By Maxwell Pereira: 12.08.2006
When asked to recommend changes in the police a century ago while India was still under British yoke, the Frazer Committee Report of 1902-04 threw up a revelation that "Police are corrupt and oppressive". One wonders why this perception has not changed even after hundred odd years, as the nation enters the 60 th year of self-rule this Independence Day.
After a recent "consultation on police reform" in a northern state the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative observed among other things: "There is a complete lack of honesty… the police system is fraught with corruption… honest police officers are hindered in their work and treated as outcasts – not extended cooperation by their colleagues". Applies equally to any state, I'd say, though it'd be unfair to tar all with the same brush.
It pained me then to receive this extract on Delhi Police from an article in a powerful southern news daily: "…the perception of Delhi Police in the public mind is that it can do anything as long as you talk money – from procuring a simple licence for two-wheelers to getting admission in schools, colleges and even arranging marriages and organising parties! …..the root of all evil, the prevalent corruption – shukrana, nazrana and zabrana, the most common terms for alleged exchange of money in Delhi police circles. Shukrana – given by people who want to express their gratitude for favours rendered by the police; nazrana – a gift because you occupy a certain office; while zabrana – something taken by force".
Against this background, the arrest by CBI last Friday, 11th August, of an ACP of Delhi Police's elite Crime Branch, on charges of corruption, deals yet another slap to wipe out a thousand good works of Delhi Police, which can do without such adverse repeats. Reportedly, it wasn't the ACP's first bump for corruption. More pertinent, despite two similar skirmishes earlier, the officer was returned to Crime branch just this April '06.
The officer's career profile is chequered – bits and pieces emerging from sources who have brushed shoulders with him at various stages. Old timers recall a murder case of the 80s when the body of a woman with multiple stab injuries was fished out of a sewer manhole in Lajpatnagar. The accused, a lawyer and a close relative of this ACP, secured acquittal allegedly with the active help and assistance of this officer.
Credited for messing up the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, the two earlier occasions when he fell foul of the government's vigilance set-ups are – when in 1995 he was statedly extorting money in Panchkula (apparently, RK Sharma, the main accused in the Shivani case was then the IG there). Later, in 2000, the CBI investigating him for disproportionate assets reportedly found him in possession of property worth several crores - including Hotel Ridge View in Rajender Nagar, and several plots of land across Delhi.
In between, the officer even got decorated for gallantry for an encounter that raised eyebrows – in which kidnapper Dinesh Thakur subsequent to arrest was shot dead while on bail, by a team of which he was a part. This got him out-of-turn promotion to the rank of ACP, something not taken kindly by those senior to him in the list. It is not clear whether he was stripped of the decoration as required per rules, or of his ad-hoc promotion, following investigations by the CBI.
Surprisingly, the officer's name also featured in the 'Team of 9 ACPs' constituted in 2001 by the then Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma to scrutinise records of dismissed police personnel, to monitor activities of tainted police officials and keep tab on cops-turned-goons!
More recently, the celebrated columnist Kushwant Singh in his 'Malice' column decried 'moral policing' by Delhi Police following a raid on a restaurant bar in South Delhi's Rajdoot Hotel alleging obscenity on the part of bar girls on the premises. The one who conducted the raid, none other than the same ACP – who by now, according to sources, is notorious for implicating people in false cases with an eye on extortion.
His current arrest has come in the wake of the heightened alert following the 7/11 Mumbai blasts, the 8/10 uncovering of a plot in UK to blow up ten or more US bound aircraft flying the Atlantic and related arrests at London airport and elsewhere; and the US alert to its nationals in India over likely 'al Qaeida' attacks on Delhi and Mumbai between 11-16 August. As part of Delhi Police's anti-terrorist drive checking of hotels and guesthouses is routine. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the officer arrested the son of an hotelier in Mahipalpur under the immoral traffic act and allegedly demanded a bribe of 1.5 lakhs not to oppose his bail. On being approached, the CBI laid a trap and effected his arrest red handed while accepting part payment of Rs.50000 through a conduit – an owner of a mall in Karol Bagh's Gaffar Market.
Just one more reason for serious misgivings within civil society about the police: corruption, perceived to be widely prevalent. Citizens' perception that the police leadership is indifferent to this malaise with a tendency to shelter its rogue officers, needs to be remedied. Any prospect of police reforms is unlikely to progress unless the police is seen determined to control its rotten elements. Delhi Police needs to act.
abridged version titled: Kill Corruption, Save police Image
in the Hindustan Times: Page-5: Thursday, 17 Aug 2006
http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Default.aspx
Comments
sudershan sharma (IPS retd) : sksconsuls@yahoo.com : 17.08.2006
The history of the ACP dug up by you makes a telling story on police management. I am one of those who firmly believe police is more forced or lured into corrution by the corrupt elements than the zabrana type of corruption by the police. And that too against the corrupt, law violators, encroachers and the like. Also I believe that the causes and remedies for corruption and malpractces of the police lie not within but beyond the police.
However cases like the one you have researched prove me wrong. I wish you had been more candid in analysing the action of the police managemet in brushing all the notriety of this ACP under the carpet all this while.
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Saturday, 12 August 2006
Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Covering Inderlok Murders
By Maxwell Pereira
What is it with our media? Why is it impossible for the fourth estate to be realistic and rational while reporting crime and expecting action on the part of concerned law enforcers? Why the headlines “police are clueless” “police groping in the dark” even before police have started investigations after an eye-catching or soul-stirring crime? Does one expect police to be jadoogars all the time to pull out rabbits from a hat with a ‘hey presto’?
It happened again in the case of the recent Inderlok murders – when on July 31, bodies of seven members of a family were found at their ‘D’ Block residence – all killed at one go. Seven bodies under one roof, with throats slashed - of Om Prakash Rathore (45), his wife Santosh (40), four daughters Manju (19), Preeti (17), Dolly (15), Pooja (14) and son Anuj (8) – discovered in the morning.
True, this by any standards is sensation. And for added horror, there were two more, of senior citizens, done to death the same day in Karol Bagh. Nine victims of murder in one day, enough to prompt more than one newspaper to make this the main news of the day with front-page banner headlines under the masthead.
The multiple-murder sent shockwaves in the capital and created a furore in the locality with locals hitting the streets and ransacking the house of a neighbour, with whom Rathore is said to have had a property dispute – leading to deployment of riot police to tackle the situation. In the city of politics, the incident understandably sought to be blown up into a political issue by rival BJP in the Opposition.
By noon, every television news channel screeching away, each competing with the other to ‘break news’. By evening, reportage graduated to theories and analysis, pip-squeak anchors and armchair analysts commenting on taken-for-granted ‘police lapses’ that led to this horror of horrors – for there had to be police lapses for nine murders to occur in a day, or so the media had to project.
And no, the views of some that it is too early to comment on a case like the one occurred at Inderlok, not palatable. Irrespective of the fact there were no indicators pointing these were either preventable, or murders for gain through housebreaking, related violence or intrusion. Nothing short of pointing fingers at police failure would do, or acceptable.
The police commissioner’s own statement not spared too – that this crime is not an indicator of the state of law and order or security in the city. It was scathingly decried, made the “question of the day” for aroused adverse sentiment to vent itself, and indicted even in editorials by the high and mighty know-alls! Within 24 hours, and since, the media mandarins on a tirade – “police groping, police clueless”. Worse, speculation over speculation – of what the solution could be! Irrespective of what harm these red-herrings and diversions could do to investigations that were on.
