Over the last five years especially, internal strife has torn India apart. Naxalite trouble, restive Kashmir valley and 26/11 have blatantly pointed fingers at the pathetic state of our police forces. Intelligence failures and lack of proper combat skills have seriously hurt national pride and security.
Nobody can forget the Dantewada massacre, nor can we forget the killings of Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar, Hemant Karkare and Sandeep Unnikrishnan. Lackluster policies and lack of foresight have forced us to lose our best commandos time and time again. It is a pity that we have to take the assistance of the IAF helicopters to step up surveillance in the Maoist hit areas. Are we so helpless? The armed forces feel depressed by the fact that instead of securing our borders, they have to make up for the failure of the internal police and paramilitary forces.
The only silver lining in this entire fracas is that we have a very sensible and sagacious Home Minister. He has assured us that there would be no let-up in attempts to radicalize the country’s young men and women who don the police colors. There is a huge need for efficient police professionals in our country. India is one of the most under-policed countries in the world. Policemen are subjected to poor work conditions, pathetic pay scales, besides being grossly under-trained and ill-equipped. This in turn spawns a culture of corruption and brutality that fuels the cycle of resentment and protests. Hence we need serious police reforms so that the country’s youth can join these forces, and look up to it.
We cannot expect security personnel to maintain law and order and take on terrorists if they have never fired a gun in training or are provided with faulty bullet-proof jackets. We cannot expect them to control stone-pelting mobs if they have no knowledge of crowd-management techniques. Modernization of our police forces has to start early to help them make a difference on the ground.
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