MUMBAI, June 26: Two recent news items reveal much about Gopinath Munde's concept of policing and of the Shiv Sena-BJP government's philosophy on governance.The first item said that IPS officer Y P Singh had made a frontal attack on Munde and on some senior bureaucrats. He alleged that Munde had ordered the transfers of certain junior-rank officers which Singh, as the Asst IGP dealing with the establishment of junior ranks, refused to endorse. This raised Munde's hackles, who consequently decided to transfer this ``difficult'' official as commandant of an SRP Battalion.I have it on good authority that the minister had actually forwarded an entire list of more than 400 Inspectors to the DGP directing them to shift the officers to the posts specified against their names. He even indicated the identity of the politicians and other individuals who had recommended these transfers!It is not the job of the Home Minister or the Home Ministry to administer the police force, but that of the DGP or officers whom he has delegated his powers. It is then the responsibility of the police leadership to ensure that they have made the proper choices. If they fail in this, the minister can discipline the senior officers concerned and transfer them from their present positions. It is not for political leaders to decide which junior officer should be posted and where.I do not support Singh's open attack on a minister because such conduct can have adverse long term consequences on discipline and control of the police force. But it does show that junior officers have lost faith in their seniors and prefer to fight their battles on their own. It also shows that the senior leadership has been rendered so spineless that it is incapable of returning the file to the Home Department and politely reminding it that discipline and morale in a sensitive force cannot be maintained unless the junior ranks are made to account to their departmental superiors.The second news item said Munde had rejected the Union Home Minister's recommendation to all state governments to accept the National Police Commission's advice to set up security commissions. These were to be presided over by the state Home Minister and were to include the leader of the opposition and some apolitical members of the public. Its duty was to ensure that the police in each state was accountable to law and not merely to the party in power. The commission would also be empowered to make senior appointments like those of the DGP and the Commissioner of Police, and they would be ensured of a fixed tenure of three years which would embolden them to do what they were appointed to do as per the law. I do not say the establishment of these commissions alone can solve the problem of corruption and other evils that beset the police force. But it will be a step in the direction of putting the organisation on rails. It is obvious that Munde belongs to the vast army of politicians which does not care about good governance or the good of the people it profess to serve. The majority of politicians will oppose the establishment of these commissions because it would mean sharing or rather using their power for the good of the people, which they are uninterested in. It is this present ethos that has to be changed if we are to ensure better governance.
