The Third Eye: Good policing defines the success of a democratic state

New Delhi: It is a matter of great satisfaction that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been spending plenty of time with the annual conferences of Directors General of Police traditionally convened by the Director of the Intelligence Bureau to review the internal security situation in the country and the law and order management as a vital determinant of it.
Prime Minister Modi has been sharing his thoughts on how to improve and modernise the functioning of the police force in India. At his initiative, the conference is now held outside the national capital in different states which certainly stresses the importance of providing a uniform level of law and order, handling and safeguarding internal security throughout the length and breadth of the country regardless of the differing political complexion of the government at the Centre and in the states.Democracy is a system of governance by and for the people and it is one of its fundamental requisites that the police representing a coercive arm of the State must be impartial, accessible and humane while enforcing law and maintaining order.In a multicultural setting like India’s and in a situation where the nation was particularly vulnerable to external threats to its internal security, police have to be adequately vigilant on the ground to assist the national intelligence and investigation agencies in countering the danger of narco-terrorism, mafia working for foreign masters and cross-border enemy operations.The role of police in protecting national security has now become crucially important. Since good policing is a prerequisite for the stability of our democratic state, it is necessary to rectify the persistent flaws in policing on a note of urgency.At the last DGP conference held at Jaipur, Prime Minister Modi rightly spoke of the need to change the police’s mindset by enhancing reliance on data and facts rather than force, building police-public partnerships and creating a positive image of the police among citizens.Union Home Minister Amit Shah steered the conference on all three days and referred to the challenges of narcotics, cybercrime and a switch over to forensic-led investigations.He emphasised the need for training police officers in the new criminal laws enacted by Parliament.An important advance the DGP conference has made is that it has evolved into a national ‘think-tank’ for discussing such important matters as delegation of decision-making power in the police, striking the right professional relationship between political leaders and police officials, and strengthening the elements of commitment and empathy in functioning of the police.The conference now deliberates on a range of security-related issues, including border management, cyber threats, danger of radicalisation, counter-terror operations, identity frauds, misuse of Artificial Intelligence and weaponisation of social media.Because of the personal association of the present Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah with the DGP conference, this event has become strategically important for national security and helped to keep law and order management and internal security issues above