An analytical study of the philosophy and field dynamics of the policing in practice with live instances from the field penned by a Police Officer from India. The hypocrisy and the sad state of affairs in the profession in India and the UPSC as its appointing agent are effectively brought out by the author.



Politicised breed?

POLICING FOR THE NEW AGE: By Praveen Kumar, IPS, Gangaram Publications, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bangalore-560001. Rs. 120.

This book does not develop a single theme but is a disparate collection of articles written over a period of years which do not justify the adoption of the title that it deals with policing for the new age. The language is flowery and the use of esoteric words such as “Inteneration”, “chorisis” ,”couthia”, “clevis” , “acharne”, “reclame”, “perficient”, “zotic”, “seity” as well as a large number of classical and foreign words and phrases tend to baffle the common reader.

His attitude to the present set-up and functioning of the police is highly condemnatory and the remedial measures suggested by him are largely empirical bordering on the impractical. His recommendation that the that the district police should be compartmentalized into three separate units with three Chiefs of Police at the apex will surely lead to a blurring of the focus of authority with consequent deleterious effects on cohesion, discipline and esprit-de-corps of the force.

However, there is need to appreciate his ruthless exposure of the criminalisation of politics and the politicisation of the police. At the same time his total condemnation of the annual assessment of officers and men of the police force and his suggestion that it should be abolished are not in the best interest of the organization nor can it be accepted that the system leads to sycophancy. His diatribe that the perception of the leadership of Indian Security does not go beyond the institution of multiple crack-forces such as the Black Cats. National Security Guards etc., does gross injustice to the great work of Security Chiefs at the Centre who have thoroughly analysed the various threats to national security and organized exhaustive counter-measures drawing extensively from the experience of foreign expert agencies.

His treatises on dowry deaths and their investigation and on police dogs are characteristically thorough and sound meriting universal attention. But his assertion that changing the uniform of the police from the traditional khaki to white will humanise the force is as naïve as it is disingenuous.

There is no doubt that the author who has already acquired a reputation as a poet is a highly sensitive and cultured person.
F.V.Arul

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