punjabi
antenna
Cops and crime
Randeep
Wadehra
THE morning news
analysis show, Khaas Khabar Ek Nazar, on DD Punjabi is
the best of its kind in the region. One gets to hear views of
well-informed intellectuals from the academia and the media.
Incidentally, the channel celebrated its 11th anniversary on
August 5; our best wishes to DD Punjabi and hope that more
programmes of substance will be aired in the future.
Sadly, on the
channel’s birthday, the Khaas Khabar episode displayed
a news item, with a telling photograph, wherein a woman was
found lying in an unconscious state atop a garbage heap in
Amritsar. Although most of the passersby ignored her, a few did
take the trouble of reporting to the nearby police station. The
cops’ response? "Ajey mari taan nahin na? Pher kee kar
sakdey haan (She is not dead yet; so what can we do)?"
or words to that effect. Nobody thought of taking her to a
nearby hospital, or one of those charitable NGOs that
perpetually bask in media attention.
As the
irrepressible Jatinder Pannu — the invited guest analyst for
the day — pointed out, our police force has become
incorrigibly insensitive. But, then, so has society at large,
from which cops are recruited. In his unique, in-your-face
style, Pannu turned his sardonic eye on the media, too. He
pointed out that for newspapers, as well as TV channels, a news
item is a single occasion retail proposition. There are seldom
follow-up reports to ensure that victims of injustice or
atrocities get proper redress. Of course, his comments on cops
were most scathing.
There was an interesting discussion on Khabarsaar on how to reform Punjab Police personnel and make them accountable
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Talking of
policemen, there was an interesting discussion on Zee Punjabi’s
Khabarsaar. How does one go about reforming the Punjab
Police and make it accountable? To discuss the issue, the panel
had GS Aujla, the ex-DGP of Punjab, Jagdish Singh Sran, the
ex-DIG (intelligence wing) of Punjab Police, and Satinder Bains,
a journalist. Predictably, the history of various reforms
proposed by assorted commissions was traced out. Then began the
usual litany — unwillingness of the political establishment to
let the police become an autonomous professional entity and the
politician-police nexus; they emphasised the need for a police
set-up that would be accountable to the executive without
turning into an organisation that executes hatchet jobs.
Presently, in order to prosecute a police officer, government
sanction is required. What if the bureaucracy sits on a request
for such sanction? Predictably, the solution offered was — the
concerned officer/department should be asked for an explanation.
Now, this would only entail further delay.
Better alternative
would be — if the sanction is not specifically refused, with
cogent reasons, within a given period of time, it should be
presumed to have been granted. This would certainly speed up the
redress proceedings.
One of the points
Aujla made was that today’s recruits are far better educated
than the earlier ones. But has education made any difference to
their value systems?
In a subsequent
episode, Khabarsaar discussed the various educational
avenues that are now available to students. PTU VC Rajneesh
Arora, director of Chandigarh Group of Colleges Karminder Ghuman
and Additional Director of Punjab’s Technical Education
Mohanbir discussed the extant educational scenario. The
anxieties relating to choice of streams that students and their
parents undergo today have been exacerbated due to several
factors — on the one hand, there are more options available in
terms of courses and colleges, and on the other hand, there is a
fierce competition in the job market.
The panellists
laid great stress upon acquiring of skills and commercial
viability, which is welcome, but why ignore the old-fashioned
value systems and professional ethics? Competencies can be
developed through a few years of academic/practical courses but
it takes a lifetime to develop healthy values.
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