Cockroaches are such horrible creatures!

 

To cannibalise Jane Austen a little, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man boasting of 56”, with an array of jackboots, ED, CBI, Income Tax and an enormous IT cell with its humongous troll army must be able to stamp out a few random cockroaches.” How is it that he couldn’t? How is it that a party which was not even a party couldn’t be subdued into submission? How could an amorphous set of individuals without any political nous not be out-cunninged and out-maneuvered? What has led to this abject humiliation culminating in capitulation and desperate release of cringe-inducing reels at midnight? 

The government did try everything in its usual playbook – anti-national tag, Pakistan links, foreign funding allegations, lathi charges, tear gas, water cannons, pellet guns, mass detentions/ arrests, dismantling the platform structure, kidnapping Sonam Wangchuk, area lockdowns including Metro train closures, social media suspensions, website shutdowns, internet blackouts, paying influencers to put a positive spin and so on. None of it worked – cockroaches turned out to be such horrible creatures! 

Problem was, nobody had a file on the protestors who were actually a rag-tag bunch. No GST or income tax default could be dredged up to harass them. Past criminality or links with mafia or underworld couldn’t be established against any of their visible faces. Nor could hidden income disproportionate to their known sources of income. They were not income tax evaders with their names in Paradise Papers. They had not stashed a major part of their money abroad. They were not named in Panama Papers. Their names didn’t appear in Adarsh Society Scam. 

They were not involved in stealing land or doing corrupt deals. They didn’t visit Epstein Island. And they were not married, so they were not worried about their children being targeted. They didn't even own a house which you could bulldoze. They were not having sons who ran ethanol factories for supplies to government of India for blending with petrol. They didn't have anything to do with BCCI, IPL, T-20 except as audience.

Basically, the politicians, the police, income tax, ED, RAW, CBI, Judiciary, etc. had no handle on them. That is why they blithely responded with outrageous memes like “Police wale babu mujhe danda laga do” in eye-catching cosplay. They basically told the authorities to go get lost.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbSgle150ps&list=RDDbSgle150ps&start_radio=1

Since the capitulation too, the government doesn’t seem to have learnt any lessons. Arrogance seems to be its default options. The authorities seem to be perpetrating ever-graver mistakes which are becoming further meme fodder. 

The whole play was about accountability and not about who wins and who loses. Given that, the sight of Dharmendra Pradhan being feted so extravagantly at the Parliament after the resignation was tone-deaf. Even his resignation and subsequent utterances lacked grace and were arrogant in the extreme. Then there was the unsightly spectacle of a 15-year-old girl being hounded through FIR and trolling into submission and apologies. No one knows the status of the cases against the agitators. One venerable MP described Gen Z as “the gutter generation.” One senior Union minister went to the extent of trying to justify the paper leaks as ultimately benefiting the students. The pellet-injured couldn’t even lodge an FIR despite running from pillar to post. Rather than seeking forgiveness, The Leader “forgave” people who never asked for it. And, finally, we have this “Dimagi Naxal” thing which has been nothing but a dog-whistle and a licence to the supporters to “exterminate the cockroaches” through sheer muscle power – witness the recent violence at Jadavpur University. 

The government seems to think of everything in terms of setting a narrative – kaise ullu banaya jaye. So they have sacked the IT cell chief to get others in to set a “better” narrative. As though, everybody could be fooled all the time and it’s just a question of how.  If I were in any capacity to advise the powers that be, I would suggest the following, in Gen Z lingo: 

Bro, the kids are demanding substance, not slogans or cosmetics or narrative. Real life actually happens offline where the jobs happen, arbitrary figures of GDP are replaced by actual hard data, the official inflation rate actually matches what people experience while buying sabzi. If it’s only about narrative-setting and no substance, you could rise and rise through WhatsApp and fall precipitously through Instagram, or another novel platform. 

Bro, it’s not cool to keep intimidating and terrorising. “किसी को इतना भी मत डराओ कि डर ही ख़त्म हो जाए।” Once the fear goes, “अंधेरा घना क्यों न हो … एक चिंगारी ही काफी होती है, सुबह का रास्ता दिखाने के लिए।” That’s what happened. Many parents and others who were hitherto afraid and circumspect joined in once they saw the kids being fearless. Many who were erstwhile ‘bhakts’ saw the light. No amount of intellectual and crude narrativising could counter that once the floodgates opened. 

Bro, the digital world has moved on. People have moved on to other platforms with other grammar. Hate and conspiracy theories which could be so easily digitised in the WhatsApp platforms are finding it difficult to breach the new platforms’ grammar, lingo and creativity. Humour is becoming a very effective antidote to the earlier strategies. 

