[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hirty three year old Santosh Chetri the proprietor of a hotel in Purana Bazar, Dimapur was gunned down in broad daylight by two assailants. The men were most likely ‘hired assassins’ going by eye witness accounts. This, because they needed assistance from an unsuspecting manager of the hotel to identify the proprietor for them. After he was identified the men in cold blood pumped bullets into the chest of Chetri and drove off.
The incident sent fear across the city as news spread of the incident. But instead of fear, perhaps ‘anger’ in this instance would be a more progressive sentiment. Anger which raises first questions and then action to address the solutions that these questions raise. For without the questions there can be no answers … and even if these answers are ‘blowing in the wind’ we will never hear them because unlike Bob Dylan we are not asking questions. In the iconic song, Bob Dylan asked ‘how many deaths will it take for us to realize that too many people have died’. Bob Dylan may have been referring to wars waged by the US but the situation in our homes and cities, and the environment that we are bringing up our children is no less. At least in a full blown war you can identify the enemy but in the situation that envelops the society in Nagaland the enemy is from within. Worse still as a society we are frighteningly losing grip on what describes a civil and secular state. Citizens are expected to be law abiding and respectful to rules and regulations that any modern day society lays down. And when this is bridged, the law steps in. The police is one arm of the law and the agent that is closest to the society and the judiciary the other.These two organs are looked up to as the law keepers. But in Nagaland more often than not the police department in the perception of the ‘aam admi’ exists only for the VIP, the politicians and the bureaucrats. The gunning down of a civilian in broad daylight coming a day after nine men responsible for the gunning down of the Assam SP, Nityanand Goswami were picked up from Darogapathar a colony in Dimapur, coupled with increasing incidents of the recovery of small arms and ammunition from criminals and even underground cadres raises serious security concerns. What’s more the efficacy and capability of the police department in providing the citizens with the sense of security is being questioned. Public memory for details is short but the overall impression of the police department over the years has been under tough scrutiny. The overriding sentiment being that the department needs a “transformation” because if it continues in the current manner, it won’t be long before the system itself caves in.
While there are no aspersions or doubts cast over the capability of its recruits there exists many anomalies in its functioning which ‘defies’not ‘defines’ the philosophy of policing. To the public the police come across as lacking in discipline but this cannot be ascribed to the recruits alone. It is the system which has marred the performance of the department. Instead of being treated as an elite force as it is in countries like Singapore, the politicians use the department as their fiefdom by appointing their candidates in return for favors to supporters and relatives. What degree of loyalty can you expect from such a backdoor appointee to the organization. There are also complaints of how candidates who have failed their 10th standard find themselves a job as policemen, on grounds cited earlier. But trouble kicks in when they find out that their superiors also have a similar history ! So we are talking about a discordant unit in one of the organizations that has to rely heavily on co ordination and motivation.
It is here that it has become imperative for the government to review the workings of the police department and usher in changes that will effect changes for the future. The police department must be reformed to attract the best of our youth and young minds to serve the people. The department in turn must look after the needs of the people in its force with proper pay scales, housing and facilities and trainings and rewards for its men.
With unemployment, inflow of immigrant population and rising poverty, this has only created room for more crime to occur in our society. We need know that the police can and will come up with a clear plan to tackle crime in our state.
