Democracy fails if police fail to implement law: Ajit Doval
Gurugram: Addressing the young Superintendent of Police (SP) rank officials posted in several parts of the country, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval spoke of several aspects of leadership among law enforcement officials in challenging and rapidly changing situations. The views of Doval, who has been a part of the government in various capacities for the past 52 years, come in the wake of the Delhi riots where people did not shy away in criticising the law enforcement officials.
Even as the NSA did not make any direct comment on the Delhi riots, he highlighted that society in India due to its enslavement in the past did have the contempt for those who are in authority. "As the police is a major instrument in enforcing the law and is mainly involved in carrying out the unpleasant work, the officials also had a poor perception in the society," Doval said.
Despite the challenge, he asserted the significance of 25 lakh strong police force, stating that if the police failed to implement the law the democracy would fail. Citing technology as a great enabler, he said that technology can play an important role in improving the perception of the police provided law enforcement official is dedicated, objective and professionally competent. In times when the police have been found wanting to align themselves with the new technology which in turn affects their performance, Doval was candid enough acknowledging the dichotomy in the implementation of technology.
He said that at one level where the nation was leading in certain areas of technology, the police especially those at the village level had not adapted well to technology. He highlighted that the inability to align with the technology did have an adverse impact on the operations. Doval advised the 150 IPS officials that rather than adopting the top-down approach of adopting technology, it was important to use the bottom-up approach for better implementation of technology. The main emphasis of 75-year-old official was leadership and problem-solving.
Doval stated that there were two elements of problem-solving one that was constant where there was no option but to adopt the process, the second element was variables where there were alternatives in devising a solution for the problems. He opined that a leader was the one who had the ability to convert constants into variables. "It is a special day for me as I am addressing the young officers who will see India when it achieves 100 years of its Independence. The present set of officers do have more challenges than from the time I began my career in 1968. Over the years, there has been the advent of new problems like terrorism while the old problems have become more complicated," the NSA said.