Bro, it boils down to just one thing. Be a good citizen yourself first, last and every time. It’s not tokenisms like touching the forehead to the parliament floor. Good citizenship is not subject to algorithms or page views. Good citizenship must be practised, even to the extent of seeing other citizens as citizens. Not cockroaches. Or, termites.

 

The Silicon-chip meets the SHO

 

Let’s see what will happen if a citizen meets an AI-enabled robot instead of a human being (Duty Officer) when he first appears at the police station. At the very least, he’ll get a patient hearing, almost immediately, no sitting around waiting indefinitely, no lunch-ke-baad-aana. Whatever he says will get recorded in the General Diary verbatim but in a legible manner. If the matter is merely informatory in nature, a receipt with General Diary number, date and time will be automatically generated for him. If the matter indicates a cognizable offence, an FIR will be drawn up in a legible manner with correct sections of law without any discretion and escalated to the SHO for taking a decision as to whether to investigate or refuse investigation and allotment to an Investigating Officer. Refusal to register complaints, the long-standing bane of the police, will now be a thing of the past. This one measure, in itself, will transform the functioning and image of police no end.

Further, AI can reduce the humungous documentation burden that police stations grapple with. In 2024, around 59 lakh cognizable cases were registered. Each such case involves a First Information Report, the spot maps, witness statements, arrest memos, forensic reports, seizure lists, medical examination records, report in final form, and so on – documents numbering in hundreds. All documents in local language need to be translated in English when a case goes to the High Court or the Supreme Court. Manual translations for a single case can take up to 15 days which can now be done in an hour or so, while retaining specialised legal/ local terminology like surathal, panchnama, khatian, zimma etc. and also retaining page-for-page parity so that it is acceptable in the court. AI enabled digitisation can read handwritten FIRs in multiple languages with high accuracy. It can also process low-quality scans and faded documents by intelligently reconstructing the degraded letters. Most importantly, all the documents will become searchable.

Another big help from AI would be when the investigation is transferred to another officer due to transfer, etc.. Rather than the new officer having to go through the entire case file word by word, he can go through a structured summary, a chronological timeline of events, evidentiary gaps and inconsistencies, all generated by AI. AI can listen in to interrogation of accused, correlate everything and point out the inconsistencies in the statements.

AI can also generate the chargesheet index, cross-reference evidences and biometric data, witnesses and the sections of law and check for completeness of the case diary and the chargesheet. It can also create a draft prosecution narrative to be used by the Public Prosecutor and the Investigating Officer. My back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that AI can free up to around 30 officer-hours per day at a mid-size police station on documentation alone.

Both at the police station level and beyond, AI can also help in mapping crime hotspots, connect FIRs and Modus Operandi and help in identifying repeat offenders.

Police station inspections by senior officers are the backbone of police administration. Usually, it’s an annual affair preceding which there is a lot of activity to compile statistics and cover-ups so that the inspection goes off peacefully. Then things are forgotten for a year until the next inspection which may be by a different officer or the same officer who may not remember much of what all he’d instructed the previous time around. When one goes through successive inspection remarks, one sometimes sees the same instructions having been passed from time immemorial, without any substantive changes in the performance. AI can enable a GPS-enabled field visit tracking system which will have a digital record of every inspection. This will enable continuous performance monitoring and accountability rather than having a lot of sound and fury once in a year, signifying nothing. During every inspection, all previous instructions and their compliances would be available to the inspecting officer so that repeat issues will be highlighted. GPS tracking will ensure that the supervising officer actually visits the police station rather than churning out reports sitting in his office.

A module can be carved out for the public representatives to send their recommendation and escalate to higher-ups, if need be. Further, there can be a chat bot for the public to obtain any information regarding their application for permission, licences, various fines, applicable sections of law, etc. in any Indian language and English.

Finally, the performance of officers will now face automatic and systematic evaluation based on objective parameters like average response time, detection, preventive action, tasks performed, compliance metrics, pending cases, escalation frequency, etc. so that high performers can be rewarded and encouraged suitably while underperformers will be caught out and earmarked for skill and performance augmentation.

Despite all the foregoing, it is important that there must be human oversight and intervention because AI makes mistakes and sometimes, the mistakes in policing can make the difference between life and death, literally. Even if the Duty Officer may become dispensable, there must be some supervision of the robot doing that job too. Because many things about policing are confidential, the AI systems must be based on a dedicated self-hosted Large Language model, end-to-end encrypted and with restricted access to certain parts and trained on all the criminal laws, police regulations, Government Orders, SOPs and circulars.

