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Changing police mindset Profile |
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Security challenges Grow export-oriented crops On Record
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Changing police mindset THE murder of Assistant Commissioner of Delhi Police Rajbir Singh raises a few disturbing issues concerning policing and law enforcement. Rajbir Singh, who had eliminated some dreaded gangsters and militants in high-profile encounters, was a flamboyant officer of the Delhi Police. He was a brave and tough officer whose work was lauded by his superiors enabling him to get quick promotions. As reported in the press, he was a winner of the President’s Gallantry Medal and other distinctions. However, as happens in the case of many ambitious police officers, he did not care for rules and norms and got enmeshed in many controversies. There were allegations that he was involved in shady deals with builders and promoters. It is not clear whether he was killed by the builder during a tiff or there was a well-laid conspiracy to murder him. Further police investigation will unravel the truth. Rajbir earned name and notoriety as a sharp-shooting-encounter-specialist. He won appreciation from the departmental bosses as well as from the public for his dare-devilry. In our country the public also loves tough, extra-legal action against criminals escape conviction and get away scot-free because of the malfunctioning of the criminal justice system. The public, and particularly the educated middle class, does not mind if in the process policemen start taking laws into their own hands and become executioners themselves. There is also pressure on police officers in the field from political masters and even departmental superiors to show quick results by means fair or foul. The slow-moving criminal justice system of the country compounds the police dilemma. Trials drag on indefinitely in courts of law, witnesses are easily won over and turn hostile. Criminals are able to escape punishment by devious means and feel further emboldened to carry on their nefarious operations. The police thus faces tremendous pressure to adopt extra-legal and short-cut means from the political bosses and departmental superiors and also from members of the public. Indeed, encounters are not the problem but symptoms of a collapsing criminal justice system. Civil liberty champions presume that all extra-judicial killings stem from bloodthirstiness of policemen themselves; but this is not always the case. The police is encouraged to do the dirty work of society because the criminal justice system is not functioning and overhauling the entire system of justice is too big a task. In many state police forces now there are encounter specialists who become darlings of political masters and police bosses. In the name of firmly dealing with dreaded criminals and terrorists, they turn into cold-blooded liquidators. The heady wine of power and success turns their heads and many of them become corrupt. They turn into extortionists who enrich themselves by dubious means. It is alleged that ACP Rajbir Singh had developed a nexus with promoters and builders. The violent and corrupt propensities of these officers are not unknown to senior officers of the organisation, but they are lionised because by adopting extra-legal methods they deliver the results. Unfortunately, when troubles deepen, they are cast away by their political and police bosses. Recently, in Gujarat well-known encounter specialist D.G. Vanzara found to his utter dismay that the Chief Minister and political leaders, who were appreciating his work earlier, dumped him because they wanted to present an untarnished image before the Supreme Court. Like cardinal Wolsey, Vanzara had to rue his unthinking loyalty to the king. Similarly, Rajbir’s departmental and political patrons have quietly distanced themselves from this unseemly case. It is reported in the Press that in his funeral ceremony there were no wreaths from his senior officers. Only a junior officer represented the Delhi Police. In every police force there are some violence-prone officers who repeatedly figure in abuse and misuse of force. In the US the Christopher Commission, which looked into the misuse of force by the police after the Rodney King incident in Los Angles, could pinpoint a few officers who are frequently involved in the blatant misuse of force. There should be no hesitation on the part of police leaders to discipline, and if necessary, to weed out these black sheep. Unfortunately, there is supervisory cowardice. Senior officers often fail to muster courage to pull up their aberrant subordinates, who often enjoy political patronage. Further, supervisory cowardice is compounded by systemic arrogance, which generates a belief among many officers that they have the right to use power and influence to punish anyone posing, according to their perceptions, threats to public order and safety. In the Indian police peer supervision is also conspicuously missing. Peer supervision can be a powerful tool for ensuring police accountability and all-round good policing. In Japan police officers work in pairs with the understanding that one officer is responsible for ensuring the correct work and conduct of the other. In India also policemen work in groups but the ethos is against the assumption of mutual responsibility. Peer supervision is closer and better informed than supervision by senior officers. But it has unfortunately remained a neglected aspect of internal regulation. In this connection it is to be borne in mind that encounter per se is neither illegal nor undesirable. The police and security personnel, when