The evolution of India’s foreign policy – Part VIII

Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his administration had a profound impact on India’s image around the world. He was himself a consummate diplomat. Rao understood the importance of nation’s foreign policy and its impact on the domestic growth. He implemented his life-long agenda of unshackling the Indian economy. He was the first non Nehru-Gandhi Prime Minister to have completed a full five year term. Naturally his impact on India was very significant and long lasting. Narasimha Rao’s world view was significantly different from the Gandhi family. India is believed to have covert relations with the state of Israel since 1969 but it was Rao administration that established full diplomatic ties between the two countries on January 29, 1992. Madhavsinh Solanki was the Foreign Minister of India at that time. Israel has become a strong ally of India since then. Prime Minister Rao was intellectually persuaded to declare India a full and open ‘Nuclear Power’ but Americans leaned on him heavily to give up the idea. According to Vajpayee when he became the PM in 1996 Rao handed him a piece of paper which simply stated ‘Bomb is ready. You can go ahead.’ (referring to a nuclear device) and asked that it should not be made public. Vajpayee revealed this only after Rao’s death. Rao also launched the Look East foreign policy.

While Narasimha Rao succeeded in transforming the Indian Economy and Foreign Affairs, his administration was very week domestically. Kashmir insurgency that was brewing since 1989, flared up during the 5 year term of Prime Minister Rao. He was successful in curtailing the Punjab militancy but failed to stop the demolition of Babri Masjid by the goons of VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad) on December 6, 1992. This destruction of the disputed structure, which was widely reported in the international media, unleashed large scale communal violence, the most extensive since the Partition of India. It is widely believed that the 1993 Mumbai Bombings, which claimed hundreds of innocent lives and left thousands injured was the Muslim underworld’s retaliation for the demolition of the Babri Mosque. This proved to be the single most damaging incident in India’s domestic policy. As I have written earlier, it was a phony excuse for Muslim extremists who were waiting for any such opportunity to create sectarian unrest; it was an idiotic lapse of judgment as far as Ministry of Home Affairs was concerned. This unnecessary violence gave India a very bad name in the international media and damaged the country’s reputation. But for his failed domestic policy P V Narasimha Rao would have been acclaimed as one of the most successful PMs of India! Despite his failures, Rao would remain the father of Modern India.

General elections were held in India in 1996 to elect the members of the 11th Lok Sabha. The result of the election was a hung parliament, which would see three Prime Ministers in two years and force the country back to the polls in 1998. The May 1995 defection of high profile Congress Party leaders like Arjun Singh and Narayan Dutt Tiwari divided the party into smaller factions. Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single largest party with only 161 seats in the parliament followed by Indian National Congress with 14o seats. The then President of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, invited the leader of the largest party in parliament, Bharatiya Janata Party to form the government. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as the new Prime Minister on May 15, 1996. He was required to prove a majority in the parliament by May 31, 1996. Vajpayee tried to build a coalition but failed to convince the moderate parties to support the BJP’s agenda. Instead of facing a loosing ‘confidence vote’ on May 31, he decided to resign as Prime Minister in just 13 days. Congress Party then declined to attempt a majority as the second largest party. Instead they agreed to support H D Deve Gowda, Chief Minister of Karnataka, as the next Prime Minister of India. He took office on June 1, 1996. Meanwhile the country drifted and India’s foreign policy was non-existent. Deve Gowda couldn’t last even a year and resigned on April 21, 1997.

Indian Police is threatening the secular fabric of India!

The ‘Present Policing System’ in India is based on the ‘Police Act of 1861’. It is a British legacy left behind to enforce law and order by any means necessary. Crime prevention and security of the citizens was the least of their concerns. This Imperial Police legacy has survived for the past 60 years; it is time to take a hard look at the structure of the force. Every Chief Minister of the State is using the police as a private army to intimidate the ordinary citizen. Senior officers of the State Police Force and the City Police Commissioners have been reduced to the hired hands of the State Administration. The ordinary constable on the street is highly partisan and driven by religious and cultural zeal. This is an extremely dangerous situation!