There should be a unified gateway for all officers. Any FIR should be possible to be generated at any police station with automatic transfers to the police station of jurisdiction. The heinous crime cases (SR cases) which are supervised by senior officers can have almost instantaneous passing of instructions with deadlines and automatic escalation in case of non-compliance.

While predictive AI hasn’t been much of a success, it can still be used for “now-casting” – i.e., predicting the present or very near future crimes, riots and traffic issues using real-time data. AI can’t judge context or the nuances of social situations and does not have the emotional intelligence required of an SHO. As of today, AI can’t become an SHO but use of AI can make for an unimaginably better SHO. By several orders of magnitude.

The Silicon-chip SHO

 

Today Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere. It’s in the smart-alec student’s assignment paper; it’s in the Income Tax officer’s financial forensics to catch tax dodgers; it’s in the dystopian scenario of the doomsday soothsayers; it’s in the ongoing attempts at self-driving cars; most importantly, it’s in the adda-intellectual’s morning discourse – he calls it Chai GPT (Genuinely Pure Tea) enhanced with AI (Adrak and Ilaichi). Has the time come then for AI to replace the SHO (Station House Officer), the pivot around which the entire policing system in India revolves?

Let’s see what all the SHO is expected to do.

The SHO supervises all the work of the police station including work allocation, general management, discipline and all the administrative work. In turn, he is the most supervised officer in the Police or in any governmental set-up, with at least six layers fairly closely supervising his work. This includes the senior officers and the judiciary to whom all his crime-related work is accountable.

Under the Indian criminal jurisprudence, he is the de jure Investigating Officer of all crimes in his Police Station area. All the investigation is carried out by officers of the Police Station under powers delegated by him. A senior officer takes up investigation under powers of the SHO assumed by the former.

The SHO is also responsible for maintaining public order in his jurisdiction. He arranges both preventive and mitigation actions in this regard. Preventive actions include patrolling, keeping an eye on evolving situations, surveillance of known offenders, lookout for suspicious or unknown faces, predicting disturbances and so on. When a major disturbance occurs, the SHO is usually the first one on the firing line and has to meet fire with force.

The SHO is expected to deal with situations and persons with empathy and emotional intelligence. He is called upon to treat people with a rare nuance which distinguishes between a crime of malice from the same crime born out of desperation or mortal distress. He navigates with resourcefulness (mostly illegal) demands from political parties of various hues, ever alert to the fact that today’s no-hoper opposition may be tomorrow’s king.

The general citizenry has huge expectations from the SHO. Frankly speaking, there is not a single other agency of the government which is open and responsive to the public 24 x 7 x 365, come hell or high water. When everything else is shut in the odd hours or during major depredations, there’s at least a sentry and mostly an officer available at the police station – in that sense, it is always the governmental arm of the last resort. 

Apart from all this, there’s a huge social role thrust upon the SHO. All government offices have a person who is called Bada Babu or its equivalent in various languages. In the housing department office, for example, the Section Officer is called Bada Babu. However, to the general public, Bada Babu usually means the SHO. So, amongst the Bada Babus, the SHO has an outsized eminence, he is primus inter pares. This is because of the influence he and his work wield, touching everyone at a very basic level.

Given such a complex job description, can he be substituted by AI? Let’s look at what AI can or cannot do, as of now.

The term AI is being used as THE ONE BIG THING which is turning everything topsy-turvy now. Well, it has been disruptive but it’s not one single thing. It’s an umbrella term comprising at least three categories: Generative AI, Predictive AI and Content moderation AI.

Generative AI has had the maximum success and has caught the popular imagination and also filled people with a lot of apprehension. However, what it actually does is basically recognise patterns in data, words and pictures and correlate them through layer-by-layer iterations so well that its output comes across almost as human. All that it’s doing, based on its training, is choosing the most appropriate words, picture patterns, etc. to give the most suitable response as per its algorithms. Since it has been trained on a very large amount of data and has had some moderation built in, its responses have been very impressive but not always accurate. It doesn’t have sentience, i.e., consciousness, regardless of the hype and the claims. However, its speed and abilities have been formidable.

As far as the predictive part is concerned, AI hasn’t worked well so far. In Police-related work, it has been tried out for criminal risk prediction (i.e., whether to release an accused on bail with low risk of his committing crimes again), hiring (whether the person will do well on the job), face recognition and crime prediction, with indifferent results and racial/ gender/ economic biases. So far, it has been somewhat satisfactory only in “predicting the past,” which is of no use to anyone.

