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Vote-bank politics Shut before opening |
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Tragedy in
Washington
Russia's peace
initiative
Mischief by
telegram
Police must brush
up its PR skills
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Shut before opening If
an inquiry commission is set up, and winds up without coming up with any insight into the matter at hand, there is something wrong with either the conduct of the inquiry or the very scope and terms of reference given to it by the commissioning authority. After three months of existence, the Jindal Commission mandated to look into the alleged scam in the purchase of books and science equipment for schools in Punjab has been able to gather no “substantive leads” or contact witnesses prepared to depose with purpose. Not surprising, given the fact that the commission spent its first week looking for office space, furnishing and staff. The government, of course, showed no sign of being keen on getting the inquiry going. At the end of the panel's three months, there is no word on its extension - which is probably good if it is only to be a financial liability. The suspected scam was exposed by the media in the initial stages. Not all books and lab kits that were to be bought had been delivered or paid for, making it easier to cover the tracks. The makings of a scandal were, of course, there. The inappropriateness of books being bought was beyond doubt, the price contracted for the kits was higher than the prevalent market rates, as could be established from casual inquiries. What the inquiry panel needed to do was to find evidence of these irregularities, and thereby fix responsibility. It could not, as no incriminating documents were presented to it by the Education Department. Why would the department do that? Even at the time the media exposed the scam, the Education Minister had jumped to deny the charges without as much as a preliminary inquiry. How was he so sure of all officials in his department? It was obvious to even a layman that prima facie there was something fishy about the purchases. Buying time is perhaps the best way to bury an embarrassing episode, and setting up the commission of inquiry was a convenient way to do that.
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Tragedy in Washington A
lone gunman can do so much damage — another needless tragedy, fear and chaos in the capital of the US, a rampage and massive response, till the next time. Eight people were gunned down a mile from the Capitol, in Washington, by a 34-year-old former US Navy reservist, Aaron Alexis. It was another mass shooting in the US, something that American society has unfortunately become familiar with. The shooting took place on a military installation, and the perpetrator was a person who has ‘legitimate access’ to the Washington Navy Yard. Schools have been targeted — Columbine in 1999, Virginia Tech in 2007, Sandy Hook in 2012 and Oak Creek, as have religious places, including the gurdwara at Oak Creek in 2012, yet the US debates the issue of effective gun control. Even as some polls indicate that a majority of Americans want stricter gun control laws, including a ban on the assault rifles, politicians have shown that they are unable to enact such laws, especially in the wake of strong opposition by gun-support lobbies which assert that the right to bear arms is a US constitutional right. A UN study has confirmed the commonsense association that a fewer guns mean less homicides, but America is a nation with too many guns. The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimates that there is one firearm for every person who lives in the country. The number is growing there, with Americans buying 45 lakh firearms out of the estimated 80 lakh manufactured in the world every year. Much of this firepower is concentrated in the hands of a few, an estimated 20 per cent of the population. Tragedies like the mass killing at the Washington Naval Yard bring home the need for better regulation. Stricter gun control measures should have been kicked in since it is now known that Alexis had been involved in two earlier incidents where he misused weapons. The innocent men who died in Washington paid with their lives for the lack of more stringent enforcement of gun control laws. How many more tragedies will it take before American politicians enact laws that will ensure better gun control?
