December 6, 2008

Honest Officers: Stand Up And Be Counted

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , — Sucheta Dalal @ 11:11 am
A brave officer

A brave officer

I am posting a message from Ashish Gupta, sent to me by a top senior revenue service officer. It has already been forwarded to a few hundred people, so I assume there is nothing confidential about it.

Gupta, like my other police friends expresses great anguish about the death of Ashok Kamte in the terror attacks on Mumbai in November. It is a rare man who evokes such respect and admiration from his fellow officers… Kamte’s demise is truly a loss and it is a bigger tragedy that many of us have got to know about this brave, sincere but low profile officer only after he is no more with us.

But I post this, not as a tribute to Ashok Kamte – I expect my police friends to take the trouble to write about him rather than merely talk about their feelings.
I am posting Gupta’s message because he is currently posted in the PMO and writes movingly about force and the need to understand the circumstances in which they work.

I agree with Gupta when he says the police force is hated (or at least distrusted by the ordinary person today). They are seen as people who will fix anything for a price. And why not, they would think. If the going rate for a constable’s job is Rs two lakhs and each transfer, especially to lucrative postings costs a lot of money, why would they waste time protecting the people?

They are running an enterprise and the government job and uniform is just a license or permit. It is also a job with astonishing powers over ordinary people. Look at how the police routinely pump “the accused” with chemicals called the ‘truth serum’? If these chemicals (which are known to leave lasting damage on the brain) really worked, why don’t we know who killed Arushi Talwar? Shockingly, the Indian media is so happy to grab leaks of so-called confessions of people pumped with this serum that they don’t ask questions. The police also play a big role in corrupting the lower judiciary and the kick-backs from various magistrates courts go several layers up their hierarchy. Postings at courts depend on their ability to keep the food chain thriving. That is one reason why cases go on forever.

The police clearly need to wake up to some internal cleaning – while we the people fight to get them better equipment and training. Will they please prove to us that better resources will be used for public good and not against the public? We have no signs of that as yet!

The same goes for the government’s revenue agencies and India’s bureaucracy. The revenue agencies are mostly venal and spineless and have no compunction jailing honest people, cooking up and fabricating a case and using the extremely corrupt lower judiciary to create a nice network of illegal ‘wealth creation’. I have seen this first hand.
IAS officers have actively supported their political bosses in delaying infrastructure development and tinkering with policy for corrupt gains. They have also helped the neta class to pre-empt over half the security force and resources for VVIP protection.

Where are the honest officers when this is happening right at the next table or the next cabin? They bury their heads and pretend not to see or hear. Nobody, but nobody, stands up to object to wrongdoing. At best, they quit the system. I am sure some of you will say that the same applies to the media. Well, yes it does and the media suffers the same credibility crisis. Things will change if we on the inside demand accountability from those who are within our own fraternity, even if it makes us unpopular. But how many of us have the courage to do that?

Fortunately, this time Mumbai has sent a clear and unequivocal message that they are not interested in they sympathy of politicians. It took over a week before the neta-class got the message. Until then, several politicians had put their foot in their mouth. Now they are staying away.

Read what Ashish Gupta (CSE 1987 IITK and an IPS officer - he’s at the PMO now) has to say. I sympathise with him, but lets see some internal clean up too.

Dear friends,

As I write to my batchmates of business school, I grieve the death of my batch mate of IPS – Ashok Kamte in the terror attack in Mumbai. Kamte was a very bold, professional, sincere cop who was also a National level weightlifter – very brave and handsome. I grieve his death. But the reason I write to all of you is this -

Another Terror attack in Mumbai and I expect the same stereotype stand from the political parties, same response from the media and the same anguish and feeling of helplessness from the public. Rightly so, they ask, what is the Government doing about it? The opposition parties will exploit the situation to say that the Government has been soft on terror, should invoke POTA like legislation to curb terror, should hang Afzal Guru, etc. If legislations stop terror attacks then Maharashtra should have been safe – it has MCOCA in place (MCOCA has all the ingredients of POTA). Even Delhi has DCOCA, but the terror strikes happened here too. If deterrent strong action of hanging terrorists is an answer, then Punjab terrorism should have being put to an end after hanging the assassins of Indira Gandhi. But it did not. While legislations and awarding deterrent punishments are very essential in our fight against terror, then are by no means
sufficient to put an end to terror.

