[Urbanstudy] Fwd: Fw: Letter from an IPS friend

[anila emmanuel]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

A forward received from a friend .






 Letter from an IPS friend


Here's a letter of an IPS officer to his classmates whose friend Kamte died
in action on Wednesday.

Friends,
 As I write to my batchmates of school, I grieve the death of my
batchmate of IPS – Ashok Kamte in the terror attack in Mumbai. Kamte was a
very bold, professional, sincere cop who was also a National level
weightlifter – very brave and handsome. I grieve his death. But the reason I
write to all of you is this -

Another Terror attack in Mumbai and I expect the same stereotype
stands from the political parties, same response from the media and the same
anguish and feeling of helplessness from the public. Rightly so, they ask,
what is the Government doing about it? The opposition parties will exploit
the situation to say that the Government has been soft on terror, should
invoke POTA like legislation to curb terror, should hang Afzal Guru, etc. If
legislations stop terror attacks then Maharashtra should have been safe – it
has MCOCA in place (MCOCA has all the ingredients of POTA). Even Delhi has
DCOCA, but the terror strikes happened here too. If deterrent strong action
of hanging terrorists is an answer, then Punjab terrorism should have being
put to an end after hanging the assassins of Indira Gandhi. But it did not.
While legislations and awarding deterrent punishments are very essential in
our fight against terror, then are by no means sufficient to put an end to
terror.

The public at large rightfully ask – if US could stop terror attacks
after 9/11, why can't our security system do the same here?

Friends, we will continue to have such attacks till we as a nation
and as a society do not decide to invest in the police of the country. We
expect a first-world police reaction from a third-world police. You will be
surprised to know that even today many of our police stations do not have
vehicles. As for connectivity amongst police stations, while police stations
(PS) have radio communication sets (RT sets), in some States the PS do not
have an extra battery to keep the sets working – this means that they switch
open their RT sets every two hours to check if there is any event of any
consequence! !! This is when even the poor in our country can afford mobile
sets!!! We still have weapons that are outdated. We have no centralized
database to check on identity of person detained. This implies that if I
detain a suspicious person in Delhi and he says that he belongs to some
village Begumangalam in district Nalgonda in AP, I have no way to
immediately verify his identity - unlike the US where a centralized databank
will let you check his antecedents in a matter of few seconds. While there
is about 1 policeman for every 300 people in US, in India we have one
policeman for every 1000 people – and mind you the cop of US is supported
with technology, communication and cyber connectivity and vehicles, which
increases his capabilities manifolds. Cases take decades to get conviction,
unlike the US where it is disposed off in months time. What will a criminal
be afraid of, if he is not punished? Police leaders are hardly kept in their
places of postings for a significant time so that they can improve
situations – I, for example, have been transferred 27 times in 9 years of
active policing in UP!!! Political insulation from professional work does
not exist. We always talk of Intelligence failure – but what infrastructure
we have there is a matter of concern. There are many more issues of
manpower, equipment, infrastructure and the like.. But we as a society are
not bothered – or is it that human life, and more so a life of a policeman,
is too cheap? Or is it that we are not aware of the deficiencies in our
security systems?

Each political party will make use of another terror attack as an
oppurtunity to malign the other and claim that it will improve security
situation when it comes back to power. As if POTA or hanging Afzal Guru
will! The reaction of the Government is also on the same lines – will
legislate a strong anti-terror law, will create a federal agency, will bring
in police reforms, etc. Haven't we heard the Governments in power repeat the
same after each terror attack, but still nothing happens. All political
parties, whether in power or outside, are the same. They misuse the police
system to meet their selfish ends. Unfortunately these terror attacks are
only 'action events' for the media to keep people hooked on to the TVs. But
hardly we have informed and consistent discussions in media to improve the
security situation.

Friends, the reason I write this mail is because I feel that you
all need to make yourself aware of the realities of the police. Police is
hated, to say the least. But because it is hated, you don't keep yourself
away from the malaise and refuse to raise a voice to improve it. Police
impacts you on a day-to-day basis – your sense of security and dignity
depends upon that. But why do we, educated people, not raise enough hue and
cry so that the political parties are forced to change the policing system
and hence improve your security? Friends, please become aware of the
realities of policing and beware of rhetoric of political parties – the
solutions they offer are superficial and will not improve security
situation. You can't build an edifice of security organisation with a weak
and hollow foundation.

Excuse me for my outburst and discontinuous thoughts – I kept
writing what ever came to my mind. But please make yourself aware and let
others know where the lacunae lie and build public opinion so that security
systems improve. Else please be prepared for mindless killings and falling
policemen (by the way, did you know that the number of policemen who have
died in the line of duty over the last 10 years is more than the total Army
personnel who were killed in all the wars together since 1947? We lose
almost 3 policemen per day!!).

Gives us another insight into the problem isnt it? I think as a nation we
can expect more such carnage to happen in the days to come and all of us hav
to be prepared for it. Its going to take a while to get a grip on this and
overcome it but surely we will eventually. Remember the days
of  Bhindranwale  and how that menace got snuffed out.
 Be brave


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