The case handed over to the Crime Branch, whose investigators battle on ‘midst all the adverse projection – to sift every iota of information, or clue picked from the scene, from people talked to, and whatever else. Soon investigators established that only one person committed all the murders, as autopsy reports proved the weapon used for the killing was the same. Sleuths questioned over 200 people and probed various angles, including property dispute, family feud and a possible love tangle of one of the murdered Rathore daughters.
Hard work and systematic investigation pay dividends. Within six days of the discovery of the gruesome act, the mystery is unravelled. An arrest is made of a close relative, unfolding the diabolical motive behind the killing – a deadly cocktail of family feud and greed for money – within the family circle!
Even before this case is solved, police detectives elsewhere from Karol Bagh travelled far to track down the servant of the Grovers – the other couple that were murdered in the city the same day as the Inderlok seven – to return with the culprit firmly in their custody. That case too solved and duly wrapped up. In both cases an exemplary follow-up and astute investigation resulting in a first rate feat on the part of Delhi Police.
For more on the seven-victim murder of Inderlok – the police zeroed in on accused Sanjay Babu after they found him missing at the cremation and other family rituals after the massacre. A nephew of Rathore's wife Santhosh, Sanjay and his family used to live with the Rathores earlier. They parted ways after Santosh asked her sister to move out, as Sanjay’s objectionable activities (which attracted police trouble) were bad influence for her growing-up daughters. This led to acrimony, to nurse a simmering grudge that grew and eventually boiled over to make him butcher the entire family.
According to police reconstruction of crime based on disclosures, Sanjay murdered his aunt's family for money and to settle this old grudge. When he visited the family a couple of days before the murder he had learnt of his uncle getting an advance of 5 lakhs for renting out a portion of the house and witnessed his aunt giving Rs 50,000 to a relative. With also the knowledge of his uncle’s money-lending business, he expected lots of money to be in the house.
True, there is much more to it that than meets the eye. Many unanswered questions, to wrap matters in a hurry. But the point to be realised is that murders are not solved in a jiffy. Investigation needs time, and meticulous effort. The media needs to be supportive. Not distracting or obstructive. Needs to appreciate and not demoralise the community to lose confidence in the agency they forever need to rely on for safety and security in an evolving-for-the-worse violent society.
08.08.2006: 950 words: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: http://www. maxwellpereira.com and mfjpkamath@gmail.com
What is it with our media? Why is it impossible for the fourth estate to be realistic and rational while reporting crime and expecting action on the part of concerned law enforcers? Why the headlines “police are clueless” “police groping in the dark” even before police have started investigations after an eye-catching or soul-stirring crime? Does one expect police to be jadoogars all the time to pull out rabbits from a hat with a ‘hey presto’?
It happened again in the case of the recent Inderlok murders – when on July 31, bodies of seven members of a family were found at their ‘D’ Block residence – all killed at one go. Seven bodies under one roof, with throats slashed - of Om Prakash Rathore (45), his wife Santosh (40), four daughters Manju (19), Preeti (17), Dolly (15), Pooja (14) and son Anuj (8) – discovered in the morning.
True, this by any standards is sensation. And for added horror, there were two more, of senior citizens, done to death the same day in Karol Bagh. Nine victims of murder in one day, enough to prompt more than one newspaper to make this the main news of the day with front-page banner headlines under the masthead.
The multiple-murder sent shockwaves in the capital and created a furore in the locality with locals hitting the streets and ransacking the house of a neighbour, with whom Rathore is said to have had a property dispute – leading to deployment of riot police to tackle the situation. In the city of politics, the incident understandably sought to be blown up into a political issue by rival BJP in the Opposition.
By noon, every television news channel screeching away, each competing with the other to ‘break news’. By evening, reportage graduated to theories and analysis, pip-squeak anchors and armchair analysts commenting on taken-for-granted ‘police lapses’ that led to this horror of horrors – for there had to be police lapses for nine murders to occur in a day, or so the media had to project.
And no, the views of some that it is too early to comment on a case like the one occurred at Inderlok, not palatable. Irrespective of the fact there were no indicators pointing these were either preventable, or murders for gain through housebreaking, related violence or intrusion. Nothing short of pointing fingers at police failure would do, or acceptable.
The police commissioner’s own statement not spared too – that this crime is not an indicator of the state of law and order or security in the city. It was scathingly decried, made the “question of the day” for aroused adverse sentiment to vent itself, and indicted even in editorials by the high and mighty know-alls! Within 24 hours, and since, the media mandarins on a tirade – “police groping, police clueless”. Worse, speculation over speculation – of what the solution could be! Irrespective of what harm these red-herrings and diversions could do to investigations that were on.
The case handed over to the Crime Branch, whose investigators battle on ‘midst all the adverse projection – to sift every iota of information, or clue picked from the scene, from people talked to, and whatever else. Soon investigators established that only one person committed all the murders, as autopsy reports proved the weapon used for the killing was the same. Sleuths questioned over 200 people and probed various angles, including property dispute, family feud and a possible love tangle of one of the murdered Rathore daughters.
Hard work and systematic investigation pay dividends. Within six days of the discovery of the gruesome act, the mystery is unravelled. An arrest is made of a close relative, unfolding the diabolical motive behind the killing – a deadly cocktail of family feud and greed for money – within the family circle!
Even before this case is solved, police detectives elsewhere from Karol Bagh travelled far to track down the servant of the Grovers – the other couple that were murdered in the city the same day as the Inderlok seven – to return with the culprit firmly in their custody. That case too solved and duly wrapped up. In both cases an exemplary follow-up and astute investigation resulting in a first rate feat on the part of Delhi Police.
For more on the seven-victim murder of Inderlok – the police zeroed in on accused Sanjay Babu after they found him missing at the cremation and other family rituals after the massacre. A nephew of Rathore's wife Santhosh, Sanjay and his family used to live with the Rathores earlier. They parted ways after Santosh asked her sister to move out, as Sanjay’s objectionable activities (which attracted police trouble) were bad influence for her growing-up daughters. This led to acrimony, to nurse a simmering grudge that grew and eventually boiled over to make him butcher the entire family.
According to police reconstruction of crime based on disclosures, Sanjay murdered his aunt's family for money and to settle this old grudge. When he visited the family a couple of days before the murder he had learnt of his uncle getting an advance of 5 lakhs for renting out a portion of the house and witnessed his aunt giving Rs 50,000 to a relative. With also the knowledge of his uncle’s money-lending business, he expected lots of money to be in the house.
True, there is much more to it that than meets the eye. Many unanswered questions, to wrap matters in a hurry. But the point to be realised is that murders are not solved in a jiffy. Investigation needs time, and meticulous effort. The media needs to be supportive. Not distracting or obstructive. Needs to appreciate and not demoralise the community to lose confidence in the agency they forever need to rely on for safety and security in an evolving-for-the-worse violent society.
08.08.2006: 950 words: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: http://www. maxwellpereira.com and mfjpkamath@gmail.com
Monday, 31 July 2006
Beggarly Doctorly Mafias!
By Maxwell Pereira
The recent expose by a television news channel on the nexus between beggar mafias and rogue doctors has once again brought to sharp focus the persistent problem of beggary. In vivid detail was exposed the role of unscrupulous medical professionals resorting to a horrifying and unethical practice of amputating healthy limbs and surgically creating deformities for commercial self-gain, at the behest of beggar mafias.
That the social malaise of beggary continues to flourish with impunity in Indian cities is an under statement. It exists much to the disgust, distaste and horror of the community, affecting public health and environmental ambience of city life. As also tourism, with the unwelcome picture beggary portrays. Interest groups periodically get incensed in bursts and spurts to make noises on the issue – in debates and seminars, in courts, media and government offices, with little effect: And social scientists have endeavoured to highlight there is more to it than the blatant attempts by repressive crime control agencies to criminalize a social problem of poverty, destitution, homelessness, underemployment and unemployment in urban slums and ghettos.