Content moderation has been used extensively by social media platforms but has shown large and grave mistakes. So much so that one can’t even search for “gorillas” in Google photos or Apple photos apps now – blocked by the apps themselves because it identified all black people as gorillas.

At the present stage of development when AI is more of “Microsoft Excel than The Terminator,” it is not feasible to replace the SHO with a robot. Things might change when AI becomes capable of judging the context, cultural and political nuances and is able to do AI research itself, i.e., progress to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). That would require AI agents to self-improve through interacting with the physical world and the social world. To my mind, that is still some distance away.

That said, there’re still tremendous benefits to be had if we adopt AI for a lot of automation in policing, specifically at the police station level. I think, the utility through automation and not the hype of a sentient SHO-replacing-AI, is the part worth sitting with. That calls for another blog. Next week.

[To be concluded]

Let's go TACO

 

So, after spending USD 200 billion, losing 13 U.S. defence service members and causing world-wide disruption, what did Trump get from the US-Iran war? To see it in perspective, I prepared a comparative chart and juxtaposed the outcome with that of Obama without firing a single shot.

 

What Obama had in 2015	What Trump got in 2026
Iran gave a written commitment never to seek a nuclear weapon.	Iran gave a written commitment never to seek a nuclear weapon.
Tight ​limits on Iran's efforts to produce weapons-grade uranium, aimed at extending the "breakout" time it would need to produce a bomb.	Only a general path, no specific commitments from Iran.
Forced Iran to ship 98 percent of its enriched uranium out of the country.	Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is to be diluted inside Iran — not destroyed — contingent on what may prove to be years of difficult diplomatic negotiations.
Extensive international inspection of nuclear enrichment.	Not mentioned in the MoU.
Unfroze tens of billions of Iranian monies held overseas and lifted crippling economic sanctions imposed by the United States and EU. Freed Iran's central bank to operate in the global economy. Also included cash transfers of previously seized assets amounting to $1.7 billion.	Lifted oil restrictions, promised to help create a $300 billion reconstruction fund in Iran with regional partners, and dangled the promise of sweeping sanctions relief if the two sides could reach a broader nuclear deal. But most of the sanctions relief is contingent on future negotiations that haven't yet materialized.
Allowed Iranian oil exports only after Iran shipped its enriched uranium out of the country and was verified to have dismantled core elements of its nuclear program.	Allowed Iran to immediately restart exporting oil — roughly 90 percent of which is sent to China — which will bring in a flood of petrodollars, directly funding the Iranian regime.
In exchange, Iran agreed to reduce its nuclear centrifuges by two-thirds, committed not to build new enrichment facilities for 15 years, significantly reduced its stockpile of enriched uranium, disabled a major heavy-water reactor and agreed to IAEA inspections.	In exchange, along with the lifting of the naval blockade by the United States, Iran  agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz.   Point 5 of the 14-point MOU states the strait will be toll-free for 60 days, but after that Iran will work with neighbouring Oman to “define future administration and maritime services” in the strait. That means tolls are not ruled out down the road.
Allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent for 15 years – enough for developing a nuclear power programme, but well below the 90 percent needed to produce nuclear weapons.	The memorandum does not mention whether Iran will be allowed to enrich uranium at all or for how long.
Had very specific terms for sanctions in the event of non-compliance.	No such details are in the memorandum.

 

Trump claims to have obliterated ALL nuclear facilities of Iran. According to him, he has sunk its navy. He has killed its leadership and Iran no longer has an Army. So what exactly is the MoU about and who is it with?

 

If one is to believe Trump (like many of his MAGA supporters do), the United States didn’t wage war against Iran so didn’t need Congress approval, either before or after expiry of 60 days as mandated under War Powers Resolution. Nobody knows when this non-war began. Either it began in June 2025 when he didn't bomb Iran’s so-called nuclear sites “beautifully obliterating” them or it began on February 28, 2026 when Trump again “did not” start a non-war so that Iran couldn’t build the nuclear weapon with the totally obliterated Uranium that they didn’t have.

 

Following this, Iran closed down the Strait of Hormuz with weapons they didn’t have and its navy which was sunk. So, the United States had to continue waging its non-war to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Everything has now panned out beautifully due to Trump’s charismatic leadership and "Art of the Deal" and lo and behold, he has achieved unprecedented success which no other President was able to achieve, in reopening the Strait of Hormuz which was open before his non-war. For good measure, he has kept a provision for Iran to charge tolls in the future.

