. India stands and waits for Prime Minister Modi to serve .
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