Anti-begging laws do exist. The Social Welfare Departments (SWD) of Governments are tasked with tackling, if not eradicating the menace… and the police are to assist them in this task. Periodically joint drives are conducted to remove beggars from public places – particularly, from roads. Those picked up in Delhi are produced before designated courts, where most secure immediate release on various grounds or assurances. A few get remanded to beggar homes run by the SWD meant for vocation training and rehabilitation. But defeating the objective, their incarceration is never for more than few days. Invariably, all land back at their favourite begging spot to haunt and solicit with added vigour.
The Delhi Government under chief secretary Shailaja Chandra was the only time when some serious effort was made to tackle effectively this menace in the national capital. On 24 September 2002, the Delhi High Court had yet again directed Delhi administration to clear the city of beggars and hawkers – this time, because they `obstruct the smooth flow of traffic'. The order, in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition that described beggars and homeless people as the `ugly face of the nation's capital' and as people who, among other things, caused `road rage'. Coming on the eve of the April 2003 PATA Conference, it perhaps demanded more attention to provide an impetus for a concerted operation for clearing beggars off the streets.
Taking cue from the High Court, Ms Chandra tasked me as the city’s then traffic chief for a plan to rid road junctions of beggars. While I had nothing in the ‘traffic’ arsenal to target beggars, we came up with an idea of discouraging and penalizing vehicle owners and drivers who patronized beggars and vendors at road intersections.
The argument was simple. Beggars and vendors constituted an accident hazard while moving in and out of traffic; they also diverted the attention of drivers. And often motorists busy giving alms or buying wares obstructed vehicles behind them after the green light had come on.
So to supplement existing anti-beggary laws and give more teeth to enforcement modalities, we issued a notification – “No motorist shall encourage or indulge in activity detrimental to traffic flows or safety of road users at signalised traffic junctions. Giving alms to beggars or purchasing articles/ wares/ goods from roadside vendors at traffic junctions is an act obstructive to the quick discharge and smooth flow of traffic, and/ or hazardous in nature likely to endanger safety of other road users”. While providing for a fine for violating this rule, respecting the sensibilities of an intrinsically ‘charitable’ people, the notification clarified “it was not to discourage people’s urge for charity, but to channelise charity to right quarters away from traffic junctions.
Enforcement of this notification pinched – and was not palatable to NGOs working with street children. We faced a tirade against the move, and had to counter adverse public opinion fanned by the NGOs. Our stand of a vested interest commercialising beggary, even through maiming and dismemberment of victims kidnapped or recruited for the purpose, was decried by activists waving an old DP crime-branch study finding no role of criminals or mafia behind begging in Delhi. The police’s inability to expose mafia content behind beggary was used to defend the beggar community as a “distressed people” asking police to ‘de-criminalize’ begging as “people do not beg out of choice, but out of compulsion”.
There is for sure a vast segment of beggars who fall in the category of “distressed people”. But I firmly believed in the existence also of beggar mafias to exploit and commercialise the Indians’ tendency to gain punya by giving alms. That crime syndicates working behind begging do exist. And no doubt a large number of people are brought into Delhi for begging.
Also true, the criminal mafia character behind beggary needed more attention of the police, even while the infrastructure created within the SWD could have been adequately and effectively used to fight the beggar menace sincerely. Given the pressures and list of priorities the police are saddled with, that beggars do not come anywhere near top priority should not surprise anyone.
The projection of the ‘plight’ of those deprived of livelihood by my merciless act of sweeping them off the road with a ‘draconian’ law, did not hold water – at least for a while. The Delhi public strongly approved our move. Looking back, even if it was for a brief spell, Delhi’s roads were clean of beggars – the only time so perhaps, in the last over three decades of my association with the city.
31.07.2006: 900 words: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: http://www. maxwellpereira.com and mfjpkamath@gmail.com
The recent expose by a television news channel on the nexus between beggar mafias and rogue doctors has once again brought to sharp focus the persistent problem of beggary. In vivid detail was exposed the role of unscrupulous medical professionals resorting to a horrifying and unethical practice of amputating healthy limbs and surgically creating deformities for commercial self-gain, at the behest of beggar mafias.
That the social malaise of beggary continues to flourish with impunity in Indian cities is an under statement. It exists much to the disgust, distaste and horror of the community, affecting public health and environmental ambience of city life. As also tourism, with the unwelcome picture beggary portrays. Interest groups periodically get incensed in bursts and spurts to make noises on the issue – in debates and seminars, in courts, media and government offices, with little effect: And social scientists have endeavoured to highlight there is more to it than the blatant attempts by repressive crime control agencies to criminalize a social problem of poverty, destitution, homelessness, underemployment and unemployment in urban slums and ghettos.
Anti-begging laws do exist. The Social Welfare Departments (SWD) of Governments are tasked with tackling, if not eradicating the menace… and the police are to assist them in this task. Periodically joint drives are conducted to remove beggars from public places – particularly, from roads. Those picked up in Delhi are produced before designated courts, where most secure immediate release on various grounds or assurances. A few get remanded to beggar homes run by the SWD meant for vocation training and rehabilitation. But defeating the objective, their incarceration is never for more than few days. Invariably, all land back at their favourite begging spot to haunt and solicit with added vigour.
The Delhi Government under chief secretary Shailaja Chandra was the only time when some serious effort was made to tackle effectively this menace in the national capital. On 24 September 2002, the Delhi High Court had yet again directed Delhi administration to clear the city of beggars and hawkers – this time, because they `obstruct the smooth flow of traffic'. The order, in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition that described beggars and homeless people as the `ugly face of the nation's capital' and as people who, among other things, caused `road rage'. Coming on the eve of the April 2003 PATA Conference, it perhaps demanded more attention to provide an impetus for a concerted operation for clearing beggars off the streets.
Taking cue from the High Court, Ms Chandra tasked me as the city’s then traffic chief for a plan to rid road junctions of beggars. While I had nothing in the ‘traffic’ arsenal to target beggars, we came up with an idea of discouraging and penalizing vehicle owners and drivers who patronized beggars and vendors at road intersections.
The argument was simple. Beggars and vendors constituted an accident hazard while moving in and out of traffic; they also diverted the attention of drivers. And often motorists busy giving alms or buying wares obstructed vehicles behind them after the green light had come on.
So to supplement existing anti-beggary laws and give more teeth to enforcement modalities, we issued a notification – “No motorist shall encourage or indulge in activity detrimental to traffic flows or safety of road users at signalised traffic junctions. Giving alms to beggars or purchasing articles/ wares/ goods from roadside vendors at traffic junctions is an act obstructive to the quick discharge and smooth flow of traffic, and/ or hazardous in nature likely to endanger safety of other road users”. While providing for a fine for violating this rule, respecting the sensibilities of an intrinsically ‘charitable’ people, the notification clarified “it was not to discourage people’s urge for charity, but to channelise charity to right quarters away from traffic junctions.
Enforcement of this notification pinched – and was not palatable to NGOs working with street children. We faced a tirade against the move, and had to counter adverse public opinion fanned by the NGOs. Our stand of a vested interest commercialising beggary, even through maiming and dismemberment of victims kidnapped or recruited for the purpose, was decried by activists waving an old DP crime-branch study finding no role of criminals or mafia behind begging in Delhi. The police’s inability to expose mafia content behind beggary was used to defend the beggar community as a “distressed people” asking police to ‘de-criminalize’ begging as “people do not beg out of choice, but out of compulsion”.
