Print ArticleThese are sentences from an interview, with M L Kumawant a senior police officer in the Home Ministry of the Central government., which appeared in The Week, 17 August 2008, a hard copy weekly published from Kochi, Kerala, India. He is an important functionary in the fight against various forms of terror, insurgency and Maoism (Naxalites) in India.
´… We need to give our cops …, state of the art equipment and funds to help them fight terrorism.´
We are yet to see a ´police bicycle´ even though it is one of the most efficient forms of patrolling in many contexts e.g. urban settings where there are narrow lanes. Also at night a policeman can move around silently. Also a lot of ground can be covered. To make it state of the art gears can be fitted !!
Sniffer dogs e.g. Labradors that search out explosives or track culprits are selected from a batch, it is not every Labrador that can become a police dog. But the Indian sniffer dogs that appear on TV are obviously not good enough. One look at them by a trained observer reveals that.
The Vedas has been studied very intensively by the CIA, erstwhile KGB and other intelligence agencies. In India the army continues this tradition of having its intelligence agents learn yoga and behave like sadhus. This includes trying to learn how to listen to conversations at a distance and various para-psychological phenomena. Is this included in state of the art ? Or is state of the art only an electronic device that is capable of listening at a long distance. State of the art has become a buzz phrase.
As for funds to fight terrorism, sure, why not ? But why can´t our cops be trained in languages for example. Even front line cops in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and other cities in predominantly Muslim areas speak only a few sentences in Urdu. A native Urdu speaker with training would be able to tell the origin of another speaker e.g. Pakistani, Kashmiri, Lucknawi etc. Many people are able to look at a person and in many instances tell ethnic or even geographic origin. Gearing up human intelligence is vital.
Human intelligence is vital, and at present we are losing out in the bomb blasts, because seldom are we preventing them. (This is actually a contentious point since M K Narayana the National Security Advisor has said that 800 terror nodules have been busted in the past year. This means many potential blasts have possibly been averted.)
´Problems like terrorism come up from a sense of deprivation, denial, and deprivation of certain communities … a multi pronged mechanism … human touch."
This is specially true of Maoism. It has taken its roots amongst the poor who have not benefited from government schemes, in fact are still very backward. Economic and social upliftment are vital, but that involves a social and economic transformation along with tough measures to curb disruption. A carrot and stick approach is needed
´ a form of a federal agency would help.´
In India the government loves institution building. We have built public health centres but don´t have doctors. In parts of China they have positioned doctors in rural areas without physical structures.
Undoubtedly a central agency is required and this was mooted and agreed upon as far back as 2003 i.e. a joint task force was to be created. But successive governments slept over the issue. This is a ´hard skill´ needed to tackle terrorism.
What about ´soft skills´ ? Cultural exchanges between Pakistan and India were loved by participants. (These were mainly between the elite of both countries, we did not see any street actors and showman displaying their skills in the other country.)
Sania Mirza said she would love to play in Pakistan, she could start with exhibition matches in Kashmir !! Sports could be introduced into Kashmir, right now we have one footballer from Kashmir, maybe they could develop some sharp shooters !?! Or a singing competiton only for kashmiri men and women, girls and boys with a reward not of money but a tour around India during the winter months when they are anyway homebound.
´…People in the west do not come out on the streets when they have a problem…´
People do come out on the streets. In France farmers have used tractors to block roads, in Germany workers got on to the streets when they were being laid off.
In India we have a highly unresponsive government. When the farmers started committing suicide because of credit defaults the government did nothing about it. People are dying of starvation (called unnatural deaths in government parlance) in the Bundelkhand region but the government and public functionaries sleep over the matter. So people are forced on to the streets. Of course there is the other extreme where all life is brought to a halt for trivial causes.
´We are surrounded by unstable countries … ensure that India will be affected…Moderniation of police force is on track.´
India is affected by its own problems. Other than Islamic terrorism and a minor amount of assistance from China in the north east the problems of India lie within. Gross inequalities of income and opportunity, religious factionalism, linguistic barriers, social deprivation are some of the causes. A bureaucracy that is hidebound by its own rules, politicians with a five year time horizon.
(The LTTE also has had a role, but then India needled them.)
