What ails the IRB ?

Surendranath Laimayum *

Police clash with students during a protest for ILP in June 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

The rationale behind the concept and creation of India Reserve Battalions (IRB) in Manipur like in other States is a pious intent of the Central Government to augment the Force requirements of the States with the Centre's support to maintain law and order and internal security in the country.

The reason for its creation has tremendous relevance in today's vitiated internal security paradigm. But what strikes one in the face, undoing the best intent of the Central Government, is the criminalization of the Force and the impunity with which waves of heinous crimes are perpetrated against the public whom they are tasked to protect.

Three recent unforgivable criminal incidents in Manipur orchestrated by few IRB personnel are heart wrenching. In January this year, three persons including two IRB personnel posted at the Kangla in the heart of Imphal conspired and connived to kidnap Shankar Lal Swami, a manager at a Plywood factory for ransom. These perpetrators executed their plan and also murdered the hostage.

In the wee hours of March 22 last year, two IRB personnel alongwith two others gangraped a Umorok seller at gunpoint in Bishnupur District. What makes the crime even more appalling is that a Police Sub Inspector provided a pistol which was used by the assailants to intimidate the victim while they were pillaging her modesty.

In the last few days, news is aflush about four IRB personnel deployed at Khuga Dam having captured a love making scene of two consenting adults in the thicket on a mobile phone with the criminal intention of blackmailing the unsuspecting victims, the clip of which has now been circulated online.

The moot issue is what ails the IRB in Manipur?

Few issues throng my mind. Discipline is the lifeblood of any Uniformed Force. The regularity with which crimes involving IRB personnel are surfacing betrays the existence of discipline.

Command and Control of the Officers, particularly of the Commandant, is a leashing force that binds the personnel down the line to both the task at hand and adherence to prescribed code of conduct. The impunity that accompanies the mindset of these criminals in uniform suggests the absence thereof.

The unsaid fear among officers to even reprimand delinquents in the Force is a story already well known. Even the State Government seems reluctant to weed out dead wood and renegades in their midst, facetiously citing the putative loss of morale of the Force.

It needs mention that dismissing and awarding exemplary punishment to renegades will be the true morale raiser for all those sincere and law abiding soldiers and officers in the Force who are the overwhelming majority. The State DGP down to the Inspector has failed to curb mercenary adventurism of their boys.

What is stark is the congruence of the societal decay in vogue with the degeneration in the IRB, supposedly a disciplined Force, and by extension, the State Police. The recruitment process which shams meritocracy but is robed in nepotism and corruption so peculiar to the Sala model of Prismatic society is largely the root of criminalization of the administrative system of Manipur, the Police being only a small part. Manipur's society glorifies wrongdoing; the public will not as much bat an eyelid to pester and offer bribes to anyone to have their way, right or wrong.

By chronic habit the Government servant whose duty is to serve the people and who is compensated for his service every month in the form of salary, now has begun to falsely believe he is the master. The culpability notwithstanding, belief in impunity spurs wicked transgressions especially by the men in uniform.

The treatment of the malaise that plagues the IRB as also the entire State Police lies in image makeover, reorientation of their misplaced mindset to instill that they are the servants, not the master; transparency in recruitment process with videography as is done in the Paramilitary Forces, though the best option would be to assign the task of recruitment upto the rank of Sub-Inspector to the Staff Selection Commission, among others.

This will largely clear the ills in the Police by not only rooting out corruption but also selecting the best talent with whom we can trust our security with. Vested interests, of course, will oppose with cynicism as their shield.