It's time to curb the VDF's excesses
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 11 2011 -

The Village Defence Force (VDF) came into existence in Manipur following the open and loud complaints of the villagers of Heirok who alleged they had reached the limits of endurance of being abused by UG outfits. After much deliberation the authority decided to respond to their unique demand to provide them arms to face the UGs.

The authority decided to accept their request and went ahead to create a Special Police Officer (SPO) force. This concept was not new, SPOs were already in force in Kashmir.

A select group of young men of Heirok were selected, and trained briefly prior to their deployment in Heirok under police command. Then a sordid cloak and dagger drama enfolded between those officially representing the local population and non state actors which ensured that the SPO became a still born.

The original concept was to give basic weapon handling training and a modest monthly stipend, and that these SPOs were to operate within their locality, under police command, to nullify UG excesses. When the SPOs turned out to be a non starter in Heirok, the SPO adventure should have ended, and those who had qualified as SPOs should have been given a regular training and absorbed into the police force.

However, things turned on a new course. The SPO was renamed Village Defence Force and the original concept was reviewed as a means of providing temporary employment with basic monthly incomes to the unemployed youth. This ill fated decision led to the birth of one more man made error which has impinged on the lives of the common people, a people who have experienced a great lot of worries and difficulties of the man made variety.

What is the present format that is being observed to bring forth a VDF personnel ? A person has to undergo a three month training course, as compared to the nine month training given to a police recruit, he receives approximately ' 4500 per month, inclusive of all allowances. After that he is introduced into service alongside regular police personnel, and people may consider this zany, or even alongside police commandos !

This has resulted in the introduction of another tormentor of the public masquerading in an official uniform. It has now become common knowledge that a large number of VDF men have continuously abused whatever little authority is entrusted upon them. Civilians have frequently been at the receiving end, worse still, senior bureaucrats and senior police officers too have had to bear with the brutish behaviour of VDF men. They have been detained by VDF men with cocked guns, loose tongues and unprovoked foul tempers.

What has aggravated the unsafe deportation of these VDF men ? For one thing they have been entrusted with weapons particularly so when they have not been trained and disciplined enough. Then the uniform they wear has camouflaged them as policemen, who they are not, and last though definitely not the least, is their complete disdain of their work and their superior authority. Somebody has to tell these people that they had volunteered, and were not conscripted to their service.

We now have to look at their duties in the light of the recent Supreme Court's directive to confine their deployment to only supportive roles. The short term approach would be to disarm them, provide them a new uniform, one that would entail wearing scarves like Boy Scouts.

The long term approach would be to disband the concept of the VDF and absorb the men, after proper training, into the police force. Sometimes the introduction of new forces to create a distraction in the envisaged ill doings of certain sections of the people turn out be positive, sometimes they turn out to be counterproductive. In this case the VDF has turned out to be a counterproductive entity.