There is for sure a vast segment of beggars who fall in the category of “distressed people”. But I firmly believed in the existence also of beggar mafias to exploit and commercialise the Indians’ tendency to gain punya by giving alms. That crime syndicates working behind begging do exist. And no doubt a large number of people are brought into Delhi for begging.
Also true, the criminal mafia character behind beggary needed more attention of the police, even while the infrastructure created within the SWD could have been adequately and effectively used to fight the beggar menace sincerely. Given the pressures and list of priorities the police are saddled with, that beggars do not come anywhere near top priority should not surprise anyone.
The projection of the ‘plight’ of those deprived of livelihood by my merciless act of sweeping them off the road with a ‘draconian’ law, did not hold water – at least for a while. The Delhi public strongly approved our move. Looking back, even if it was for a brief spell, Delhi’s roads were clean of beggars – the only time so perhaps, in the last over three decades of my association with the city.
31.07.2006: 900 words: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: http://www. maxwellpereira.com and mfjpkamath@gmail.com
Friday, 19 August 2005
Crucial Goodwill
By Maxwell Pereira
In my email traffic the other day I had one from this young couple who wanted to adopt a baby. It was the lady who addressed me, but did not elaborate the reason why they preferred to adopt, just said, “…need some help – my husband and I are going ahead with bringing home a baby and give it tender loving care… required adoption papers also include a Police Verification from the SHO - that we do not have a criminal record… the police station when approached told us this will not be done easily, the application has to be submitted to the DCP Office on a stamp paper; from where after some ground work the papers will be sent to our local police station to work on; ….the run around’s been for some time…. no complaint, but an appeal for help; could you please guide…. the adoption papers have to be submitted within a stipulated time… my husband and I hold valid Indian passports, and both work as managers for good organisations”.
I replied and assured the lady she’d done right, the procedure she’d been told was also right – but to expedite, if in her opinion my ‘superannuated’ intervention would help, I’d oblige by speaking to either the SHO or the DCP. I waited not for her response, but rang up the concerned DCP, apprised him of the lady’s plight passing on to him her particulars, arranged for her an appointment, and then rang her back asking her to meet the DCP the next morning at the appointed hour.
Before the sun could set the next day, I was inundated with quite a few emails of thanks and appreciation – starting from the baby-adopting lady herself and from others she had spoken to about her unbelievable experience. She was euphoric with her delight. She with her husband had been to the DCP’s office that morning, who had heard her out patiently, and when she had finished, just presented her the verification certificate she had sought – with the compliments of the police department. Can any one really measure the mountain of goodwill the DCP earned for Delhi Police that day!?
350 words: 19.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interaction, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
In my email traffic the other day I had one from this young couple who wanted to adopt a baby. It was the lady who addressed me, but did not elaborate the reason why they preferred to adopt, just said, “…need some help – my husband and I are going ahead with bringing home a baby and give it tender loving care… required adoption papers also include a Police Verification from the SHO - that we do not have a criminal record… the police station when approached told us this will not be done easily, the application has to be submitted to the DCP Office on a stamp paper; from where after some ground work the papers will be sent to our local police station to work on; ….the run around’s been for some time…. no complaint, but an appeal for help; could you please guide…. the adoption papers have to be submitted within a stipulated time… my husband and I hold valid Indian passports, and both work as managers for good organisations”.
I replied and assured the lady she’d done right, the procedure she’d been told was also right – but to expedite, if in her opinion my ‘superannuated’ intervention would help, I’d oblige by speaking to either the SHO or the DCP. I waited not for her response, but rang up the concerned DCP, apprised him of the lady’s plight passing on to him her particulars, arranged for her an appointment, and then rang her back asking her to meet the DCP the next morning at the appointed hour.
Before the sun could set the next day, I was inundated with quite a few emails of thanks and appreciation – starting from the baby-adopting lady herself and from others she had spoken to about her unbelievable experience. She was euphoric with her delight. She with her husband had been to the DCP’s office that morning, who had heard her out patiently, and when she had finished, just presented her the verification certificate she had sought – with the compliments of the police department. Can any one really measure the mountain of goodwill the DCP earned for Delhi Police that day!?
350 words: 19.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interaction, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Sunday, 7 August 2005
Funding Law Enforcement Infrastructure
By Maxwell Pereira
An American criminologist once told me, that the American media is cautious about criticising or exaggerating inadequacies in the law enforcement machinery; lest this criticism becomes the basis for concerned enforcement authorities to clamour for more personnel, more equipment, vehicles and technology – basically, more infrastructure. Thereby pinching the pockets of a people who have to pay more to the local administration who provide these services.
In most developed countries, people pay for their policing through the local bodies. Police departments function under the local city administration, under a Mayor or whatever other designation the local administrator is called, who hires and fires the person/s employed to satisfy the particular needs of its citizens according to requirement and performance. So a non-performing policeman gets the immediate boot, and a force less provided for gets the additional infrastructure needed without much ado.
So people are also wary of demanding indiscriminately for additional infrastructure, since in the end it is they who have to pay for it through hard cash collected at the local level, and not through indirect or phantom central taxation systems that do not touch or impact most and pinch only a fraction of the citizenry, leaving the majority non-payers of tax also as the major votaries for infrastructural demands. Under the circumstances, it is for the discerning populace to understand and decide which is better, and what they want.
In our own existing system where police as a State Subject for areas of governance is under the control of the State machinery and its budget, supplemented by the Central budget – the onus of deciding whether or not the police infrastructure is adequate, resting solely and I repeat solely on the shoulders of that Ministry or the Secretariat babu, who considers it his birth right to shoot down every new proposal for additional infrastructure that lands on his desk. This, not because there is no merit in the proposal, but because of a carefully cultivated psyche with which he has armed and engulfed himself over decades of sustained brainwashing from the powers that be, to do so!
Hence the perpetual cry of indiscriminate demands, of inadequacies in infrastructure – not only in the police departments, but across the board in all walks of governmental activity. In my opinion, this will continue forever till the present system continues and the burden rests on the vicious babu’s frail and ever burdened frame.
Against this background, comes the Supreme Court’s recent suggestion to the Centre to keep aside a particular sum of money in every law henceforth enacted by Parliament to deal with the financial burden imposed on the judiciary to enforce the legislation. Suggested by the apex court as one of the steps to make the justice delivery mechanism faster and cheaper in matters involving civil disputes, the idea is laudable… and it is hoped the Centre will give serious thought to ensure the judicial impact assessment of every law (being) enacted… Especially to work out in advance it’s financial and budgetary impact, including an estimate of the likely number of civil and criminal cases arising there from – and the courts, staff and infrastructure needed to deal with it!
The court has also urged the Centre, through the Finance Commission, to consider providing funds required to bear conciliation and mediation costs, pointing out otherwise these costs could act as a deterrent to the popularity of the Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms already available.
The apex court’s commendable and path-breaking suggestion actually boils down to, and needs to be viewed in the larger context of the adequacy/ inadequacies in the overall law enforcement machinery – encompassing the entire justice administration system, and not just the judiciary. No doubt judiciary is an important and culminating rung in the State’s criminal justice administration system to render justice to its constituents, but what is important is not to lose sight of the fact that the police and the prosecution wings are also the inevitable and crucial channels which the justice delivery mechanism has to wade through before reaching the judiciary for ultimate delivery of justice. Not only that, not to be ignored too are the prison/correctional services that follow a judicial verdict and are so impacted, needing inclusion in the overall impact assessment of a new law (being) enacted. In this context need one to really spell out the plethora of social legislations that also clutter up our basket of laws crying out for effective enforcement?
