New Delhi, November 23
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did some tough talk with the country’s top police forces on Sunday while speaking at the annual conference of Director-Generals and Inspectors Generals of police in the Capital. He was addressing the police top brass on the concluding day of the two-day meet. He told the top officers that they needed to gather active intelligence and act in a way that would not be detrimental to their image among people.

Making an indirect reference to the recent Batla House encounter following Delhi terror attacks, he said the police must be seen to be fair in dealing with religious and ethnic minorities. He pointed out that they were being questioned even while they lost their men.

The Prime Minister's remarks assume significance in the context of questions raised over the genuineness of the encounter in which two alleged terrorists and an Inspector of Delhi police were killed. Addressing the top police officers of the country, the Prime Minister said one of the major challenges before the police was to restore faith of the people, especially of those belonging to religious and ethnic minorities, in the impartiality and effectiveness of the police. “Today, aspersions are being cast on the impartiality and capabilities of the police. While I recognise that much of this is motivated, you must face up to the reality that many are convinced that the police is less than fair. This is so even when policemen die in the line of duty,” he said. Voicing concern over the new danger posed by spread of fundamentalist and extremist ideas, he said the virus of communal violence needed to be checked in time. “We have, of late, been witnessing the emergence of such pernicious trends. There are elements in our society who are actively pursing such programmes”. With the globalisation of terror, Singh also cautioned that the scale of terrorist incidents could only grow in the future. He asked the police forces to be prepared for such an eventuality. To address new challenges in areas of terrorism, Naxalism and insurgency, Manmohan Singh called for setting up of a task force to initiate a 100-day plan. The task force to be chaired by the National Security Advisor would come up within 100 days with a road map regarding the detailed steps to be taken to ensure a proper networked security architecture to deal with these threats.

“The inability of the Intelligence agencies and the police to obtain pinpointed and actionable intelligence and in time has enabled these outfits to carry out some high-profile attacks”. With the globalisation of terror, Manmohan Singh cautioned that the scale of terrorist incidents could only grow in the future. “We should anticipate that the scale of such terrorist incidents would only grow in the future and this would then become a major test of our capabilities. You must, therefore, be prepared for such an eventuality,” he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that the country could not afford a repetition of the kind of terrorist attacks that had recently taken place in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Guwahati and some other urban centres. “Every time a terrorist attack took place there was a public outcry over the failure of the government, accompanied by the criticism of police and intelligence agencies. I am aware that many terrorist attacks have been prevented, thanks to the vigil of the police and intelligence agencies, but a single incident of reasonable magnitude causes repercussions, and calls into question the capability and the capacity of the government and its various agencies”.

To address emerging challenges in areas such as Left-wing extremism, terrorism and insurgency, he advocated developing an integrated capability, besides improving ability to anticipate and prevent surprises through intelligence collaboration. Singh also favoured strengthening inter-state and inter-agency cooperation and ensuring innovation and technological leadership.