The public at large rightfully ask – if US could stop terror attacks after 9/11, why can’t our security system do the same here?

Friends, we will continue to have such attacks till we as a nation and as a society do not decide to invest in the police of the country. We expect a first-world police reaction from a third-world police. You will be surprised to know that even today many of our police stations do not have vehicles. As for connectivity amongst police stations, while police stations (PS) have radio communication sets (RT sets), in some States the PS do not have an extra battery to keep the sets working – this means that they switch open their RT sets every two hours to check if there is any event of any consequence! This is when even the poor in our country can afford mobile sets! We still have weapons that are outdated. We have no centralized database to check on identity of person detained.
This implies that if I detain a suspicious person in Delhi and he says that he belongs to some village Begumangalam in district Nalgonda in AP, I have no way to immediately verify his identity - unlike the US where a centralized databank will let you check his antecedents in a matter of few seconds. While there is about 1 policeman for every 300 people in US, in India we have one policeman for every 1000 people – and mind you the cop of US is supported with technology, communication and cyber connectivity and vehicles, which increases his capabilities manifolds.
Cases take decades to get conviction, unlike the US where it is disposed off in a months time. What will a criminal be afraid of if he is not punished? Police leaders are hardly kept in their places of postings for a significant time so that they can improve situations – I, for example, have been transferred 27 times in 9 years of active policing in UP!!! Political insulation from professional work does not exist. We always talk of Intelligence failure – but what infrastructure we have there is a matter of concern. There are many more issues of manpower, equipment, infrastructure and the like. But we as a society are not bothered – or is it that human life, and more so a life of a policeman, is too cheap? Or is it that we are not aware of the deficiencies in our security systems?

Each political party will make use of another terror attack as an opportunity to malign the other and claim that it will improve security situation when it comes back to power. As if POTA or hanging Afzal Guru will! The reaction of the Government is also on the same lines – will legislate a strong anti-terror law, will create a federal agency, will bring in police reforms, etc. Haven’t we heard the Governments in power repeat the same after each terror attack, but still nothing happens. All political parties, whether in power or outside, are the same. They misuse the police system to meet their selfish ends. Unfortunately these terror attacks are only ‘action events’ for the media to keep people hooked on to the TVs. But hardly we have informed and consistent discussions in media to improve the security situation.

Friends, the reason I write this mail is because I feel that you all need to make yourself aware of the realities of the police. Police is hated, to say the least. But because it is hated, you don’t keep yourself away from the malaise and refuse to raise a voice to improve it. Police impacts you on a day-to-day basis – your sense of security and dignity depends upon that. But why do we, educated people, not raise enough hue and cry so that the political parties are forced to change the policing system and hence improve your security? Friends, please become aware of the realities of policing and beware of rhetoric of political parties – the solutions they offer are superficial and will not improve security situation. You can’t build an edifice of security organisation with a weak and hollow foundation.

Excuse me for my outburst and discontinuous thoughts – I kept writing what ever came to my mind. But please make yourself aware and let others know where the lacunae lie and build public opinion so that security systems improve. Else please be prepared for mindless killings and falling policemen (by the way, did you know that the number of policemen who have died in the line of duty over the last 10 years is more than the total Army personnel who were killed in all the wars together since 1947? We lose almost 3 policemen per day!!).

Take care,

Ashish Gupta

Viewing 18 Comments

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    The root of all the problems including terrorism is our own politicians. They are not intersted in eradicating the corruption as that is the very surity of their getting re-elected. We have a cabinet minister who as an advocate defended economic offenders in High Court and Supreme Court . These economic offenders were working for Pakistan. IAS and IPS officers in particular and all civil servants in generalare at the mercy of their political masters. Merit is not taken into account. You raise a voice against corruption or misdeed in the department and you are fired. I would not be surprised if Mr. Gupta also faces some problem in his career for the eye opening and thought provoking article. The need of hour is to unitedly defend few honest officers who do not tow to the linmes of their political masters and corrupt seniors.
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    A computer science grad from IIT is a police office - guess how many MIT CSE grads went on to join Boston police