 

Glory be!

 

P.S. My take: Trump just couldn’t bear the economic pressure generated by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and caved in. TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out.

The straight and narrow

 

While Police academies and MBA classes have courses and lectures on how to be ethical or how to build an ethical organisation from scratch, not much emphasis is accorded to how to intervene in an unethical organisation. My thoughts on how to go about it crystallised over a long time. I feel, while individual situations vary, there are five essentials one should think of when suddenly parachuted into a situation of endemic and pervasive high-corruption.

First, define the transparency goals and see what level of corruption and indiscipline one could live with – sometimes, complete transparency or 100 % diligence to rules and regulations may not be feasible. As a DIG, I went to a lot of trouble to collect the transfer policies of organisations similar to mine, analysed and tried to improve upon them, prepared a draft policy for my organisation and got the same approved by the government. After this, I stuck to the policy to the letter. However, my DGP got increasingly annoyed at not having any discretion, not being able to oblige anyone and being helpless against a lot of pressures from different quarters. Finally, he changed my assignment and also revised the policy. My successor, a very good officer and senior to me, once advised, “Look, it’s important to be practical. If a transfer policy is implemented to even 70 %, that is a big achievement.”

 

Along with defining the ethical goals, it is important to keep the leadership on board and get them to have a buy-in. In my last assignment, I was face to face with rank indiscipline and corruption of one particular unit, WWCD. In the name of a ruling-party supported union, they had become a law unto themselves. I heard from my predecessors that whenever they’d tried to impose any discipline, the WWCD guys used to march up and down the corridors shouting slogans against the authorities in an aggressive manner. The Commandant used to quake when their union leaders threatened.

 

I compiled a list of their misdemeanours. A new location with modern buildings and facilities were constructed for them at a distance of 120 kms and government had ordered them to shift. However, in defiance, they’d refused to move, primarily because of the vested interest of some of the union office-bearers. I went to the Cabinet Minister, appraised him of the situation and told him that I was planning to shift them forcibly and I needed his support. He was hemming and hawing but I told him that it was not possible for me to work in such an environment and I was prepared to resign over the issue.

 

One day, in a coordinated operation, under heavy Police deployment, I organised the shifting process to start at 9 AM from the five locations of the wing, well before the personnel used to roll in casually at 11 AM. When they came and saw what was happening, they rushed to meet the Minister and other bigwigs of the ruling party but thanks to my prior efforts, they didn’t get to meet any of them. They tried to involve the press but didn’t get any purchase.

 

The second thing I learnt over time was that, rather than trying to attack corruption piecemeal, one should start with “frying a big fish.” In that WWCD unit, there was a constable rank person who was actually running the show because he was the head of the union. I mapped him in my mind as “The Don.” He used to decide who will get what duty, who will attend office and who will “work from home” [this was all way before Corona times], who will never be given any duty, who will get the contracts and so on. He himself was always on office duty and used to hold court after office hours to “decide” on everything for small and big considerations and distribute the day’s collections.

 

I decided to start with him. During the monsoon season, I put every single person on the field with water boats and rescue gear. The Commandant came to me in a panic and repeatedly asked whether the Don would also be sent on field duty and I asked why not. Then the Don walked in with his entourage and asked me how I’d put him on the field when none of my predecessors had dared to do so in the previous 26 years. He mobilised the entire wing to “boycott” the duties. In my research into his conduct, I’d found that he had kept a died-in-harness employee’s dues and benefits pending while processing applications of much later vintage. Based on this, I placed him under suspension and started the Departmental proceedings. I also threatened to start a Police case against him for criminal breach of trust. That broke the back of the revolt. When the office was moved, 123 empty liquor bottles were found in the room where he used to hold court.

 

The third important means of taking an unethical organisation towards an ethical culture is to incentivise ethical conduct and disincentivise unethical acts. Incentivisation in the Police context includes generous rewards, glowing testimonials, favourable appraisals, medals – even a pat on the back works wonders. Disincentives must be harsh for unethical acts. In Police, many unethical acts are punished through minor punishments like a “censure” or “warning.” The most stringent punishment is usually a suspension and a Departmental Enquiry which meanders on for years. These are not very effective nor immediate. When I was SP of a district, I learnt that the night patrolling was a major source of illegal income for the Thana personnel. Against a specific complaint, I went to the Police Station and got the concerned persons arrested. That served as a chilling effect throughout the district.

 

The fourth thing I’ve tried to do was encouraging whistleblowing. However, this is a delicate step. The whistleblower runs serious risk, not only of his life and limb but sometimes his family members’ too. While encouraging whistleblowing, one must make sure that the potential whistleblower is fully protected. His identity should be guarded.