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There is only one rule for being a good talker — learn to listen. — Christopher Morley
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Russia's peace initiative In
a curious twist, the bloodshed in the Syrian civil war might open a new chapter in the world's power play. Starting with the reluctant threat by President Barack Obama to attack the military machine of President Assad, his decision to bring the Congress into it and the great reluctance of a majority of American people to intervene militarily in yet another war in the Middle East, Russia's grasping the peace initiative has transformed the picture. For one thing, it got President Obama off the hook, facing as he was a likely refusal of the US Congress to agree to military strikes on Syria. For another, an off-the-cuff remark of Secretary of State John Kerry in London on President Assad giving up his chemical weapons arsenal was taken up by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a starting point for talks between his and US ministers in Geneva. Under Russian advice, President Assad has now announced his agreement to join the chemical weapons treaty and hand over his arsenal to international control for destruction. And the injection of Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN and Arab League mediator on Syria, in the Geneva talks holds the promise of larger peace talks between the Assad regime and his disunited opponents. Immense difficulties lie ahead: the question of international inspectors performing their job in the midst of a civil war, the Assad regime's honesty in declaring all its chemical weapons, the great distrust that exists between the Americans and Russians and other hurdles. But an encouraging aspect of Syria's heart-breaking tragedy in which more than 100,000 have lost their lives and two million refugees have sought shelter in neighbouring countries, apart from the millions more of internally displaced, is that a beginning is being made in seeking a working relationship between the US and Russia. Indeed, relations between the old Cold War allies had reached a stalemate since the days of President Obama's first term, with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ostentatiously announcing the re-set button. Washington's policy-making elite felt that after returning to the presidency by switching jobs with Mr Medvedev, Mr Putin had adopted a hardline policy at home with his dissidents and in pursuing his foreign policy goals. American suspicions of a hardening Russian policy were confirmed by President Putin's decision to grant asylum to the American contractor Edward Snowden who had spilled embarrassing secrets of the size of US cyber and internet spying of foreign leaders and governments as of their own citizens. President Obama cancelled a one-to-one meeting with President Putin prior to the Group of 20 summit meeting in St. Petersburg. It now transpires that the question of curbing Syria's chemical arsenal was mentioned in talks between President Putin and his American counterpart in Russia. And although Mr Kerry seemed dismissive in hypothetically suggesting that one way for President Assad was to hand over his chemical weapons in double quick time, Moscow construed it as a starting point in its peace diplomacy. Reports from Geneva suggesting that the two ministers of Russia and the US were pursuing the talks in seriousness, with Washington apparently giving up its insistence that any UN Security Council resolution must have the threat of the use of force in seeking Syrian compliance, were confirmed by an announcement of agreement. While the August 21 chemical attack leading to the deaths of some 1,400 civilians by American estimates — deaths caused by the Assad regime forces in Washington's view — the brutal civil war in which both sides have committed atrocities continues unabated. Although President Putin has won kudos for his swift diplomatic moves to transform a hopeless new Cold War with America into a setting for talks leading to an agreement, the larger significance of seeking peace on Syria is noteworthy. In a sense, President Obama has been caught in a web of his own making. He first set a red line on the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons, then did nothing as reports came in of small incidents of the use of such weapons. The scale of the August 21 attacks, with graphic excruciating images flashed on social media, could not be ignored. And President Obama sought to prepare for cruise missile strikes on Syria. When the world was waiting for American strikes with some foreboding, the US President did an about-turn by asking the Congress to approve it at its own leisurely pace. Clearly, the American people are tired of fighting long wars in the Middle East (a more precise term than West Asia) after the misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, but would have rallied round the flag if he had gone ahead on his own, as some of his predecessors had done. The tragedy is that even as Syria seems to have brought back a measure of trust between the US and Russia, President Obama's presidency has been diminished. To the American public and the world at large, he has given the impression of being indecisive, a great handicap in the powerful institution of his office. Two consequences flow from this chain of events. The US President will find it difficult to negotiate his domestic agenda through an already obstreperous Congress. On the positive side, the downhill slide in America's relations with Russia has been arrested and could result in the first meaningful steps in bringing the Syrian civil war to an end. A telling argument President Putin has made is that the Syrian war could have wider regional implications setting the whole region aflame. This is indeed true, given the burden of Syrian refugees on neighbouring countries, Israel's fraught relations with Palestinians, the chaos in Libya and the uneasy political equations in Iraq under a Shia-dominated government. Turkey, a country of relative stability, has been undergoing its own problems with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Ergodan facing fresh domestic turmoil, given his propensity to take his country in a more Islamist direction than many of his countrymen desire. To cap it, the deposition of the first elected President of Egypt by the Army and its apparent desire to decimate the Muslim Brotherhood spells trouble. Syria could be a starting point for a saner Middle East and less fraught relations between the US and
Russia.