attacked by criminals and terrorists, can exercise the right to private defence. Genuine encounters for the purpose of dealing with dangerous criminals and terrorists come within the framework of law with reference to Sections 97, 100 and 103 of the IPC, which deal with the private defence of life and property. Thus legal provisions do exist to justify the use of force against criminals and terrorists, which may even result in the causing of their death. But fake encounters have to be sternly discouraged. The National Police Commission (fifth report) strongly recommended that false encounters are to be discouraged because this is not the remedy to the situation. The answer is to strengthen the law and legal processes. Violating the rule of law in the name of law enforcement is not desirable even from the limited police point of view. There are instances where criminals have used the police to bump off their rivals in intra-gang warfare. Research has shown that notorious Dawod Ibrahim got many of his rivals eliminated through the police by tipping them in advance. The police arrived on the scene not for arresting but eliminating criminals. In the police profession there are many who mistakenly think that the end justifies the means. However, the point to be kept in mind is that the adoption of impermissible means ultimately undermines the end. The practice of policing to break the law in the name of law enforcement will be arbitrary as a process and random in its effect. . Police officers, particularly the police leaders, have to remember that when the police takes recourse to extra-legal tactics to make up the deficiencies of law and legal procedures, it is trying to remedy the inadequacies that it did not create. Further, illegality in the service of public safety, as Dr. David Bayley puts it, “makes policing a furtive and anxious activity and undermines pride which is the basis of job satisfaction”. And the most effective means of changing the mindset of police officers will be to convince the police leaders that violating the rule of law is not sound law enforcement. They should be encouraged to change the moral tone and management priorities within the organisation to convince the rank and file that extra-legal methods are
counter-productive.
The writer is a former Director, National Police Academy
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Profile Scenes of his meeting Kashmir Singh, who is now a free man because of him, and, later, family members of Sarabjit Singh, now on the death row in Pakistan, were moving indeed. His efforts have raised a ray of hope for Sarabjit Singh, once considered a lost case. Burney has been quoted as saying he would seek pardon from the relatives of those killed in the Lahore blast 18 years ago in which Sarabjit was allegedly involved. Burney’s meetings with Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon were rewarding as India agreed to release unilaterally Pakistan nationals lodged in Indian prisons. In return, he would try to persuade Islamabad to reciprocate the gesture. Karachi-born, 52-year-old Burney grew up in a country where military coups led to a system of martial law culture that sustained a culture of human rights degradation and imprisonment of countless innocent, men, women and children. He was himself imprisonment thrice for carrying on a crusade against human rights violations. During his first eight-month imprisonment, he experienced first hand the injustice perpetrated by a faulty legal system. He also met people who, like him, were wrongly put behind bars and saw shocking conditions in Pakistani jails. Burney’s will to fight human rights violations became more firm during his second and third terms in prison. On his release, Burney founded the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust and the Prison Aid Society, dedicated to reforming Pakistani prisons and release of innocent and illegally detained persons. Since its foundation in 1980, the Trust has been instrumental in the release of over 700,000 men, women and children across the world. Burney’s efforts to bring to light the plight of thousands of South Asian and African children trafficked to Arabian Gulf countries for exploitation as camel jockeys drew the world’s attention. As a result of his efforts, the government of the UAE established its first-ever shelter for rescued child camel jockeys and rescued 68 such children and repatriated 43 of them. In 2005, the US state department recognised Burney’s efforts and declared him an international hero. The story of child jockeys has been blood curdling. These children, living in wretched conditions, were abused and tortured. They lived and slept in hot, crowded huts made from corrugated iron sheets without electricity in high desert temperatures. Some of them as young as two years were purposely malnourished (to keep them lightweight) and denied education. The plight of these hapless children was brought to the attention of the western world by a documentary that was aired on HBO as part of the network’s Real Sports series. Burney says “the film was enough to shake the conscience of the entire world”. A holder of master’s and law degrees from Karachi University, Burney was the first person to receive Pakistan’s national civil award, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, in the field of human rights. He also headed briefly the newly established Human Rights Ministry of Pakistan. His area of operation does not confine to Pakistan but his activities have become global. Besides child slavery and long-serving prisoners, he has also taken up the cause of exploited women . Some of them were sentenced to death by public stoning for no fault of
theirs.