 

Fifth and finally, sunlight is the best disinfectant. When I joined the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), I found that corruption was rampant. There had been several CBI cases against the personnel and even very senior officers. The main way of extortion was through delays. Many permissions and licenses needed to be obtained by airports, airlines, concessionaires and so on before they could operate in the aviation environment. A single day’s delay meant losses of crores of rupees for them. What I did was put everything on the website. All permission/ licensing processing were put up there right from the application stage through each of the stage of processing with details on where it was pending and why, with names and designations of the official concerned. It was now easy for any applicant to track his application on a real-time basis. It was also easy for me to continuously monitor. This put paid to the delays. Further, in the teeth of severe opposition from my staff and their contrary counsel, I put up my mobile phone no. on the BCAS website. Sure, there were a few crank calls but I received such quality information that the organisation and I could respond to developing situations promptly and robustly. I think, these two measures contributed immensely to India hitting the top spot in terms of civil aviation security across the world.

 

Unfortunately, some of these telephone calls still come, despite my having left BCAS and even retired from the service long back because the no. is somewhere on the net. I don’t mind. At least, I managed to keep some people on the straight and narrow.

Maximal leader, minimal bureaucrat

 

I don’t think many people outside Bengal have heard about Mira Pandey. 

Everything about her was quiet, understated, minimal – soft-spoken, never bothered about posting and lurched from insignificant post to insignificant post without ever being a District Magistrate and retired from the “lowly” post of Principal Secretary, Cottage and Small-scale Industry in 2008. The Left Front government was on the lookout for just such a person for a sinecure job of State Election Commissioner and thought she fit the bill perfectly. Lucky for them, they never knew how badly they had miscalculated.

 

Unlike the Central Election Commission, the West Bengal State Election Commission does not enjoy untrammelled independence. The state deliberately passed an Act where the dates of polls etc. were to be decided by the government. In fact, unlike the high-profile Central Election Commissioner, the West Bengal State Election Commissioner’s job was considered a dead-end.

 

There was just a minor skirmish between the Left Front government and Mira when they wanted a single-phase rural polls and Mira opposed. The government budged and that was that. When elections are held in a single phase, the Police force gets scattered. Many of the booths get manned by unarmed Home Guards or even temporarily recruited volunteers who are ill, fragile, overage and singularly incapable of tackling any disturbance. This helps the Party with numerical strength, usually the ruling Party.

 

Then came Didi riding on a Tsunami of a mandate in 2011. There was nothing quiet about her. She rode roughshod over everything and everyone, even micro-managing Casual Leave applications of DMs and SPs. Every single bureaucrat from the Chief Secretary to the Constable felt the heat. Supreme leader. Maximal absolutism. Most heads of departments and institutions panicked, and then gave in. Even initiating a case or arresting someone required Didi’s permission.

 

Something sleepy called a State Election Commission must have been just a gleam in the eye for Didi and Trinamool Congress in the initial days. In 2013, the Panchayat elections fell due.

 

The State Election Commission requested for 400 observers. It recommended polling in three phases. It also pointed out that the existing strength of Police force was inadequate to meet the requirement hence central forces be requisitioned. In response, the state government provided 266 observers. It unilaterally declared a single Poll date as they had the power as per the West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act. They said that there was no need for central forces.

 

The significance of this: In Bengal Panchayat elections, there is a tendency by the ruling party not to allow any candidate to stand against the ruling party candidate. CPM had developed this into a fine art. In the 2003 elections, in many villages where anyone dared to stand against the CPM candidate, the intellectual giants of the party visited the rival and gave him long and cogent arguments regarding Karl Marx, Lenin, the intricacies of dialectical materialism, etc.. If the fellow got convinced, it was good. If he did not get convinced, the leaders politely withdrew, called a small child in the neighbourhood and gave him a white saree to present to the rival candidate’s wife, with their compliments. In sheer terror, many candidates withdrew and 2003 saw an unprecedented number of seats where the CPM candidates won unopposed. Didi didn’t have time for the intellectual bit. Any rival candidate was beaten up mercilessly on his way to the BDO office or SDO office to file his nomination and he was not able to reach. Mira Pandey sent observers for the nomination phase also and cancelled the election wherever there was intimidation. Hence she needed more observers and hence the state government was not willing. Single poll date and avoiding central forces had similar logic.