The infrastructural adequacy of each of the wings in the overall Criminal Justice Administration System, including the judiciary, is crucial for its health. That the adequacy of the infrastructural health of police departments – the first and the cutting edge rung of the CJAS – is a matter of constant concern needs no elaboration.
What needs to be realised is the fact that by virtue of it being the first rung and the visibly impacting strong arm of the government to enforce laws, the police are saddled with inherent powers to enforce every law and new enactment, and especially the penal provisions therein. This, irrespective of whether or not a separate department is created by the Government for the purpose of enforcing the new law. Consequently, it is this fact that needs to be borne in mind and suitably addressed by the government while sending up any new law for Parliament to enact. It is this fact that also needs to be borne in mind by Parliamentarians both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and ultimately by the President, before finally making any law that needs enforcement.
900 words: 07.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interaction, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
An American criminologist once told me, that the American media is cautious about criticising or exaggerating inadequacies in the law enforcement machinery; lest this criticism becomes the basis for concerned enforcement authorities to clamour for more personnel, more equipment, vehicles and technology – basically, more infrastructure. Thereby pinching the pockets of a people who have to pay more to the local administration who provide these services.
In most developed countries, people pay for their policing through the local bodies. Police departments function under the local city administration, under a Mayor or whatever other designation the local administrator is called, who hires and fires the person/s employed to satisfy the particular needs of its citizens according to requirement and performance. So a non-performing policeman gets the immediate boot, and a force less provided for gets the additional infrastructure needed without much ado.
So people are also wary of demanding indiscriminately for additional infrastructure, since in the end it is they who have to pay for it through hard cash collected at the local level, and not through indirect or phantom central taxation systems that do not touch or impact most and pinch only a fraction of the citizenry, leaving the majority non-payers of tax also as the major votaries for infrastructural demands. Under the circumstances, it is for the discerning populace to understand and decide which is better, and what they want.
In our own existing system where police as a State Subject for areas of governance is under the control of the State machinery and its budget, supplemented by the Central budget – the onus of deciding whether or not the police infrastructure is adequate, resting solely and I repeat solely on the shoulders of that Ministry or the Secretariat babu, who considers it his birth right to shoot down every new proposal for additional infrastructure that lands on his desk. This, not because there is no merit in the proposal, but because of a carefully cultivated psyche with which he has armed and engulfed himself over decades of sustained brainwashing from the powers that be, to do so!
Hence the perpetual cry of indiscriminate demands, of inadequacies in infrastructure – not only in the police departments, but across the board in all walks of governmental activity. In my opinion, this will continue forever till the present system continues and the burden rests on the vicious babu’s frail and ever burdened frame.
Against this background, comes the Supreme Court’s recent suggestion to the Centre to keep aside a particular sum of money in every law henceforth enacted by Parliament to deal with the financial burden imposed on the judiciary to enforce the legislation. Suggested by the apex court as one of the steps to make the justice delivery mechanism faster and cheaper in matters involving civil disputes, the idea is laudable… and it is hoped the Centre will give serious thought to ensure the judicial impact assessment of every law (being) enacted… Especially to work out in advance it’s financial and budgetary impact, including an estimate of the likely number of civil and criminal cases arising there from – and the courts, staff and infrastructure needed to deal with it!
The court has also urged the Centre, through the Finance Commission, to consider providing funds required to bear conciliation and mediation costs, pointing out otherwise these costs could act as a deterrent to the popularity of the Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms already available.
The apex court’s commendable and path-breaking suggestion actually boils down to, and needs to be viewed in the larger context of the adequacy/ inadequacies in the overall law enforcement machinery – encompassing the entire justice administration system, and not just the judiciary. No doubt judiciary is an important and culminating rung in the State’s criminal justice administration system to render justice to its constituents, but what is important is not to lose sight of the fact that the police and the prosecution wings are also the inevitable and crucial channels which the justice delivery mechanism has to wade through before reaching the judiciary for ultimate delivery of justice. Not only that, not to be ignored too are the prison/correctional services that follow a judicial verdict and are so impacted, needing inclusion in the overall impact assessment of a new law (being) enacted. In this context need one to really spell out the plethora of social legislations that also clutter up our basket of laws crying out for effective enforcement?
The infrastructural adequacy of each of the wings in the overall Criminal Justice Administration System, including the judiciary, is crucial for its health. That the adequacy of the infrastructural health of police departments – the first and the cutting edge rung of the CJAS – is a matter of constant concern needs no elaboration.
What needs to be realised is the fact that by virtue of it being the first rung and the visibly impacting strong arm of the government to enforce laws, the police are saddled with inherent powers to enforce every law and new enactment, and especially the penal provisions therein. This, irrespective of whether or not a separate department is created by the Government for the purpose of enforcing the new law. Consequently, it is this fact that needs to be borne in mind and suitably addressed by the government while sending up any new law for Parliament to enact. It is this fact that also needs to be borne in mind by Parliamentarians both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and ultimately by the President, before finally making any law that needs enforcement.
900 words: 07.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interaction, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Monday, 1 August 2005
Needed for Gurgaon – A Commissionerate
By Maxwell Pereira
I know I am running the risk of the powers that be and their secretariats – especially those who push pens to assist these very powers to reign and govern – raising eyebrows. And perhaps of also incurring the wrath of the bureaucracy with my conviction that it is high time Gurgaon gets a Police Commissionerate! For I fear the legendary rivalry between the Services – the IAS and IPS, is bound to stand in the way and cloud the real issues. But if all concerned were to sit up and give it a serious thought, I am quite sure they’d invariably arrive at the same conclusion.
The recent violence in Gurgaon involving the agitating workers of a local subsidiary of the Japanese Honda Company, and the countrywide debate that erupted – in the print media, in a cross-section of television channels, and even in the nation’s Parliament – consequent to the projectedly questionable manner in which Gurgaon Police handled the whole episode, has indeed thrown up yet again the issue of the much needed police reforms in the country, and of raising the level of policing in Gurgaon and other satellite townships surrounding Delhi in the National Capital Region (NCR) – to bring it on par with the level of policing available in Delhi.
It was one thing facing television cameras last weekend in NDTV’s media debate “The Big Fight” to counter effectively and answer the barbs and accusations levelled through venom-spewing articulation of a fiery co-panellist Trade Union leader and MP in the ruling coalition Gurudas DasGupta, against police in general and their specific role in handling the Gurgaon agitation and the violence… It is quite another, erasing the adverse public perception of the connected events as was projected and presented by a biased and sensation crazy channel competition.
This, in the face of media reports that very morning claiming admission by Haryana DGP Nirmal Singh that his force could have behaved better, acted more tactfully, and planned adequately in advance. He also did right, in sending a firm message through this medium right down to his rank and file that he did not approve of policemen beating the public, that they should have exercised restraint while controlling agitated workers even in the face of provocation from agitators by taking recourse to violence resulting in the breaking of their DSP’s hands! Is this pontification enough, though?
That the issue of police reforms is languishing for the past fifty-eight years of our Independent existence as a sovereign nation is an oft repeated statement. The Gurgaon incidents have merely highlighted this need yet again. How serious is the current Government in addressing this long festering cancer by taking this bull by its horns is to be seen. But narrowing down to the immediate, as would want to be done by crisis managers, it is necessary for the centre and the concerned state authorities to give an urgent thought to policing Gurgaon in the context of the NCR.
