Good leaders are a credit to the police

Julio Ribeiro

THE visage on the cover of the book says it all. It’s that of a stern, determined, no-nonsense police chief whose extraordinary life is reflected in Madam Commissioner, the title Meeran Chadha Borwankar chose for her book.

The government is mandated by the law and the Constitution to provide a safe & secure environment to the people who have elected it.

Every officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) should read the book. Every officer of the Indian Administrative Service and other Civil Services should read it too. It will help them understand that evil can be fought and that evil should be fought. An IAS/IPS officer is strategically placed to do that.

The values that guided Meeran during her career in the IPS need to be imbibed by each officer who has taken the oath of allegiance to the Constitution. It is sad that an increasing number of ‘service’ officers have forgotten that they are essentially ‘servants’ of the people of this country. To serve their own interests, they cosy up to the political class and comply with unethical orders, often verbally delivered.

Meeran, born in Fazilka (Punjab), describes in detail how she stuck to her values and principles throughout her journey through the labyrinth. She paid the price by not being made the police chief of the metropolitan city of Mumbai, easily the most coveted and most important job for a police officer in Maharashtra.

She initially started public service in the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. She soon realised that accounting was not her cup of tea. Temperamentally, she felt she was cut out for the life of a police officer. Her father was an officer in the Border Security Force. She was enamoured with the idea of following in her father’s footsteps, albeit in the premier police service.

My father was a direct recruit to the Indian Postal Service. That service was my first choice in the order of preference, but the rules in 1952 (when I competed), made it mandatory for better performers to be allotted the police service in preference to other Civil Services. That is how I found myself donning the uniform. I never regretted that quirk of fate. It suited my temperament of helping victims of injustice.

Leafing through her book, I concluded that Meeran was a police officer after my own heart. It is gratifying to know that we have officers in her mould in the Maharashtra cadre of the IPS, an outstanding example being that of Sadanand Date, presently the state Anti-Terrorist Squad chief, whose rigid principles and lofty values do not find favour with the political dispensation for the simple reason that truth and justice are not high on its list of priorities.

When officers of unquestioned integrity and merit (and there are many such officers in Maharashtra’s IPS cadre) are selected to lead the city’s police force, the public heaves a sigh of relief. Their identity is known to the people as the men and women who have worked under them have spread the good word. Much depends on the leadership. If the leader disapproves of corruption, the men and women in the field turn wary.

Having said that, the next step is to ensure that unsuitable officers are not elevated by those in power to high positions where the safety of the citizen’s life and property is at stake. It is unfortunate that the political class, after being voted to power, neglects this fundamental factor and often chooses the wrong person to occupy high offices. The politician’s choice is guided by parochial interests of continuing in power, which tempts him or her to please influential persons who lobby for individuals unfit for the job.

Since those in power are not averse to appointing unfit individuals to high offices, like it recently happened in Mumbai, citizens, who are the ones who will ultimately pay the price for wrong appointments, should show courage and provide a list of officials of undisputed integrity and get it published in vernacular newspapers.

I tried this out when the government had to choose a new Commissioner to replace Sanjay Pandey, who was retiring. As a citizen, albeit one who had been the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, years earlier, I wrote to leading vernacular daily Loksatta that the residents of Mumbai were entitled to good service and such service could be delivered by the city police if it had a good leader, the main requirement being integrity — not merely financial but also intellectual.

I gave the names of three officers in order of seniority — Vivek Phansalkar, Pradnya Sarode and Sadanand Date. I was gratified when Vivek was chosen. I thought that if one lone warrior could take the plunge, a lot could happen if other concerned citizens, including retired officers of my way of thinking, put their signatures on an article or a letter to the Chief Minister. I think we owe this duty to the people, who are the end-users of the service. The security of their life and property depends on the quality of this service, which boils down to good leadership. The government is mandated by the law and the Constitution to provide a safe, secure environment to the people who have elected it.

An officer of the likes of Meeran performed her duties to the people she served. Those who have read her book will concur with my observations. She has recounted the facts as they arose. I was particularly impressed by the fact that though she presided over the execution of convicted terrorist Yakub Memon, his widow approached her for help to obtain a passport for her daughter! Meeran decided that the sins of the father should not be visited on the daughter and willingly helped the girl obtain that document. The no-nonsense ‘Madam Commissioner’ has shown her compassionate side to the readers.