POLICE FORCE OR GOVERNMENT POLICY

By Kiran Rizal

 It is always said that Police Force falls short whenever there is any insurgency like situation in a district and the State administration quickly pass on the responsibility to the Central Para-Military Force. Today we have six prominent Para Military forces in India viz, Border Security Force (BSF), Sasahastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Force (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Assam Rifles (AR), apart from these, there are State Armed Police Forces in respective States to deal with any law and order problems. Among these Central Para-Military Forces BSF, SSB, ITBP and AR are raised primarily to guard International Borders and are thus Border Guarding Forces, this fact was also acknowledged by the recommendation of Group Of Ministers constituted after Kargil war to ascertain the Security of our Borders. It is only CRPF whose duty is to look after the internal Security of nation but whenever there is requirement of more forces; Border Guarding forces are frequently deployed for law and order duty. Assam Rifle and BSF are infact more associated with insurgencies in North East India and Jammu and Kashmir rather than guarding borders.

     These forces may have done commendable job in restoring law and order in dealing with various insurgencies prevaling in our country but rarely contributed in solving the problem. It is common a sight in media that whenever there is any crisis arising out of insurgency or communal riots or Naxalite movement, Central Government rushes its Para military Forces in large number to restore normalcy on requsition from the State Government and some times State Government even blame the Central Government for escalation of violence due to non-availability of sufficient force thereby absolving their responsibility. Such situation always helps in creating an ideal circumstances for common man to fight against the Government. Therefore in suh scenario, one pertinent question required to be answered is how much Force we needed to feel secured in our own country? Does Government think that it is only use of force which will help them to crub insurgencies rather than formulating conducive policies to meet the requirment of common masses? When India got independence there was only one central force called Central Reserve Force and after 62 years, we have number of Forces performing various duties and the quench for more forces is still not satiated as such recently we saw a new Central force being raised with 24 Battalions called Sashastra Seem Bal (SSB) in 2001. Our law makers should understand that providing physical security to each and every individual and every inch of land is not possible and cannot be achieved irrespective of number of a forces we raised, rather it is the administration and the government policies which needs to be reviewed, as it has failed to create conducive atmosphere for its citizen to live in peace and tranquility.

     A classic example of failed government policies and administration is prevaling Insurgencies in North East India. The  Insurgency of North East, especially of Nagaland is as old as Independent India itself. Thousands of troops have laid down their lives fighting North East Insurgency but the problem still persists in the same dimension. Most of our countrymen do not know that numbers of soldiers killed in North East Insugency is more than the soldiers killed in three wars with the a Pakistan. Here, I want to draw attention that if Force would have been a sole factor to solve the law and order problem than probably North East problem would have been solved by now. we can now safely presume that it was lack of political will and the faulty government policies, which has failed to satisfy the the aspiration of people of North East India consequently the insurgency assumed greater proportion despite increase of Armed Forces in India. Therefore, mearly deploying Armed Forces does not solve the problem, it only control the violence and brings momentary peace but the permanent solution lies with the government by formulating policies satisfying the aspiration of people. To propagate such peoples’ oriented policies government machinery needs to be geared up by exhibiting clean and transparent administration. Government should have such organisations which should reach to the far flung remote inaccessible villages and publicise the government policies meant for the betterment of people of India, especially to the neglected section of society. In the past we have seen that fruits of development went to the people residing in the cities and the towns only, rural and the border areas remained neglected with less or very less development as a result these days Maoist and other insurgencies are gaining ground in these places.

   Sad part is that Government only wakes up once people resort to violence in order to press their demands  and with kneejerk reaction deploy Para military force to bring the situation under control, arrest a few demonstrators and condemn the violence, rather than to accept the responsibility of creating such extreme situation for the citizen to take law in their hand.