Rapidly growing Gurgaon with a townscape that puts visions of a mini-America on the mind screens of new visitors to the place is fast taking the shape of a Metropolis par excellence. Every conceivable MNC has established shop here or is in the process of establishing. Some of the country’s biggest developers like the DLF (with Five phases of developments already in place), the Ansals with their own including Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok and the like, and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) – are all vying with each other to provide the place with internationally competitive housing, office complexes, malls, food plazas, theatres and entertainment places.
More builders and construction giants have acquired all the land surrounding Gurgaon Township and its approach roads, especially on the Gurgaon-Sohna Road, for top of the line luxury condominiums, Hotels and a plethora of projects. Gurgaon already has two major Industrial Estates and InfoTech cities, with more in the offing.
All of which means, there is also simultaneous need to upgrade the services, in this case of the police set up, to meet the challenges thrown up of a bustling metropolis. The fact that this new city borders on Delhi the nation’s capital where the resources far exceed in comparison to its poor neighbour, makes the need for Gurgaon police upgradation all the more glaring.
It is said the Haryana Government has already addressed the Union Home Ministry in this regard. Comparing itself with the level of policing available in Delhi, it has sought for Gurgaon additional infrastructure, manpower, vehicles and equipment in the form of 5000 additional personnel, 424 motor vehicles and 308 motorcycles, more housing and upgradation in telecommunications, and equipment for surveillance and crowd control including the riot-control vajra vehicles designed and fabricated especially for Delhi Police by the DRDO.
The state should not stop at this. For proper law and order management and control, it should also ask for a Police Commissionerate, to do away with the dual control of the police by the DM/SP set up which hampers quick planning and effective execution among other things, in times of need. The Commisionerate confers on the field police officers the executive magisterial powers which is paramount for high density urban policing, unlike rural policing the superintendence of which has been vested with revenue collectors with powers of a District Magistrate. This is what will really bring policing in the NCR region on par with the level that Delhi is blessed with. Police Commissionerate in the NCR Districts of UP and Haryana surrounding Delhi, could start with Gurgaon.
900 words: 01.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interation, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
I know I am running the risk of the powers that be and their secretariats – especially those who push pens to assist these very powers to reign and govern – raising eyebrows. And perhaps of also incurring the wrath of the bureaucracy with my conviction that it is high time Gurgaon gets a Police Commissionerate! For I fear the legendary rivalry between the Services – the IAS and IPS, is bound to stand in the way and cloud the real issues. But if all concerned were to sit up and give it a serious thought, I am quite sure they’d invariably arrive at the same conclusion.
The recent violence in Gurgaon involving the agitating workers of a local subsidiary of the Japanese Honda Company, and the countrywide debate that erupted – in the print media, in a cross-section of television channels, and even in the nation’s Parliament – consequent to the projectedly questionable manner in which Gurgaon Police handled the whole episode, has indeed thrown up yet again the issue of the much needed police reforms in the country, and of raising the level of policing in Gurgaon and other satellite townships surrounding Delhi in the National Capital Region (NCR) – to bring it on par with the level of policing available in Delhi.
It was one thing facing television cameras last weekend in NDTV’s media debate “The Big Fight” to counter effectively and answer the barbs and accusations levelled through venom-spewing articulation of a fiery co-panellist Trade Union leader and MP in the ruling coalition Gurudas DasGupta, against police in general and their specific role in handling the Gurgaon agitation and the violence… It is quite another, erasing the adverse public perception of the connected events as was projected and presented by a biased and sensation crazy channel competition.
This, in the face of media reports that very morning claiming admission by Haryana DGP Nirmal Singh that his force could have behaved better, acted more tactfully, and planned adequately in advance. He also did right, in sending a firm message through this medium right down to his rank and file that he did not approve of policemen beating the public, that they should have exercised restraint while controlling agitated workers even in the face of provocation from agitators by taking recourse to violence resulting in the breaking of their DSP’s hands! Is this pontification enough, though?
That the issue of police reforms is languishing for the past fifty-eight years of our Independent existence as a sovereign nation is an oft repeated statement. The Gurgaon incidents have merely highlighted this need yet again. How serious is the current Government in addressing this long festering cancer by taking this bull by its horns is to be seen. But narrowing down to the immediate, as would want to be done by crisis managers, it is necessary for the centre and the concerned state authorities to give an urgent thought to policing Gurgaon in the context of the NCR.
Rapidly growing Gurgaon with a townscape that puts visions of a mini-America on the mind screens of new visitors to the place is fast taking the shape of a Metropolis par excellence. Every conceivable MNC has established shop here or is in the process of establishing. Some of the country’s biggest developers like the DLF (with Five phases of developments already in place), the Ansals with their own including Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok and the like, and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) – are all vying with each other to provide the place with internationally competitive housing, office complexes, malls, food plazas, theatres and entertainment places.
More builders and construction giants have acquired all the land surrounding Gurgaon Township and its approach roads, especially on the Gurgaon-Sohna Road, for top of the line luxury condominiums, Hotels and a plethora of projects. Gurgaon already has two major Industrial Estates and InfoTech cities, with more in the offing.
All of which means, there is also simultaneous need to upgrade the services, in this case of the police set up, to meet the challenges thrown up of a bustling metropolis. The fact that this new city borders on Delhi the nation’s capital where the resources far exceed in comparison to its poor neighbour, makes the need for Gurgaon police upgradation all the more glaring.
It is said the Haryana Government has already addressed the Union Home Ministry in this regard. Comparing itself with the level of policing available in Delhi, it has sought for Gurgaon additional infrastructure, manpower, vehicles and equipment in the form of 5000 additional personnel, 424 motor vehicles and 308 motorcycles, more housing and upgradation in telecommunications, and equipment for surveillance and crowd control including the riot-control vajra vehicles designed and fabricated especially for Delhi Police by the DRDO.
The state should not stop at this. For proper law and order management and control, it should also ask for a Police Commissionerate, to do away with the dual control of the police by the DM/SP set up which hampers quick planning and effective execution among other things, in times of need. The Commisionerate confers on the field police officers the executive magisterial powers which is paramount for high density urban policing, unlike rural policing the superintendence of which has been vested with revenue collectors with powers of a District Magistrate. This is what will really bring policing in the NCR region on par with the level that Delhi is blessed with. Police Commissionerate in the NCR Districts of UP and Haryana surrounding Delhi, could start with Gurgaon.
900 words: 01.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interation, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Tuesday, 26 July 2005
A Bit of Bobby Bashing
By Maxwell Pereira
Shocking! No. Not done! Something not expected of the London Bobby! Not expected of any police force or enforcement authority for that matter – the killing of an innocent in the name of fighting terrorism.
The British police have understandably come under fire for brutally killing Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent man who was in no way connected with the Thursday Sept 21 attempted bombings in London. Shock and anger all around, locally, internationally, as it emerged that the man shot dead by policemen in plainclothes in front of terrified commuters at the Stockwell underground Metro station in south London on the Friday that followed was neither carrying a bomb as had been alleged nor was he among the four men suspected to be behind Thursday's incidents.
The man whom even Tony Blair had initially claimed in front of television cameras was "directly linked" to the investigation of Thursday's attacks, was found after verification as having no connection whatsoever to the bomb attempts. Then on Sunday, Prime Minister Blair said “This is a tragedy. The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family, I can only express my deep regrets."
The PM however defended the shoot-to-kill policy, saying such action only applied when lives were believed to be at risk. The head of Scotland Yard has further gone on to say that he won't change the groundrule: "Shoot to kill, in order to protect." Scotland Yard also said the shooting had been a "tragedy'' which was regretted by the Metropolitan Police.