 

Under normal circumstances, that would have been the end of the matter. As mandated by the Act, the State Election Commission had made its recommendations. The state government was not mandated to follow the recommendations and had done their own thing. Even though everyone knew the reality, the farce called Panchayat elections would have been gone through. Hardly any State Election Commissioner, much less a quiet, unassuming lady like Mira Pandey would go public with it. Most civil servants would have reread the Act, swallowed the prickling of their conscience and bitten the bullet.

 

Not Mira Pandey. She did something extraordinary. She filed a case in the Calcutta High Court against the State government. All hell broke loose. This was unheard of. No Election Commission had ever filed a case against the government. In West Bengal the concerned Act favoured the government. There were dire threats to the person of Mira Pandey from public platforms and through letters. She did not respond to anything except forwarding all such intimidation to the DGP. The state government was still confident that they would carry the day because as per the Act, they had the power to do what they did. What they had not bargained for was that Mira Pandey would challenge the constitutionality of the Act itself. She did, with devastating effect.

 

In the High Court, she pointed out that during the previous Panchayat polls, the polling booths numbered 47,731 which had now increased to 57,012. The voters had increased by almost a lakh. She pointed out that she had asked for 400 observers and the government had provided only 266. She had asked for 800 Companies (80,000 personnel) of Central forces and the state government had refused. Most importantly, section 42 of the Panchayat Election Act was ultra vires (i.e., incompatible) with section 243 K of the Constitution which envisaged a neutral and impartial conduct of elections. The High Court ordered that the Commission would issue the dates, the state government would supply the balance observers and get additional forces as required by the Commission.

 

The state government decided to play the (wo)man and not the ball. They tried to discredit Mira Pandey. Many leaders openly and covertly threatened her life and limb. She never spoke to the Press. When cornered by some media as she was entering the car, she merely said, “The Commission cannot make irresponsible statements.” This must have hurt. The state government also indulged in dilatory tactics so as not to comply with the High Court order. All Mira did was quietly file a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court regarding the dilatory tactics.

 

I don’t think there have been many angrier judgements by the Supreme Court. In fact, one of the judges told the open Court, “We will show West Bengal government how elections are conducted.” Instead of the three phases asked for, they increased the schedule to five phases, fixed timelines for provision of observers and central forces and virtually made the State Election Commission the final authority for everything for that period. 2013 saw the fairest Panchayat elections in West Bengal. There were the least number of seats won uncontested. Mira Pandey became and still is a household name in West Bengal.

 

In fact, she terrorised Didi so much that there was a rumour that Didi used to check whether she had left her office for the day so that she could not take retaliatory action and then gather her papers and talk to the Press regarding anything to do with the elections.

 

On her last day in office, Mira Pandey reluctantly agreed to a rare interview by the Telegraph. Her answers were extremely banal and non-controversial. Deliberately so. When goaded to comment on Didi, she said, “I have all due respect for the Chief Minister’s chair.” Then she got into her car and rode off into the sunset.

 

Till date, when agitated about anything to do with elections, many Bengalis still murmur, “Alas, had Mira Pandey been there today …”

"Organised" chaos

 

A small group of people in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been demanding their services to be Organised Group A Services (OGAS) so that their organisations would remain uncontaminated and they would get their just dues. They’ve “organised” themselves with a rarely-seen-before ferocity and insubordinate, intemperate language and have convinced a large number of people that all that is wrong with the country and its foundations is something evil called the IPS. 

This is ridiculous. The arguments advanced are specious. 

The first argument is that the Assistant Commandants are recruited by UPSC so they should be on par with any other person recruited by UPSC. UPSC is mandated by the Constitution for appointments to the services of the Union and All India Services. That doesn’t mean that all these services are equivalent and interchangeable. What they do not mention is that the examination and the level of competition are nowhere near the same. 

The second – and bizarre – argument is that IPS officers handle “minor” duties like law and order in the states whereas CAPF officers have to move at short notice anywhere in India and abroad to perform very onerous duties (interview at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHYcZDiJFnM). OMG, the reality is that mainstream policing is a thousand times more difficult – an SHO’s job itself is so complex that even after serving in the IPS for a lifetime I’ve wondered how these officers actually cope with so many things at the same time and still survive to face another day. 

A third argument is that the requisite qualifications for both IPS and CAPF officers are the same. In reality, the minimum qualification for all Group B services recruited by UPSC is also graduation, the same as for Group A services. Would a Section Officer then be eligible to be promoted to head a CAPF? 