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Health Minister A. Ramadoss We have to export what the world wants to buy but our mindset is that we export what we produce. When the world wants orthodox tea, we export CTC (cut, tear and curl) tea. In leather, the world wants shoes for women but we export more of shoes for men and in textiles, the world wants synthetics but we export cotton. Union Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Why is the SGPC mum over objectionable comments of BJP leader L.K. Advani about Sikh Gurus in “My Country, My Life”. Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Both the IPL and the (rebel) ICL, I thought, are appealing concepts for two categories of overseas cricketers: retired internationals like me and moderate domestic cricketers who realise that maybe they might not get to play for their country. But it’s disappointing to know that even some top players are putting IPL above country. Former Aussie great Glenn McGrath Indian skipper Anil Kumble You definitely have many assets, but as you know winning the big prize of hosting the Olympic Games is never easy. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge |
Security challenges THE primacy of national interest, particularly the security which is all important in today’s fast-changing geo-strategic environment, is the most portent criterion in seeking and furthering inter-state relations. Emerging strategic realities leading to the formulation of new alliances and partnerships have resulted in a gradual shift in global power from the West to the East with far-reaching security implications. The US has been seen lately becoming more and more Asia-centric than Euro-centric as hitherto. Obviously, it is not willing to allow any other power to challenge its global supremacy. It has come to realise that countries like China, Japan, Russia and India are fast emerging on the horizon as a future challenge. China with its robust economy and the military prowess is perceived as a major challenge not only by the Americans but also a growing threat by the neighbours. India is the only major country around its periphery that is embroiled in a seemingly intractable border dispute with it. Apparently, it prefers to keep the pot boiling till the mounting disparity in respective comprehensive powers can assure a better bargain. China’s policies of arming India’s neighbours and establishing a string of bases around it are not without reason. On the other hand, the rise of Japan as an economic and military power has enhanced the Chinese threat perceptions. The Chinese fear Japanese militarism. Also Russia, having recovered economically and militarily, is keen to wrest initiative in international relations as hitherto. It is fast building strategic ties with China, central Asian republics and eastern Europe. Robust economic growth, increasing military prowess and stable democratic credentials have on the other hand led the US, Japan and Europe to accept India as a rising power. Even China has begun to accept it, though grudgingly. India is no more seen by it as a south Asian regional power that can be kept embroiled in local conflicts. It now perceives India as an adversary that must be contained. Since the US is no more the sole super power in the same sense as it was during the cold war era, it is forced to seek alliances and partnerships with others in pursuance of its strategic objectives. It is spread too thin to implement its worldwide agenda all by itself. It’s no more capable of deploying large-scale forces outside continental America, as it did in the 60s in Vietnam. It had deployed nearly half a million troops there. Today with about 1.6 lakh in Iraq and another 40,000 or so in Korea, it is unable to handle Afghanistan without the help of NATO countries. The US efforts to offer India a variety of military wherewithal, including the missile defence and the nuclear deal that will end India’s woes and remove decades old sanctions, are a part of its well thought-out policy of befriending India that could prove an asset in its long-term strategic calculations in Asia. Seeking a nuclear alliance with India, despite the fact that in the past it could not be coerced to sign the CTBT or the NPT is, therefore, not without reason. There was a time when India was totally off the US radar. It enforced India’s technological isolation, nuclear apartheid and imposed severe sanctions on the space programme. It tried to prop up Pakistan to impede India’s progress by keeping it embroiled in conflict situations. Massive military and financial aid convinced Pakistan that it could take on India. This pushed India closer to the former USSR, which stood by it through thick and thin. It did not impose sanctions despite having opposed India’s 1998 nuclear explosion. However, the US now realises India’s potential in counterveiling China. No wonder, the US is now willing to offer all encompassing cooperation in nuclear, space, energy and defence sectors. Last year, the US organised a conclave in the Philippines of India, Japan and Australia and conducted a large-scale naval exercise, code-named Malabar-2007 in September in the Bay of Bengal. This was the first time that the Indian Navy participated with the US navy in an exercise of this scale. It created an alarm in Beijing. Despite India and the US clarifying that the exercise was not China specific, Beijing made its misgivings clear. Interestingly, at one time, India used to talk about keeping the Indian Ocean a nuclear-free zone and now it is collaborating with the very same power that it intended to keep away from there. These indeed are the compulsions of a changing geo-strategic environment. As it is, Sino-Indian relations are a cause for concern. China’s unwavering strategic nexus with Pakistan and its policy of creating weapon client states all around India is a clear manifestation of its policy of containment of India. It provides military and diplomatic succour to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Iran and Saudi Arabia. It is also developing naval bases in Pakistan and Myanmar so as to enable its naval ships and submarines to operate from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. In a show of strength, it recently unveiled its nuclear submarine capable of loitering in the Indian Ocean and conducted a major military exercise that has left the western observers entirely impressed. China is also trying to further its strategic relations with Russia in order to neutralise US influence in Asia and countervail its efforts to contain it. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), formed in 1996, was remodelled by them in 2001 into a security and economic cooperation body. It conducted the largest-ever military exercise named “Peace Mission 2007.” The message was driven home to the Americans. Russia is trying to further strengthen the military capabilities of the SCO and coordinate its activities with the Russian-sponsored Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). Once the SCO and the CSTO come closer and get formalised into a sort of security mechanism, it will act as a counter-weight to the US and the NATO. India will have to muster all its diplomatic skills to cope with such complex scenarios to ensure that its own interests are not compromised in any way. There are no clear power blocks as of now. It is therefore desirable to develop viable partnerships and good relations with as many countries as India possibly can. The government has to be clear about its security interests for it to steer the policy prudently and without hurting relations with others. It may be desirable to develop close relations with the US and Japan, but it is equally necessary to maintain good relations with Russia and nurture these with China. With emerging alliances, the emphasis is fast shifting to Asia. India will have to balance its strategic relations ingeniously. As tension builds up between the US and Russia and as Chinese assertiveness grows further, which is inevitable, India will face serious diplomatic challenges. India will have to learn the art of balance of power and adjust equitably to the dynamic strategic scenario. Meanwhile, India’s economic and military prowess must continue to grow in keeping with multiplying threats and the strategic
relevance.
The writer is a former Director General, Defence Planning Staff
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Grow export-oriented crops Despite a continued emphasis on crop diversification since 1986 by Dr S.S. Johl, an eminent agro-economist of Punjab, small and marginal farmers continue having a craze for growing paddy even by paying a high lease rent to big land-owners. As the environment of variability for demand and supply of agricultural products continues changing, time has come for the small and marginal farmers to at least gradually improve the production of export-oriented crops such as cotton, sugarcane and basmati rice and also floriculture and mushroom. There is a big spurt in demand for sugar, cotton fibre and basmati rice from foreign countries. With the changeover to these crops, there is a good hope that there will be a significant improvement in the income of small and marginal farmers and the crisis of their debilitated economy will recede, which otherwise is not at all possible with the production of foodgrains alone. The government should direct the co-operative banks to provide interest-free loans to small and marginal farmers as the price structure of both domestic and farming areas is rapidly going up. To achieve quick success, the state government will have to ensure an uninterrupted supply of electricity for running tubewells and also canal water from March to May to facilitate farmers put maximum area under sugarcane and cotton crops. The farmers should adopt the new “pit method” for sugarcane sowing and “bed planting” of cotton which I had seen in Afghanistan. This makes a lot of saving in irrigation water and the yield per acre of both these crops is also much higher. The Department of Agriculture, being the vanguard of development, should train farmers to adopt these innovations by holding farmers’ gatherings at various occasions and sites, especially at “demonstration plots.” In his article in The Tribune (17.2.08) Bikram Singh Virk has strongly emphasised upon Punjab farmers to increase the area under maize as a measure of crop diversification. I fully agree with him. But the main question is: “How will small and marginal farmers leading a poverty-ridden stressful life shift to the maize crop? Paddy is much more remunerative to them than maize. Moreover, rice has become a part and partial of the dietary component of the ruralites as a whole. Maize also faces more hazards than paddy. The farmers need to take the initiative to make a paradigm replacement of coarse varieties of paddy by basmati rice varieties and also by sugarcane and cotton crops as a viable diversification. Agricultural development officers should motivate them by adopting all possible propaganda measures. This laudable approach will bring to them credibility and will make them reminiscent of being stalwart of agricultural development. This should be given a lively start from the current sowing season of sugarcane crop. It is the Central Government’s prerogative to fix the minimum support price of various crops. The MSP of export-oriented crops should be increased significantly. This will prompt small and marginal farmers to increase the production of these crops quite rapidly. The Department of Agriculture can formulate a “five-year project” to be financed 100 per cent by the Government of India and launch it in select villages in paddy-growing tracts on the basis of soil and water resources. It will awaken farmers’ urge to accelerate diversification and significantly erode the base of coarse varieties of paddy. The production of each crop will have to be linked to marketing and grading process through the co-operative sector so that farmers are given financial support and are saved from the clutches of money-lenders. This approach, if properly done, will lead to better prices and more income to farmers, besides generating more employment avenues for the ruralites. It is also necessary that industrial organisations, which have mushroomed in Haryana, should also be involved in this programme so that they become financial participants in the grading and processing of farm products. Sugar mills and cotton and basmati rice factories can be helpful. The successful implementation of diversified farming of export-oriented crops will, thus, make Haryana a platform of unique all-round development of agriculture and significantly improve the economy of small
farmers.