It would be interesting for socio-analysts and human rights activists to compare the this and the resultant scenarios that emerged in respect of killings of like nature, of innocents, in Britain and in India. For India has long been accused by everyone all over, and particularly the Rights Watchers, who invariably have made it their pleasure to do some India bashing on this score.
It is obvious the London shooting has added to the pressure on a police force that's already stressed. Stunned eyewitnesses have stated how they saw a man chased by policemen in plainclothes, who shot him from point blank range as he stumbled while trying to get on to a train that had just pulled in. As he tripped and fell, officers pinned him down and pumped at least five bullets into him as passengers watched in horror. The police had continued to fire long after he was dead.
To most onlookers and perhaps the pursuing policemen too, the Brazilian Menezes looked an Asian who was seen running on to the train hotly pursued by three plainclothes officers. One of them was carrying a black handgun — they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him.
Carefully study every word of how the act was described by the onlookers. This was not the act of rational sane normal human beings – be they policemen, but of those paranoid, highly stressed, under pressure to face something for which they were not fully prepared. Under pressure from a people with their stiff upper lip who boasted of the stocism, their resilience, to carry on come what may. All the great stoicism and resilience at risk of cracks in the edifice, when the second wave of bombings were attempted.
When India cried hoarse for years as a victim of terrorism, the world merely paid lip service. For the so called developed great western nations – be they of the Americas or those of the European continent, such who indulged in acts of violence, in attrocities and innocent killings in the name of Kashmir, Punjab or the North-eastern separatist movements, were all mere militants and insurgents fighting for a cause; patriots who had a just agenda. They were no terrorists nor described as such, by any of these nations.
But now when its their turn, and the agitated aggrieved have started knocking at their very door, they have woken up to the reality of terrorism, and its facets have dawned on them. Everyone agrees now that these are terrorists, their acts are of terrorism. No one says that these are Jihadis with a cause, who perhaps have cherished suppressed anger enough to be motivated enough to discard their own life and be suicide bombers. To justify victimising innocents by their acts of violence. As perhaps it is now right for those fighting terrorism to kill innocents “to save the people”.
And how easy for us to blame it on a religion, without really trying to tackle the route causes which are all so glaringly visible!
A word before I end, on the pol;ice reaction. The Indian police over years of tackling terrorism have honed their skills on the lint stone of experience. Their expertise hasn’t come in a day, be it in their efficiency in anticipating likely terrorist moves, interception and surveillance, collection of intelligence, or in ground level execution. The brashness and highhandedness being exhibited by the American enforcer and his British counterpart is the reaction of an inexperienced bumbling amateur. Given time, things should change…. I hope without having to face more acts of terrorism!
850 words: 26.07.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Comments:
Anthony Pereira : London: 26 July 2005
For an ex cop, I have to say that was a rather one sided article. While most people, including me, feel the shooting was over the top, you have to put it into perspective.
From that of the police:
- its the day after the failed bombing attempt
- the man emerged from a house under surveilence
- when challenged, he fled
- reportedly wearing some sort of a belt with wires protruding
- with officers in persuit, he runs into a tube station!
- he keeps running and gets onto a train.
- is he? is he not? can they take the chance? would you?
- they shoot, not 5 but 8 shots, killing him.
From that of the victim:
- he's off for a day of work to apparently install an alarm
- suddenly a bunch of hard looking chaps confront him, possibly with guns visible
- perhaps images of Brazillian shanti towns and the violence that goes with that cause him to run away
- he doesn't stop, perhaps thinking he's going to be mugged
- deciding to run into what might normally be a safe environment, he enters the tube station
- whatever his reasons, he doesn't stop, and the rest we know.
Its too difficult to point fingers. What if they hadn't shot him? What if he had been another bomber? Its no point trying to ask what if. The police did what they had to do. They got it wrong. And trying to say that the police are inexperienced at fighting terrorism is clearly wrong. They've had it for several decades with Northern Ireland and the bombing campaigns of the 80s.
But, suicide bombings clearly are a new kettle of fish. Its no longer just on TV, its here. As the cliche goes, the rules of ngagement have changed.
If you want to pick out mistakes:
The poilice: they should never have even let him get anywhere near the tube station. He should have been caught as soon as they decided to stop him. If they had to, they should have shot to disable when he was less of a threat, i.e. outside in the open.
The victim: he should neve have entered the tube station. The day after bombing attempts, with the place swarming with cops. He should have stopped and surrendered himself, whether they be cops or muggers.
Shooting him was not a mistake. They didn't have a choice. Shooting him 8 times in the head, that was a bit much. Using these scenarios to say how good the Indian Police are, just rings hollow I'm afraid. If you say that they'd have done something differently, given the situation, you'd have to have a pretty good example.
MP(In response)
I don't see myself disagreeing with any of your analysis, any of your comments and reactions.
While it is heartening to note the reactions viewed and voiced from diferent angles, from different perspectives etc, I am at the same time disappointed in my own inability to have driven home a very pertinent point that I have tried to make in the article. The point u have missed is about the minimal but pertinent comparison I have made between Indian and British conditions... and the stubborn bias that has refused to go from the Brit or western mind while dealing with or concerning India and Indians.
What would an Indian father have felt, watching television and listening to how an Asian youngster was killed point blank without giving him a single chance to explain or be verified. And for a full 24 hours the police giving no details of the killing, the identity of the victim, and so on. The victim so ruthlessly killed with no explanation, could have been any father's son!!!!
Being an ex-cop, one can picture exactly how things work.... and the article was written from that perspective. When praise was due, I gave it - that was in my article two weeks ago, on "Covering Bomb Blasts". I still admire the manner in which technology support has quickly been assimilated, analysed and disseminated to identity the likely killers (attempted bombers) by releasing their photographs from surveillance cameras and so on. But when I see bungling, I am equally perceptive and harsh in my treatment of the same.
I have relentlessly advocated against killing even the worst criminal without warning and by taking him unawares. Ninety percent of the so called encounters in India are in reality just pumping in bullets into the one killed after surrounding him, cornering him, and without giving him an iota of a chance at survival. Delhi Police Commissioner Nikhi Kumar lost his job only over one such encounter in broad daylight in Connaught Place where innocents mistakenly thought to be dacoits were killed by the special hit squad. And I saw exactly that stuff kind of stuff emerging from the much lauded Bobby. I still hold, the reaction to kill in the manner it was done, was the act of someone totally removed from reality of life, someone totally stressed out, and without control of his own senses or faculties.
And how come the Ashes are fought over at Lords? If just prior to a cricketing season there is a bomb blast in India, what is the reaction of the teams fro Britain Australia and so on? And how often are travel advisaries given by these nations and mostly USA to their citizens, not to travel to India because of unsafe conditions? Life shd go on as normal when things happen on the streets of London or the tube of London, killing dozens of innocents. But avoid India when things happen here. Don't let things normalize, or appear normal. Ha....
Well, there are arguments on either side. It is never one sided.
What thrills me most amidst all this debate, is the very thought that my son has taken pains to read through my articles and reacted to it.
Shocking! No. Not done! Something not expected of the London Bobby! Not expected of any police force or enforcement authority for that matter – the killing of an innocent in the name of fighting terrorism.
The British police have understandably come under fire for brutally killing Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent man who was in no way connected with the Thursday Sept 21 attempted bombings in London. Shock and anger all around, locally, internationally, as it emerged that the man shot dead by policemen in plainclothes in front of terrified commuters at the Stockwell underground Metro station in south London on the Friday that followed was neither carrying a bomb as had been alleged nor was he among the four men suspected to be behind Thursday's incidents.
