|
Will new Police University teach Bhai Kaunke case?
 What kind of
training does Punjab Police provide to its trainees? Ask this
question to anyone on the streets of
Punjab and you
would get a prompt reply. Most people would say, "you know what,
they put them in a room and teach them how to abuse, then they
provide them with a vocabulary of abuses, then they put them in a
room and each trainee is asked to abuse the other with the choicest
abuse in the loudest voice possible, till it reaches a stage that
the other side stops thinking rationally. After that they teach
them how to beat people and then how to torture them." Ask somebody
in Mumbai about the
Punjab
police and they would say that they are a bunch of lecherous Punjabi
men on the prowl. The image is no bettter closer home in Haryana
and Delhi
where the police force is as brutal as their Punjabi counterparts.
 Will the
proposed first
Police
University of the country continue to do what the public perceives
them as doing all these years? These were the thoughts that came
rushing when last week, Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal,
on Friday announced conversion of Punjab Police Academy (PPA),
housed in the erstwhile fort of Maharaja Ranjit Singh into India's
first Police University.
The Punjab police academy is a training centre for M.A., M.Phil and
PhD in the field of Public Administration boasted the Chief Minister
but while doing the stock-taking at the Annual Passing out parade,
did not mention that a senior
Punjab
police personnel accused of human rights violations had committed
suicide. He also did not outline any measures to change the image
of the
Punjab
police. He did not tell the audience that to save their image and
his own he has suppressed the Bhai Kaonke involuntary disappearance
report and that his government does not propose to take up past
cases against high ranking police personnel for their alleged crimes
against humanity. Perhaps we are not looking for an image change.
May be perhaps.
 Punjab is not
ready for such a change. With the National Human Rights Commission
statistics listing Punjab as No. 5 in the ranking of states
responsible for deaths in custody (of the reported numbers only),
Punjab has a long way to go before the Police cares for an image
makeover.
Surprisingly,
the director general of the
Punjab Police
Academy talked about sensitising the police about issues related to
Human Rights, Cyber Crime, Economic offences, Crimes against women,
children and other vulnerable sections of the society. Of course
there was no mention of corruption in the police forces. With
increasing incidence of crimes of all kinds in Punjab, civil society
will have to sit up and take note of violations of Rule of law.
Even before a
trainee comes to the
Phillaur Police
Academy for training as a police personnel, as an ordinary citizen,
he needs to be aware of human rights and respect for the dignity of
another citizen. The Punjab government will do well to introduce
elementary training in human rights in schools and colleges. While
the
Police
University
proposal is being pursued, the Academy would do well to translate
international documents relating to human rights into Punjabi. If
the police administration is not segregated from the executive, a
subservient police force will always be on the wrong side of the
common man. Newer methods of policing without recourse to inhuman
third degree should be introduced. Irrespective of the nature of
crime, torture of all kinds and at all times should be a taboo for
the police. Exemplary punishment from the individual resources of
the police personnel concerned for any crime committed by a police
personnel can be a major deterrent against such acts.
As the
recognition and funding for the University is to come from the
Federal government, if the state government of
Punjab is not
careful, they should not be surprised if
India
asks Punjab to appoint KPS Gill as the first Vice chancellor of the
first Police University.
26
March 2008
|
Read Also