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Mischief by telegram “For when to mischief mortals bend their will; How soon they find fit instruments of ill.” (Alexander
Pope)
Had
the telecom revolution, which assures instant communication today, embraced our country 40 years earlier, this gloomy incident might never have occurred. As it was, most parts of India of the 1960s depended mainly on the entrenched Morse code to transmit, via telegram, good tidings and bad. And the humble post office, which is now in a state of decay, was the default option for transmitting messages of immediacy. Immediately after the 1965 war with Pakistan, our batch of probationers in the National Academy of Administration was attached with the Central Emergency Relief Training Institute, Nagpur, for learning to cope with disasters, especially the role of civil defence. One momentous day the staff at the CERTI received a stunning piece of information. The sad news was that three members of our group of trainees had suddenly died. The sensational matter of demise of three young IAS officers, and their names, came to notice some time after the normal training activity in the Institute was over. The suspense at Nagpur lasted until dinner time, that is, when a head count revealed that the rumour was based on some misinformation. I myself, along with some friends had gone out to see a film. On our return I encountered, on the faces of my colleagues, strange expressions of shock and disbelief. I learnt only at the dinner table that my name was among the three persons declared as gone and born again. At that time I noted that my batch mates had discovered in me certain unsuspected qualities of head and heart. This usually happens when one kicks the bucket, as they say in colloquial terms, or passes away, in staid language. Seeing me alive, my friends hastily withdrew their eulogies, and began to accuse me of deliberately misleading them, as though I were myself responsible for feigning my departure from the earthly abode. It was uplifting to be praised (albeit undeservedly) in absentia, for good deeds and thoughts, even though the testimonials were rescinded, post haste. Within a record period of one week, the mystery of the non-dead IAS officers was solved by the Commissioner of the Nagpur police as an inside job. The sleuths displayed the very same investigative skills that Sherlock Holmes might have astutely used. It transpired that one of our own probationers had sent false telegrams to the homes of the three lucky survivors of doom, as we came to be known. The families, unnerved and panic stricken, managed to contact the CERTI after suspense of many hours, to obtain a reassurance that the alarm was false. The original telegrams were recovered from the post office. The question now was of identifying the culprit. This the police did by ordering every one of the group, including the affected three, to write, in block capitals, the very words used to convey the dreadful news. Imagine my embarrassment at being forced to print, in bold ball point, “RAJAN DEAD. COLLECT BODY. ACCEPT CONDOLENCES. DIRECTOR CERTI.” Handwriting experts pinpointed irrefutably the colleague who had misused the technology of the day, the telegram. The suffering, even though short lived, was that of the families concerned. The three of us were blissfully unaware of the pangs of grief that our parents and grandparents would have endured, if only for a day. Retribution was swift. Thanks to the no-nonsense approach of our Director, God bless his soul, the young man with the perverse streak was discharged from service within two weeks of the
incident.
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Police must brush up its PR skills
For better policing, the force must interact with the community and readily share its programmes with it. The best bet would be to set up a media cell to disseminate information.
Public
relations, the single most important mass-promotion tool that significantly can impact the police department’s image, has the ability to create favourable publicity, build on the department's image, and prevent or handle rumours and incorrect information.
A five-minute video clip, which the police said is fake, fuelled the recent unprecedented communal violence in Muzaffarnagar. The ultimate aim of a public relations programme by the police department should be to give better service to the people. Public support is critical in policing which is highly public centric and it depends upon the wider public knowledge of both police policy and practice. Proactive steps by the department's leadership are therefore essential to make the public aware of the department's good work and to improve its image in the community. Once the police develops plans, programmes and new services, it must communicate these initiatives to their constituents. The police department can have many services, but if no one knows about them, they only waste resources.
Perception critical Public relations, therefore, becomes a controlling factor in all police efforts. When former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton was sworn in as chief of police for the Los Angeles Police Department in October 2002, he faced a wide variety of problems inside the department and in the community. Quickly he assessed that the department was at odds with the community it served. To win back the city's trust, Chief Bratton and the department put systems into place to create an organisation where information and changes occurring in the department would be freely shared with the community and the media.
Dark days of terrorism witnessed curfew-like situation at nights in towns and roads of the border districts in Punjab. The police was patrolling and laying ambush but it was under wraps and so police presence at night was not visible. To instill confidence in the minds of people, ‘Operation night domination’ was conceived by the then police chief KPS Gill. A meeting of all officers was called at Mohali to demonstrate the concept of night domination. Many then were skeptical, only few were convinced. Yet it worked and the police roped in the electronic media. About 100 journalists travelled in the night with the police to see, and to show to the world that the police was out, bringing about a significant change in public perception.
Double-edged sword What we witness today is news explosion on television screens with variety of channels local, state and national beaming news nonstop and in the print media with newspapers devoting special pages to local news in their editions. The news relating to crime and police finds special favour in reporting with plenty of space available with the media for reporting. In such a situation, the importance of the media cannot be over emphasised. Positive media stories are free marketing ads about the department. The question remains whether routine crime reports generally portray the police positively or negatively. Local newspapers and radio and television stations can carry news of department activities and services as well as provide editorial comments to influence public opinion of the department. However, it should also be kept in mind that most mass-media outlets are in the entertainment business and not information business, to retain higher market share they need to entertain the readers or viewers. They focus on stories that grab the attention and hold it. Therefore, it is important to present the data about the police achievements in an interesting manner.