    Isnt India the only country where this career path is found; engineers, doctors becoming police officers
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    Are you saying that is a good thing or bad? Not just computer engineers and doctors, even guys from IIM Ahmedabad are with the police. I am told that one of them is now an Officer on Special Duty to the new Home Minister! While another, in Mumbai, was jailed in connection with the Thelgi scam. There are all kinds ... but in general I think it is a good thing if they join the police to serve the country and not to make money.
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    How can that be a good thing? And then we wonder why it takes us 25 years to build a nuclear power submarine or have problems with the engine for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). I am sure there are tons of equally challenging needs on the civilian side as well.
    I do not aim to belittle our problem solvers at work but couldnt we use a lot more top notch problem solvers (assuming some of these guys are really analytical, engineering innovators - higher probability but no direct correlation with being at IIT)? As a percentage of the population, a very small number get to this level. We know why a lot of folks join IAS and IPS - I wish conditions didnt exist where these careers were this attractive (things have obviously changed since 1987). We still cant fully staff the officer corps of the armed forces fully while we face enormous challenges - failing (Pak, Bangla) and thriving (China) authoritarian states which aim to harm us. These are existential threats IMO!

    So again, I dont question the career choices made here, just that I wish other careers which India needs more than others (technicians - all kinds and yes folks who can and are willing to fight for the motherland) were more prized than they are.
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    >>> Each political party will make use of another terror attack as an opportunity to malign the other and claim that it will improve security situation when it comes back to power. As if POTA or hanging Afzal Guru will!

    No, it wont improve the security situation, but it sends out a signal, that the govt. of the day is focused on dealing with terrorism in a tough and uncompromising manner. Insisting that tough laws against terrorism and tough action against terrorists takes place is simply a way of communicating what needs to be done to the public in a way that they can understand. Anyone who whines about these demands being non serious and ineffectual displays a serious case of naivete about politics.

    That being said, Ashish Gupta's laments about politicians, public apathy, bureaucracy and so on is just an ineffectual rant that is a little self serving at best and dangerously delusional at worst. Its not any less dangerous because it is the fashion of the day in pop culture today.. Blaming the politician and self flagellation after all is the Gandhian way.

    The venality of the 'corrupt pandu' and the 100 Rs he asks from you in lieu of a challan and his inefficacy in fighting terrorist commandos are two different issues entirely. If they are related, its only because the actor is the same in both cases.

    I live in the US, and even the United States with its 1 policeman for 300 people would have struggled to contain such an invasion from the sees. I shudder to think of 10 commandos coming on speed boats and landing on pier 39 in San Francisco on July 4 or Jan 1. Leave alone the US, any major city in the world would have faced trouble against such a commando attack. The fact that nothing has happened in the US since 9/11 is a result of other actions and their unique circumstance, not that they have 1 officer for 300 citizens.

    What other actions you ask? Simple, they ignored the whole world and sacked the elite of two countries after 9/11. This put the fear of God in their opponents and they shut down their covert and subliminal war making machinery down.

    What other circumstance? They dont have a huge local muslim population. Before someone reminds me, let me say it myself that 99% of muslims dont have anything to do with Jihad, but that means that 1% do. 1% of 150 million is 15 lakh Jihad footsoldiers and that is a lot.

    The only way we can win a truce in this war is to turn the focus of our response outwards. Police reform can wait or proceed in parallel, and is important for its own sake, but it can not replace of this outward directed response.

    Consider for a moment, the complexity of the Mumbai attack.
    1) They trained a batch of 30 commandos for more than an year.
    2) They trained them in using different kinds of weapons. They were able to use their grenades with efficacy and were able to use a weapon snatched from an NSG team member.
    3) They trained them in hostage taking and negotiation.
    4) They trained them in negating standard room clearing techniques used by NSG and other such commando units world wide. E.g. When they were cornered in one room by Sandeep unnithan's team, they knew that NSG would set up a small door blasting charge. They then barricaded the door, so the force of the blast would be directed outwards. This injured the commandos along with Major Unnithan and he was then shot dead.
    5) They were trained in Seaman ship and knew how to handle a boat.
    6) They were provided with Satellite phones and training to use it.