Internal Security and therefore the Police Division come under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Fortunately, we have very articulate and sincere Home Minister (P. Chidambaram) in place. He has the brains and the drive to change the character of India’s internal security apparatus. Although the State Governments have their constitutional rights for maintenance of security, peace and harmony in their respective states, they have not fulfilled their obligations. Non-Marathis do not feel safe in Bombay, Girls in Mangalore are threatened and molested and a sub-inspector in Haryana beats the crap out of a young couple. The Mayawatis and Mulayam Singhs have the power to intimidate and brutalize the population. The constables are too happy to oblige! Chidambaram must bring some autonomy to senior officers.

The police constable in India is a pathetic soul, under-paid, under-trained and under-educated. His salary for the month is Rs 3,050 ($65), his main weapon of protection is a lathi (wooden or Lucite pole) and he is supposed to bring order to the streets of India. Do we really expect him to be honest on that kind of salary? Should we expect him to maintain law and order with a ‘Lathi’ as his only weapon? A constable is selected by the local government and trained for only 9 months at a Police Recruit School. He is physically unfit and often smokes or chews tobacco. I have my doubt if any of these constables can actually run for a couple of miles every morning! How on earth do you expect them to chase a criminal? He is often a frustrated man who is quick to use his lathi on ordinary people. An Indian police constable is conditioned to advance the local government’s political agenda, regional preferences and religious biases. Just THINK about the awful mess we have created!

Indian police in criminal action

Indian police in typical action

Indian Police, our first line of defense!

India must introduce the ‘National Guard’, now!

What happened to the idea called “Kiran Bedi”?

India produced an idea called “Kiran Bedi”, the ‘SuperCop’ and then on November 27, 2007, she requested a voluntary retirement and was relieved on December 25, 2007 by the Government of India. What happened? “How could such a bold, fearless, powerful and confident officer surrender to the system? After all, she had been a symbol of empowerment in India’s male-dominated society.” – quoted by Neeraj Bhushan. But did she fail? Yes, she failed. She surrendered to the system. According to Neeraj, she should not have opted out of the Indian Police Service. But I am not talking about an individual, Kiran Bedi. I am talking about the idea of ‘Kiran Bedi’. An idea of a ‘woman law enforcement officer’ in every single district of India with the power and the weight of State of India. All 610 districts of India need a Kiran Bedi.

Kiran Peshawaria was born on June 9, 1949 in Amritsar, Punjab. She is the second of the four daughters of her parents, Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata Peshawaria. Kiran grew up in her father’s joint family, who were industrialists and hoteliers. Her paternal grandfather, Lala Muni Lal was a Hindu, the grandmother was a Sikh. The family spoke mainly Punjabi but also Hindi and English. The extended family was conservative but her parents were fairly liberal. They were all used to the country-club culture. In 1954, Kiran started her formal studies at the Sacred Heart Convent School in Amritsar. Kiran started playing tennis at the age of nine. At fourteen, Kiran began to compete as an amateur tennis player. Her mother helped her manage her academics as well as her tennis. Prem Lata Peshawaria instilled the love for knowledge in Kiran. Her father supported her tennis carrier.

Following her graduation from Government College, Kiran attended Punjab University in Chandigarh, receiving her master’s degree in political science in 1970. From 1970 to 1972, she was a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar. In July 1972, she became the first woman to join the Indian Police Service. Kiran Peshawaria met Brij Bedi at the Amritsar tennis courts, and they got married in 1972. Kiran Bedi, to be rigorous, found basic training at the National Police Academy at Mount Abu, Rajasthan. The 1974, Punjab police training was even more difficult. She served in a number of tough assignments ranging from Traffic Commissioner of New Delhi, Deputy Inspector General of Police in insurgency prone Mizoram and Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Chandigarh. Kiran Bedi retired as Director General to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Historical sources suggest that the British Government used the ‘Women Police Force’ in 1938 to handle the labor strike in Kanpur. The force was disbanded after the strike was over. Women were also inducted in the police force in Greater Bombay in 1939. The princely state of Travancore also appointed one woman Head Constable and 12 women Special Police Constables, who in 1942 were regularised in the Police force. It was only after Independence that women were appointed in the police force on regular basis in different states after the partition of India in 1947, which brought endless misery and degradation to women. It was therefore necessary for the Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation to appoint women police for recovery of abducted women and girls for rehabilitation. Since then, there has been regular induction of women police in the states of India. The Indian Police Service (IPS) has been appointing women in the IPS cadre at par with men. It is not uncommon to see women IPS officers anymore, anywhere in India.