Another argument: CAPF personnel have laid down their lives in large numbers in the service of the nation. But then, so have the other police personnel. As far as the Group A officers are concerned, IPS officers have led from the front, regardless of the rank. The near-fatal attacks on Mr. Ribeiro are too well-known. I have lost three of my own batchmates in attacks by terrorists. Do not talk to us regarding sacrifices and laying down lives. A CAPF officer is always with a large contingent of force while most times, an IPS officer rushes in with barely 5-6 constables and still manages to dominate mobs numbering thousands. 

The force morale is argued to be going down. No Sir, the only people who are affected and are agitating are the Assistant Commandant direct recruits. What about the morale of the lower ranks? Conversely, where will the IPS officer go and what about his/her morale? 40 % of the IPS posts are reserved for central deputation. Whenever an IPS officer is inconvenient to the political dispensation of the time, the state is too keen to put him on the offer list. Even though, theoretically, they are eligible to be posted anywhere, there seems to be an unwritten ban on IPS officers being posted in Ministries and non-security related posts. While Railway officers, Forest Service officers and even Estate service officers manage to get posted in our own Home Ministry, there have been hardly any IPS officers in the Ministry. In my entire career, I saw only four such. 

The sub-text of the arguments by these disgruntled officers is that IPS is injected from “outside” to pollute “their” organisations. What nonsense is this? What is it with “their” organisation? CAPFs are as much “their” organisation as it is ours. Barring CRPF, all the other CAPFs were founded and nurtured by brilliant officers from the IPS. Even CRPF underwent a much-needed wholesome transformation under the stewardship of IPS officers. The Britishers had designed it as an instrument of colonial oppression. Slowly, it has grown into a well-sensitised organisation with enormous contribution to nation-building and maintenance of the nation’s unity and integrity, while retaining the best of its earlier avatar such as zero-tolerance to indiscipline, extraordinary mobility and integrity across all ranks. 

In fact, all the CAPFs are shining examples of organisations any country would be proud of. That has been possible because of a healthy infusion of IPS officers who have brought into them the benefit of their vast experience from the nooks and corners of the country, their abilities, their vision and their connections across the governments. I was once visiting a unit and the Commandant had been trying to get some land for his unit for a year without even managing an appointment with the BDO even though the land had been earmarked for his unit. On his request, I took an appointment with the District Magistrate. Something which was pending for a year was resolved in half an hour. I'm not detailing the many successful intelligence-led operations which were feasible only because of the coordination of the IPS network. Many times, whom you know and can access is much more important than what you know. 

While the internal officers specialise in their organisations and the nitty-gritty of battalion management, I found that there is a reflexive hankering on their part to make these organisations into cheap copies of army-like units. However, that is not at all the purpose of these organisations. Army has a different role. Normally, they are supposed to stay in the barracks in battle-ready position for quick and mostly destructive mobilisation in extreme situations. Their other skirmishes are also designed to be engaged with overwhelming force. On the other hand, the CAPFs basically do a day-to-day policing job whether it’s in internal security or guarding duties – they tackle crimes of lawlessness, infiltration, etc. and serve as early warning and engagement systems too. 

How did we get here? The problem is not the IPS or the direct-recruit Assistant Commandants. The problem is, despite knowing the structure and the requirement of the CAPFs, there has been over-recruitment of Assistant Commandant level officers in the CAPFs. Induction has not been planned and systematic. The hierarchical pyramid has been distorted. Releasing just a few top posts “from the clutches of the IPS” as they put it won’t solve the problem of morale. The Supreme Court hasn’t gone into the systemic problem and has addressed only the existing situation. The morale would be improved if someone sits down and carefully calculates intake at each level for the future so that there is no stagnation at any level. The exercise is a little tedious, factoring in attrition rates, future requirements, etc. but is eminently doable. This exercise should ensure that a Sub Inspector would have some chance of reaching IG level and an Assistant Commandant would have an excellent chance of doing so. The entire organisation structure and the Recruitment Rules of each rank should be drastically redesigned to cater for this. That would boost the morale. 

With that organisation structure, the officers found surplus at each level right now should be given a strictly one-time alternative assignment – there are many organisations where they can have equivalent or better career prospects. That should include the state police forces. 

One final thing. The new bill has removed a lot of ambiguities but it hasn’t done enough. It’s silent on IPS intake for DIG rank and below. I feel, legislation/ Rules should designate 20 % posts of Commandant rank, 40 % of the DIG rank, 60 % of the IG rank, 67 % of the ADG rank and 100 % of the SDG/DG rank in CAPFs (to be renamed as Central Police Forces) for IPS officers. That would benefit the CAPFs, the IPS and the nation.