Speeches in Parliament Vol. (IV)-138

About the police revolt, only the other day this House discussed it for more than 3 hours. I do not want to go into more detail. But I would like to make one point. On the Government side, they made much of it. They said that they appointed the National Police Commission after 70 years. It is like a school master telling a school boy that he has made a very great thing. Are they aware why the National Police Commission was not appointed in between? During colonial time, there was the necessity of treating the whole police as a national police. After coming into existence of the Constitution, naturally, the responsibility went to the States. In the course of the last three years, practically every State has appointed a police Commission and tried to look after those question.

By appointing the National Police Commission, what did you do? You sit in your room and you consider yourself a nation and you appoint a National Police Commission. Did you make the National Police Commission work? Did you allow it to work as a National Police Commission? A bureaucrat was appointed and put as the Chairman of the National Police Commission....

Shri Saugata Roy : Mr. Dharm Vira, a discredited bureaucrat.

Shri Yashwantrao Chavan : I will not say that. I will not criticise anybody who is not present here.

Unless you take the State Governments in confidence you cannot get the results. The State Governments have got their own problems. They have got their own financial limitations; they have got their own priorities in these matters. Certainly, you have to think about it. The Government of India has also got special police forces like, BSF, CRP, Industrial Security Force and so on. They can think about it also. But you did not allow them to work. I was told by a very responsible person - the Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Jagijivan Ram is not present here - in the Communal Harmony Committee, when we met, one of the Chief Ministers, the Janata Chief Ministers said, “Mr. Home Minister, what did you do? You got the National Police Commission’s Report and you treated a confidential document in the Home Ministry. But the copies of the Report of the National Police Commission and their recommendations were in the hands of the police. The State Governments were completely unaware of it.”

This is how the administration is run. This is how you treat the national issues. If you appoint a National Police Commission, there is nothing wrong about it. I do not say that. But you should treat the national issues as national issues and try to deal with them as such. It is this very inefficient, negligent, bureaucratic method of looking to the national problems that has brought us to this situation. This is the political picture. The law and order situation is deteriorating every day; the communal situation is deteriorating every day; the Northern and Eastern India situation is detiriorating every day. Every problem that comes up, instead of being resolved, is being aggravated. This is the political picture, it is a very sad picture.