    Such a complex operation requires state support and there is no Army/Police force in the whole world that could have stopped them from creating the carnage that they did.

    You can accuse Pakistan of anything, but you cant accuse them of being illogical. They attacked the Indian embassy in Kabul first with a huge IED that claimed the life of the Indian defense attache there apart from levelling a large part of the embassy. They didnt even bother to hide their trails and the attack was traced to the highest levels of the Pakistani govt. When Indians did nothing by way of retaliation, they stepped it up a notch and killed 200 Indians in Bombay and shut down that city for 3 days. If Indians still do nothing that punishes the perpetrators of these acts (apart from talking about police reform) the next step is either a WMD attack that will cause massive causalities or an Mumbai X 4 attack on more than one targets at the same time.

    Go ahead and diddle your police reform till that time..
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    Link with news about terrorists using mp5s
    http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1210367

    Link about terrorists barricading the doors to negate door blasting charges
    http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/11mumterror...
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    You said "You will be surprised to know that even today many of our police stations do not have vehicles."

    The ones that do have vehicles seem to put it to good use to collect "hafta" from the street vendors on their "rounds"
    I have seen this personally on the streets of Bangalore (Hoysala jeeps donated by Infosys)
    How would you have this addressed ?

    - An Eyewitness
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    I saw this email and find it quite abhorrant people like Shardul just write some crap. I know Ashish Gupta personally and I can tell you that he has spurned a lot of opportunities in IIT/IIM so that he can do what he thinks right. It was with great zeal that he decided to follow his conscience in serving the needs of his country, and not sit in some ivory towel.

    I suggest that you do some homework before passing judgement on people
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    nice post
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    like my other police friends expresses great anguish about the death of Ashok Kamte in the terror attacks on Mumbai in November. It is a rare man who evokes such respect and admiration from his fellow officers… Kamte’s demise is truly a loss and it is a bigger tragedy that many of us have got to know about this brave, sincere but low profile officer only after he is no more with us.

    Thanks
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    Merit is not taken into account. You raise a voice against corruption or misdeed in the department and you are fired. I would not be surprised if Mr. Gupta also faces some problem in his career for the eye opening and thought provoking article.
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    Policing in our country really suffers from poor infrastruture in various fileds e.g. technical support, living conditions of lower staff and their wards and their number too but the political interference and misuse of political power in making the policing worst, is very much due to weak , opportunistic & currupt senior police officers having the tag of IPS. In fact police services alone can't be blamed and we can never expect from them anything much better or special than any other service personale as all comes from the same society which is engulfed by various unfair and immoral practices. By mechanical means, we can correct only machines not the people or society. Police alone can not be corrected what ever means are used, till a global corrections are triggered. ......In fact in an ideal society , there should not be any requirement of police.......worst thing about the police is that they are having the right to use ' ARM' along with the power of using 'PEN' and this combination becomes many times lethal..In fact growth of crime and coninuity of crime is many times is supported and nourished by police for their more valued existance ! I my self have witnessed the ugly face of our police system...Kamte or any other officer like him deserves a great respect oviously but the characters like him are outnumbered significantly by dirty faces and henous crimes done by personale this services...I again say good and bad exist globally not exclusively in police only ...so if possible think of ways to induce social and people reform...
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    We expect a first-world police reaction from a third-world police. You will be surprised to know that even today many of our police stations do not have vehicles. As for connectivity amongst police stations, while police stations (PS) have radio communication sets (RT sets), in some States the PS do not have an extra battery to keep the sets working – this means that they switch open their RT sets every two hours to check if there is any event of any consequence! This is when even the poor in our country can afford mobile sets! We still have weapons that are outdated. We have no centralized database to check on identity of person detained.
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    I am feeling really bad about Ashok Kamte.It is really a big loss to our country.My best wishes are with him and his family.May god give power to his family.
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    an enterprise and the government job and uniform is just a license or permit. It is also a job with astonishing powers over ordinary people. Look at how the police routinely pump “the accused” with chemicals called the ‘truth serum’?
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    nice article.
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    Everything about the police or authority has their own price. You can only count on your hand who can you trust and would use their authority in accordance of the law. We can't blame him for feeling that way, because police were still human who have feelings.
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    I love this way the message has been conveyed on this blog
 
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