[Reader-list] letter fm a police officer ref gujarat

[Suchita Vemuri]

forwarding this fyi -- suchita

Dear All,
I am circulating a piece by V.N. Rai to his colleagues in the police 
force. Thought it would be of interest.
PArvathi

GUJARAT 2002 : A LESSON FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE INDIAN POLICE SERIVCE<
  Dear Colleague<
  I am writing to you at a very difficult time as an Indian Police 
Service officer and with a sense of anguish
The recent events related to the communal holocaust in Gujarat are a 
matter of great concern for the country and
should inspire serious introspection among all of us IPS officers. 
The terrible carnage that occurred at Godhra was an
early warning of the fact that big events of communal destruction 
could occur the next day all over the State and the
expectation from a professional police force was that it would oppose 
all actions of revenge and counter-violence
with all the force that it could muster. But this did not happen. Not 
only was the police unsuccessful in containing the
violence of the next few days but, it seemed, that in many places 
policemen were actively encouraging the rioteers.
The failure of the police should not be attributed to the lower ranks 
but must be seen as a failure of leadership that is
a failure of the IPS
The events that followed the beastly incident at Godhra did not 
surprise a person like myself who is not only a police
officer but also a keen student of social behaviour. The same old 
story was repeated everywhere from Ahmedabad,
the capital, to the rural areas. Since l960, in almost all riots that 
have occurred, the same picture has been painted in
the same colours, a picture of a helpless and often actively inactive 
police force that allowed wailing members of the
minority community be looted and killed in its presence, that 
remained a mute witness to some of their members being
burnt alive
  Whatever maybe my concerns as an ordinary citizen, as a police 
officer, my greatest concern is the preservation of
the professional character of the police force. An insensitive Chief 
Minister can pat his incompetent police force on
the back and the senior police leadership can also blame the 
'misleading media' and the 'anti-national minorities' for
any criticism made of its handling of the situation, but the truth is 
that after every riot the same criticism is made of the
police, that of its not only having failed to protect the lives and 
property of the minorities but of siding with Hindu rioters
and encouraging them. And after this recent rioting also the same 
criticism is being levelled against the Gujarat police
Whatever happened in Gujarat is not something new. It only once again 
underlines the fact that the senior leadership
of the police will have to sit down and think as to why after every 
riot the same story is repeated that of
incompetence, inactivity and criminal negligence. Until we accept 
that all is not in order in our own house, nothing
can be put right
The first institutionalised opposition to communal violence is 
initiated by the police. This occurs at several levels:
collection of intelligence before the outbreak of violence, 
preventive measures while tension is escalating, use of
force to stop violence and, after peace is restored, initiation of 
legal proceedings against the guilty. These are some of
the steps taken by the police to combat communal riots. None of these 
steps can be taken effectively if we ourselves
are infected with a communal bias. For an average policeman, 
collection of intelligence is limited to gathering of
information about the activities of communal Muslim organisations. It 
is not easy to make him realise that the activities
of Hindu communal organisations also come under the purview of 
anti-national activities and, therefore, it is necessary
to keep an eye on their activities also. It is a fact that very 
little input on the activities of communal Hindu
organisations and their activists is to be found in the police 
station records. Similarly, preventive arrests, even in riot
situations in which Muslims are the worst sufferers, are restricted 
to members of the minority community. Further, even
where Muslims are being attacked and the police resorts to firing, 
their main targets are Muslims. House-searches and
arrests reveal the same bias<O:P</O:P
What happened in Gujarat was a repetition of the above but on an 
unprecedented scale where the extent of
violence and destruction was unparalleled and one-sided. The other 
difference was that for the first time the inaction,
connivance and bias of the police were all on display on television 
screens in every Indian (and many foreign) homes.
Now we have lost even the fig-leaf of alleged misrepresentation by 
the print-mediaIt may be relevant to mention here
that on many occassions when leadership was provided which was 
professionally sound and free from any communal
bias the same bunch of police men have won confidence of various 
sections of society and made their organisations
proud of them. The old truism is borne out that generals fail and not 
the troops. Very often the officers blame lower
ranks of the force for their inability to control communal conflicts 
effectively. But we have seen even in the recent
Gujrat happenings that in the midst of failures there were success 
stories in which upright IPS officers led their men
from the front and ensured that there was no loss of life and 
property in their area of responsibilty.
It is a sad fact that police-officers who have not just failed to 
control riot situations but who have actually given them
their active support have not been punished in even one instance. The 
anti-Sikh riots of l984, especially in the capital
of the country, one of the best-policed cities, saw the killings of 
thousands of Sikhs that could not have taken place
without the active connivance of police. Despite indictiments not 
only by the press but by several Commissions, in
some of which distinguished IPS officers like Sri Padam Rosha were 
also involved, not one police officer was
punished and none of their careers was adversely affected. The Madon 
Commission and Sri Krishna Commissions
have suffered the same fate.<O:P</O:P
It is very clear that no outside agency can reform us. This is a job 
we will have to do ourselves. If we have any sense
of pride left in the service to which we belong which has had an 
illustrious past and has enjoyed great prestige in the
country, the time has come for us to set about this task in right 
earnest. We must call a general house of the Central
IPS Assocation and demand that the Government take action against 
Gujarat officers who have failed in their primary
duty to maintain law and order and prevent violence and against all 
officers who have failed in similar situations since
l984. We should not treat the Association as a trade union body to 
fight for better pay and service conditions but as a
medium to improve the service itself. If the Government does not take 
any action, the very least that we can do is
remove such officers from the membership of the Association
Hoping to hear from many of you shortly
With warm regards< Yours truly,< Vibhuti Narain Rai, IPS (UP, RR, 
l975)< <mailto:vnrai at hotmail.com>vnrai at hotmail.com