Modernization could first be in terms of education. In 2007 there was a news report that a few thousand candidates went to Faridabad, Harayana for an exam which would make them constables in the state police force. After the exam they looted shops and beat up people.
´… We need to give our cops …, state of the art equipment and funds to help them fight terrorism.´
We are yet to see a ´police bicycle´ even though it is one of the most efficient forms of patrolling in many contexts e.g. urban settings where there are narrow lanes. Also at night a policeman can move around silently. Also a lot of ground can be covered. To make it state of the art gears can be fitted !!
Sniffer dogs e.g. Labradors that search out explosives or track culprits are selected from a batch, it is not every Labrador that can become a police dog. But the Indian sniffer dogs that appear on TV are obviously not good enough. One look at them by a trained observer reveals that.
The Vedas has been studied very intensively by the CIA, erstwhile KGB and other intelligence agencies. In India the army continues this tradition of having its intelligence agents learn yoga and behave like sadhus. This includes trying to learn how to listen to conversations at a distance and various para-psychological phenomena. Is this included in state of the art ? Or is state of the art only an electronic device that is capable of listening at a long distance. State of the art has become a buzz phrase.
As for funds to fight terrorism, sure, why not ? But why can´t our cops be trained in languages for example. Even front line cops in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and other cities in predominantly Muslim areas speak only a few sentences in Urdu. A native Urdu speaker with training would be able to tell the origin of another speaker e.g. Pakistani, Kashmiri, Lucknawi etc. Many people are able to look at a person and in many instances tell ethnic or even geographic origin. Gearing up human intelligence is vital.
Human intelligence is vital, and at present we are losing out in the bomb blasts, because seldom are we preventing them. (This is actually a contentious point since M K Narayana the National Security Advisor has said that 800 terror nodules have been busted in the past year. This means many potential blasts have possibly been averted.)
´Problems like terrorism come up from a sense of deprivation, denial, and deprivation of certain communities … a multi pronged mechanism … human touch."
This is specially true of Maoism. It has taken its roots amongst the poor who have not benefited from government schemes, in fact are still very backward. Economic and social upliftment are vital, but that involves a social and economic transformation along with tough measures to curb disruption. A carrot and stick approach is needed
´ a form of a federal agency would help.´
In India the government loves institution building. We have built public health centres but don´t have doctors. In parts of China they have positioned doctors in rural areas without physical structures.
Undoubtedly a central agency is required and this was mooted and agreed upon as far back as 2003 i.e. a joint task force was to be created. But successive governments slept over the issue. This is a ´hard skill´ needed to tackle terrorism.
What about ´soft skills´ ? Cultural exchanges between Pakistan and India were loved by participants. (These were mainly between the elite of both countries, we did not see any street actors and showman displaying their skills in the other country.)
Sania Mirza said she would love to play in Pakistan, she could start with exhibition matches in Kashmir !! Sports could be introduced into Kashmir, right now we have one footballer from Kashmir, maybe they could develop some sharp shooters !?! Or a singing competiton only for kashmiri men and women, girls and boys with a reward not of money but a tour around India during the winter months when they are anyway homebound.
´…People in the west do not come out on the streets when they have a problem…´
People do come out on the streets. In France farmers have used tractors to block roads, in Germany workers got on to the streets when they were being laid off.
In India we have a highly unresponsive government. When the farmers started committing suicide because of credit defaults the government did nothing about it. People are dying of starvation (called unnatural deaths in government parlance) in the Bundelkhand region but the government and public functionaries sleep over the matter. So people are forced on to the streets. Of course there is the other extreme where all life is brought to a halt for trivial causes.
´We are surrounded by unstable countries … ensure that India will be affected…Moderniation of police force is on track.´
India is affected by its own problems. Other than Islamic terrorism and a minor amount of assistance from China in the north east the problems of India lie within. Gross inequalities of income and opportunity, religious factionalism, linguistic barriers, social deprivation are some of the causes. A bureaucracy that is hidebound by its own rules, politicians with a five year time horizon.
(The LTTE also has had a role, but then India needled them.)
Modernization could first be in terms of education. In 2007 there was a news report that a few thousand candidates went to Faridabad, Harayana for an exam which would make them constables in the state police force. After the exam they looted shops and beat up people.
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