The writer is a former Director of Agriculture, Haryana |
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On Record
THE recently inducted Minister of State for Sports, Manohar Singh Gill, is a man who has handled many assignments with distinction. A trained mountaineer and former Punjab cadre bureaucrat, Gill possibly scaled yet another peak in his life last Sunday when he was made a minister in the Manmohan Singh government. Gill, who hails from Tarn Taran, has been credited with working actively for the success of the Green Revolution in Punjab during the 1960s. An avid sports enthusiast, Gill went on to become the Chief Election Commissioner in 1995. A recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab in 2004. He has been Secretary in the ministries of agriculture, petrochemicals and chemicals and pharmaceuticals at the Centre. Besides, Gill has also authored a book “An Indian Success Story: Agriculture and Cooperatives in Punjab” and served on a World Bank project on agriculture and infrastructure in Nigeria between 1981 and 1984. A day after taking over as a minister, Gill was at his candid best while talking to The Tribune in his office. Excerpts: Q. What is your list of priorities? A. The first task at hand is the conduct of the Commonwealth games scheduled to be held in Delhi in 2010. The country has accepted to hold the games. The requisite funds have been provided. Everything – the stadia, infrastructure – should be built properly and within time. The athletes and visitors should go back with good memories. To ensure a total success, all aspects have to be taken care of and that is the immediate priority. Q.
Any new objectives you will have for your ministry ? A. My heart is in sports. Since the time I was appointed the first Director Sports in Punjab by the then Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon, I have been working for sports and promoting it actively. My dream is to have a podium finish in the core of athletics that is the track and field events, the races, the shot put and the hurdles, among others. These were the events that were part of the original Greek Olympic movement. In the 1956 Melbourne Olympics we were the semi-finalists in football, today who would believe such a scenario? Q. What about helping sportspersons in distress as heart-rending tales of penury are highlighted in the media from time to time? A. I would push every avenue for jobs for sportspersons in public sector undertakings. If cricket is the lead sport in the country, then the cricket administration must dip its hands in its pockets and start a fund for needy sportsmen. I will speak to BCCI chief Sharad Pawar on setting up a fund that can be replenished and used for the needy sportpersons of other disciplines. Q. Should sports bodies be headed by bureaucrats and politicians ? A. I do not want to get into these factors. These bodies have their own autonomous structure. My style is not confrontation. It is about dialogue and discussion and listening to the other side also. And If I can do something, by God I will do it. The government cannot be disinterested in sports and huge sums of money are being given. In the past men like Maharaja Bhupinder Singh had patronised sports bodies and sports flourished. Q. What about the IHF and its boss KPS Gill? There has been a hue and cry since the hockey team did not qualify for the Olympics ? Will you be for removing him ? A. The issue is more complex than the removal of KPS Gill. The decline of hockey has been steady. If we have not qualified, we will see what can be done to make things better. I have been reading in the papers and how the media has been demanding the sacking of Gill. Q. Would you have been happier in the Agriculture Ministry? Well that was being expected that the government would utilise your rich experience in view of the ongoing crisis of foodgrains ? A. My past is in agriculture and that is my passion. The Agriculture Ministry is headed by better men and I am happy in the Sports Ministry. The passion remains for agriculture and I am linked to small and marginal
farmers. |
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In Pakistan human rights activist Ansar Burney is known as “Angel of God”. In India, too, he is considered an “Angel of Humanity”. On a visit last week to Punjab and, later, New Delhi, he was given a hero’s welcome.
A single shot will protect children against several diseases. Vaccines with antigens for five diseases are already being used around the world. More than 130 countries have shifted to pentavalent vaccines while India still uses tetravalent vaccines in its national immunisation programme.
Give us the amenities desired for promoting agriculture sector and we would make India a food-surplus country. When India got Independence, our leaders had committed to ensure housing, clothing and food to all, but today we have failed on this front.
All she (Rajinder Kaur Bhattal) said before the media was nothing but a bundle of lies. I have not patched up with her and do not even intend to do so in future also. I am not a person who is going to change my stand everyday. She may call me her elder brother for which I have no objections. But the political differences with her are going to remain as she is openly colluding with Parkash Singh Badal.
It’s not the first time we have been pushed to the wall. We were in Australia and also in the past, but we have come back strongly.