Time To Modernise India's 'Last Mile Policing'

After the spectacular success of Operation Sindoor, it is pertinent to address the internal security challenges India faces

- PATHIKRIT PAYNE

What are the biggest takeaways from some of the incidents of mob violence that one could witness in recent past in Haldwani, Nagpur, Indore, or Murshidabad? Invariably, it is that organised mob violence is becoming a major tool to create disturbance across India, and that time has come to give as much priority to public safety as has been given to national security.

SINISTER PLOT BEHIND MOB VIOLENCE

Over the last few years, such flash mob violence has become a reality. Fact is that India is yet to crack the code on how to effectively deal with such incidents, or preempt them. Every time an incident like this happens, India's state level police units, responsible for maintaining law and order, have been on the firefighting or damage control mode. All that it takes for perpetrators is just a two-hour window to ravage a place, and send shivers down the spine of the entire nation. An hour or two, as it appears from precedent cases, is generally the time that the local police station requires to mobilise additional forces, and reach the sight of violence in full might.

NEW TEMPLATE FOR HYBRID WAR?

While such incidents may or may not have external linkages, India's biggest "chink in the armour" remains its civil policing, with out-of-sync "Rules of Engagement", inadequate manpower, stranglehold of the ruling party on policing, a carry-forward of the colonial legacy, and alleged judicial overreach, which has often restricted the ability of police to deal with crime in the strictest manner.