Streamlining information In this media age, it would pay dividends if the police departments set up an information or media cell at the headquarters, both for internal and external dissemination of information in a professional manner. This cell may have two sections — media relations and force information. The former would deal with external media while the latter would be responsible for internal communication. The Strathclyde police in the UK, with head office in Glasgow, set up one such unit in 1994 to begin the process of ‘professionalisation’ of the forces media relations. The unit is headed by a Superintendent of Police while the senior media relations officer has a staff of eight media relations officer under her. The majority of these are civilians with media expertise while police officers are seconded for a period of six months to the unit. The benefits are evident as the media professionals understand the requirements and constraints of various media and the police officers provide inputs on police procedures, issues of law and practices. With this once traditional ‘off the record’ media briefing disappeared and was replaced with organised one-point briefing of the media. This also reduced the media’s need to develop sources within the police department to pull off scoops.
Media policy It is also important that the police department has a well-defined media policy to be followed by all the districts and units uniformly. Such a policy would not only provide for norms and procedures to be followed but would also remove the haze between the media and the police as either side would be clear of the practices, what to expect and what is expected. While the cooperation of the Fourth Estate is important, the primary job of the police is to investigate and apprehend criminals. Many a time, there is a conflict between the immediate objectives of the police and the media at the scene of the crime, conspicuous during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Assistance of the media must be kept in balance with the police tasks. At the time of development of media policy, it is important to seek the views and suggestions from the media and there must be full understanding of the standards that the editorial and reporting staff are expected to follow. The policy should be such that it can be practically followed, both by the police and the Press. Final agreement on the policy should be written and copies issued to the representatives of the media and the police department.
Alternative outlets News outlets are not the only means to market police agency. There could be other ways by which the police can stretch its public relations efforts with little or no strain on its resources. Publishing newsletters, magazines and producing television programmes by the department and contributing to newspapers and journals to share the information with people can take the message from the police to a large number of people, who otherwise are not in touch with the police. In Holland, the National Crime Intelligence Service is responsible for the production of the weekly television crime watch programme, “Opsporing Verzocht”. Baltimore County in the US also has a telephone number by which citizens can get crime statistics for their area. If a specific crime problem is occurring in a neigh¬borhood, the phone system automatically calls homes with listed numbers in the area to alert them to the trend. The Scottsdale police in the US has a city cable programme, a quarterly magazine, and a website. The Internet is an economical and valuable tool for reaching out to the community and beyond. The Delhi gang-rape incident saw 1,32,000 tweets and an online petition floated on the incident got 50,000 signatures in just 24 hours. A police department's website can offer services reaching large groups or providing for one-on-one contact. Some possible uses of a website include sharing department information, crime statistics, and safety tips; providing opportunities for citizen feedback; adding a silent witness programme; and using email as a vehicle for communication with the public. Video clips from a department's website and on YouTube, with 1 billion unique visitors per month, can serve as an easy way to have community members see and hear what it has to offer. Organising sports and cultural events by the police earns the department both the goodwill and positive publicity. They also offer the police officers a chance to interact with the public in a different way. In 1994, the Batala police district in Punjab embarked on the mission to organise a series of village games to revive sports in rural areas of one of the most terrorist-affected areas of Punjab, after seeing the end of terrorism from the district. Not only did it engage the susceptible youth in a constructive activity, weaning them away from any further influence of terrorism, but also the efforts showed the police in a different positive role. Similarly, the cultural teams and police bands not only win the hearts of people but also provide free publicity to the department.
Partnership with others The police can partner with complementary services to create cooperative advertising campaign. For a drive against drugs, the campaign can be created with the health department, and for traffic awareness the highway authority can be roped in. Similarly, many non-profit organisations work for the common cause and campaign enthusiastically. Every social organisation like the Rotary Club and the Lions Club in their monthly meetings look for speakers from various walks of life. The police can use these occasions to share information with lots of new people. Another useful media strategy can be partnership with the local radio by setting up a hotline to which people can phone with information and problems in the area. The public response to non-police hotlines is much higher than for the police control room phones.
The writer is an ADGP in Punjab.
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