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In the recently held FIKI Smart Policing Awards, various states and union territory police and central armed police forces were awarded for their path-breaking initiatives. These initiatives aim at better policing, enforcing law and order, technology and policing, and women and child safety.
To understand the nitty-gritties of changing modes of policing reforms, we reached out to a very distinguished police officer of the country, Prakash Singh, former BSF DG and DGP UP and Assam.
"We need to understand that we are still being governed by the Act of 1861. You see, it is true that some states have passed new acts, but if you analyze those acts, you find that the compliance to Supreme Court directions has been farcical, and they have violated the letter and spirit of the directions of the Supreme Court. The effort actually has been to whatever is the existing arrangement, they have given it a legal cover, and they say, 'This is the new act, and so this is we have complied with the directions of the Supreme Court.' So, the result is, when the Prime Minister only in his last Independence Day speech, he said that we must get rid of all the vestiges of colonialism, we must erase all that. But unfortunately, the colonial system of policing is still there. When are we going to get rid of that? When are we going to erase that? That is very essential. And for that, I mean, you have to when the National Police Commission report that gave you the guidelines, when that was not accepted or very partially accepted by the Government of India, then I moved a petition in the Supreme Court in 1996. Then 2006 came the historic judgment of the Supreme Court that these directions need to be implemented. They gave six directions to the state governments and one to the central government. Now, there would be, there is, and there would be political opposition to those. But we have to remember that if India is to emerge as a great power, you cannot be a great power and also have a feudal system of policing. Policing has also to be modernized. It has to be updated. It has to be progressive, and it has to be people's police and not rulers' police, as it is today. So, it is to bring about this transformation that we are talking of police reforms, and we have been agitating for police reforms. And the most important part of those reforms is that that police should be insulated from all kinds of external pressures. I mean, government has the full freedom and it has full authority to lay down the guidelines, to lay down the policies, but beyond that, how those policies are to be executed. You can say that a criminal rights situation should be con, there should be no communal rights, and if a criminal right happens, you should be able to control it immediately. You can say that. But when a commander breaks out, don't tell us that you arrest X and don't arrest Y. Take action against A, not against B. That should not happen. Police should be able to investigate cases independently, objectively, and with a fair measure of operational autonomy. That is absolutely a must. And unless that happens, I mean, whatever other changes are taking place and what the government is working on, they are very good, they are laudable. Yes, there should be forensic, more forensic laboratories, for instance. Examination should be made mandatory in certain categories of cases, as the Home Minister has said. But these changes will have their full impact only if operational autonomy or investigative autonomy is given to the police. If that autonomy is not there, then all these changes in the criminal justice system by having more forensic laboratories will have a very, very limited impact because forensic examination can also be managed. We have seen that. I mean, a wrong forensic report is given, or sometimes the exhibits are substituted. If government, if, if, if they are under pressure, maybe they, they will do those things also. So, the result, if you really want to uphold the rule of law in the country, and if you want people to have confidence in the policing system of the country, it is essential that they must have functional autonomy."
Slightly said, sir. Now I want to know about how do you see the role of drones in smart policing, sir?
"Drone is, you see, we have woken up late. We should have, I mean, as an IT power, we should have thought of drones much earlier. But this war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, that showed that, I mean, one side had all the tanks, but the other side had drones, and it is the drones which won against the tanks. So, that was an eye-opener to the rest of the world. And drones are very important. And I think warfare, the complexion of warfare is changing. I mean, I'm not an expert in the art of warfare, but sometimes I feel that aircraft carriers are an asset and also a liability because you are offering a huge target. If that target gets hit, then the aircraft carrier goes down, and all the aircraft, I do not know how many of them would be able to take off. Those will also be gone. So, I mean, I would say that a nuclear submarine is far more important than an aircraft carrier. I mean, but I'm not the last word. I'm, as I said, I'm not an expert in these matters. I would say the complexion of warfare is changing, and in that warfare, I would say drones are going to play a very, very important part. And we have woken up late, but we are, I think, catching up fast. And we should be the global hub in drones, and that is a step in the right direction."
So, this was Mr. Prakash, who has talked to us about how drones and police autonomy in policing reforms are important.
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