The man whom even Tony Blair had initially claimed in front of television cameras was "directly linked" to the investigation of Thursday's attacks, was found after verification as having no connection whatsoever to the bomb attempts. Then on Sunday, Prime Minister Blair said “This is a tragedy. The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family, I can only express my deep regrets."
The PM however defended the shoot-to-kill policy, saying such action only applied when lives were believed to be at risk. The head of Scotland Yard has further gone on to say that he won't change the groundrule: "Shoot to kill, in order to protect." Scotland Yard also said the shooting had been a "tragedy'' which was regretted by the Metropolitan Police.
It would be interesting for socio-analysts and human rights activists to compare the this and the resultant scenarios that emerged in respect of killings of like nature, of innocents, in Britain and in India. For India has long been accused by everyone all over, and particularly the Rights Watchers, who invariably have made it their pleasure to do some India bashing on this score.
It is obvious the London shooting has added to the pressure on a police force that's already stressed. Stunned eyewitnesses have stated how they saw a man chased by policemen in plainclothes, who shot him from point blank range as he stumbled while trying to get on to a train that had just pulled in. As he tripped and fell, officers pinned him down and pumped at least five bullets into him as passengers watched in horror. The police had continued to fire long after he was dead.
To most onlookers and perhaps the pursuing policemen too, the Brazilian Menezes looked an Asian who was seen running on to the train hotly pursued by three plainclothes officers. One of them was carrying a black handgun — they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him.
Carefully study every word of how the act was described by the onlookers. This was not the act of rational sane normal human beings – be they policemen, but of those paranoid, highly stressed, under pressure to face something for which they were not fully prepared. Under pressure from a people with their stiff upper lip who boasted of the stocism, their resilience, to carry on come what may. All the great stoicism and resilience at risk of cracks in the edifice, when the second wave of bombings were attempted.
When India cried hoarse for years as a victim of terrorism, the world merely paid lip service. For the so called developed great western nations – be they of the Americas or those of the European continent, such who indulged in acts of violence, in attrocities and innocent killings in the name of Kashmir, Punjab or the North-eastern separatist movements, were all mere militants and insurgents fighting for a cause; patriots who had a just agenda. They were no terrorists nor described as such, by any of these nations.
But now when its their turn, and the agitated aggrieved have started knocking at their very door, they have woken up to the reality of terrorism, and its facets have dawned on them. Everyone agrees now that these are terrorists, their acts are of terrorism. No one says that these are Jihadis with a cause, who perhaps have cherished suppressed anger enough to be motivated enough to discard their own life and be suicide bombers. To justify victimising innocents by their acts of violence. As perhaps it is now right for those fighting terrorism to kill innocents “to save the people”.
And how easy for us to blame it on a religion, without really trying to tackle the route causes which are all so glaringly visible!
A word before I end, on the pol;ice reaction. The Indian police over years of tackling terrorism have honed their skills on the lint stone of experience. Their expertise hasn’t come in a day, be it in their efficiency in anticipating likely terrorist moves, interception and surveillance, collection of intelligence, or in ground level execution. The brashness and highhandedness being exhibited by the American enforcer and his British counterpart is the reaction of an inexperienced bumbling amateur. Given time, things should change…. I hope without having to face more acts of terrorism!
850 words: 26.07.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Comments:
Anthony Pereira : London: 26 July 2005
For an ex cop, I have to say that was a rather one sided article. While most people, including me, feel the shooting was over the top, you have to put it into perspective.
From that of the police:
- its the day after the failed bombing attempt
- the man emerged from a house under surveilence
- when challenged, he fled
- reportedly wearing some sort of a belt with wires protruding
- with officers in persuit, he runs into a tube station!
- he keeps running and gets onto a train.
- is he? is he not? can they take the chance? would you?
- they shoot, not 5 but 8 shots, killing him.
From that of the victim:
- he's off for a day of work to apparently install an alarm
- suddenly a bunch of hard looking chaps confront him, possibly with guns visible
- perhaps images of Brazillian shanti towns and the violence that goes with that cause him to run away
- he doesn't stop, perhaps thinking he's going to be mugged
- deciding to run into what might normally be a safe environment, he enters the tube station
- whatever his reasons, he doesn't stop, and the rest we know.
Its too difficult to point fingers. What if they hadn't shot him? What if he had been another bomber? Its no point trying to ask what if. The police did what they had to do. They got it wrong. And trying to say that the police are inexperienced at fighting terrorism is clearly wrong. They've had it for several decades with Northern Ireland and the bombing campaigns of the 80s.
But, suicide bombings clearly are a new kettle of fish. Its no longer just on TV, its here. As the cliche goes, the rules of ngagement have changed.
If you want to pick out mistakes:
The poilice: they should never have even let him get anywhere near the tube station. He should have been caught as soon as they decided to stop him. If they had to, they should have shot to disable when he was less of a threat, i.e. outside in the open.
The victim: he should neve have entered the tube station. The day after bombing attempts, with the place swarming with cops. He should have stopped and surrendered himself, whether they be cops or muggers.
Shooting him was not a mistake. They didn't have a choice. Shooting him 8 times in the head, that was a bit much. Using these scenarios to say how good the Indian Police are, just rings hollow I'm afraid. If you say that they'd have done something differently, given the situation, you'd have to have a pretty good example.
MP(In response)
I don't see myself disagreeing with any of your analysis, any of your comments and reactions.
While it is heartening to note the reactions viewed and voiced from diferent angles, from different perspectives etc, I am at the same time disappointed in my own inability to have driven home a very pertinent point that I have tried to make in the article. The point u have missed is about the minimal but pertinent comparison I have made between Indian and British conditions... and the stubborn bias that has refused to go from the Brit or western mind while dealing with or concerning India and Indians.
What would an Indian father have felt, watching television and listening to how an Asian youngster was killed point blank without giving him a single chance to explain or be verified. And for a full 24 hours the police giving no details of the killing, the identity of the victim, and so on. The victim so ruthlessly killed with no explanation, could have been any father's son!!!!
Being an ex-cop, one can picture exactly how things work.... and the article was written from that perspective. When praise was due, I gave it - that was in my article two weeks ago, on "Covering Bomb Blasts". I still admire the manner in which technology support has quickly been assimilated, analysed and disseminated to identity the likely killers (attempted bombers) by releasing their photographs from surveillance cameras and so on. But when I see bungling, I am equally perceptive and harsh in my treatment of the same.
I have relentlessly advocated against killing even the worst criminal without warning and by taking him unawares. Ninety percent of the so called encounters in India are in reality just pumping in bullets into the one killed after surrounding him, cornering him, and without giving him an iota of a chance at survival. Delhi Police Commissioner Nikhi Kumar lost his job only over one such encounter in broad daylight in Connaught Place where innocents mistakenly thought to be dacoits were killed by the special hit squad. And I saw exactly that stuff kind of stuff emerging from the much lauded Bobby. I still hold, the reaction to kill in the manner it was done, was the act of someone totally removed from reality of life, someone totally stressed out, and without control of his own senses or faculties.
And how come the Ashes are fought over at Lords? If just prior to a cricketing season there is a bomb blast in India, what is the reaction of the teams fro Britain Australia and so on? And how often are travel advisaries given by these nations and mostly USA to their citizens, not to travel to India because of unsafe conditions? Life shd go on as normal when things happen on the streets of London or the tube of London, killing dozens of innocents. But avoid India when things happen here. Don't let things normalize, or appear normal. Ha....
Well, there are arguments on either side. It is never one sided.
What thrills me most amidst all this debate, is the very thought that my son has taken pains to read through my articles and reacted to it.
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