Batla House Encounter at L-18 on 19 sept 2008 and death of democracy

I happened to attend the national convention on rise of fascist forces organized by Anhad in conjucnction with 90 other organizations from around the country with about 750 delegates. all that I heard really intimidated me ,the short cuts of the police in the name of encounters have very serious rammifications.
The police , the courts , the politicians every one has colluded with silent approval to exra judicial killings against the poor and all out in inflicting injustice upon them. it is the begining of the slow death of democracy in india.

In Real life encounters there are no specialists, In cold blooded murders there are

Kindly refer to Sekhar Gupta's article in National interest(A different encounter) that appeared in Indian express dated 11 oct 2008. "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit attrocities" - VoltaireThe skills of articulating one's feelings and writting good prose should not give one an authority to subvert the minds of people, I think it will be good if we leave this job for our politicians. At least people from intelligentia should not start becoming part of such a propaganda, unless one is part of the nefarious game. And such an article appearing in a newspaper like Indian express leaves its readers nothing less than demoralised and frustrated as it seems to have embarked upon a retrograde journey against trust on the truth. Actually it is the police functioning that doesn't inspire confidence among citizens. professionalism of pot bellied special cell cops can be well understood by every armed force officer. The death of Inspector M.C.Sharma has really saved Delhi police of lots of explaining in the face of every unprofessional tactics and working. The actions of media and propaganda of it affixes the stamp of legitimacy and authenticity on every encounter that is very dangerous trend but let me tell you with my firm convictions that you need to live through the things to know where the truth lies.I had been part of anti militancy operations in Punjab, Kashmir, Assam, manipur and Nagaland for two decades with best available men at my disposal and was never so lucky with my men and realized that in real life encounters no one can become a specialist but in cold blooded murders one can. I can assure you that when you are exposed to live fire of a professional who has the advantage of even minutest of fortification with element of surprise with him, you have to be lucky to escape unhurt from his well deliberated fire, it doesn't give you second chance but It was ACP Rajbir Singh and Insp M C Sharma who could continue with their scores of alleged encounter killings to 100 and 75 respectively( and it is with every police sub inspector & Inspector as they are simply pawns in the hands of supervisory senior police officers who create these murder specialists by providing legitimacy and protection as a cover up to their own professional incompetence) and from my experience I can certainly say that the real life encounter that alleged Encounter Specialist ACP must have faced was his last one and we can similarly place the deceased Inspector's encounter too, I have all my sympathy for the bereaved family but it doesn't mean that we blindly start subverting a complete process to give legitimacy to the acts and omissions that have very serious repercussions and prove counter productive for society.I have all my regards to the popular sentiments of the public of this country that gets mislead very quickly but the death of a police officer in an alleged encounter should not give freedom to give legitimacy to the killings of two youths in questionable circumstances, rather police chief must volunteer for a judicial probe, the police that is not accountable to its citizens, certainly leads to erosion of trust and for the police to be effective in their role in their area, people must feel that they can trust them. Police chief must not forget that success or failure of police depends upon the sense of security prevailing in the community and faith of public and not on the scale of statistics of encounters.I did work with alleged elitist NSG(so called black cats) and currently associated with NATO( High Readiness Forces Land) as trainer and being an insider from the point of view of a security professional, our media and the police need to be educated and better trained so that innocent citizens like Inspector M.C.Sharma do not lose their life.It may not be out of place to mention here the death of a young IPS officer Mr.Jaswinder singh,DIG in Orissa in a similar encounter with the militants but his widow refused to accept the false Halo of martrydom to her husband and pursued the matter and finally it revealed the truth of another police encounter. I can provide the writer a whole list of such encounters that may open up his eyes about encounter truths.Our police doesn't have even clue on how to deploy arms when pitted against armed adversaries in built up areas and in my personal view I hold every police constable on the streets as a very big security hazard to the public life and property and in this regard I had written to the then DGP BPR&D Dr.Kiran bedi and that letter she had published on the website of Bureau of Police Research http://bprd.nic.in/writereaddata/linkimages/feedback14069794474.jpg. These armed police personnel are nothing more then an armed mob and our country will do much better without them being around. Senior Police officers are simply media managers and spin doctors and will go all out to thwart every attempt of seeking an investigation into the encounter, because it will expose their script writing. This is high time our country needs to redesign intake of police officers their career progression and training and public needs to rise to the occasion and question every action on the issue of accountability otherwise day is not far when we will boast of 12000 widows and 24000 orphaned children like Kashmir in every state.when ever there is terror strike in the form of bomb blasts we speak of intelligence failure but we never realize that the officers who become failures in there respective states, we get them on deputation to our so called intelligence bureau and bigger failures come to so called R&AW. all these officers are the ones who have no aptitude for intelligence working because they are IPS( who come with very good academic qualifications but learn swimming only on black boards and keep accumulating black board training hours with assured career progression in ranks also but when they are thrown in the water, they are bound to sink and take the entire nation to inevitable doom)working as intelligence officer can't be every one's cup of tea( Yea ! This I am saying out of my experience with these officers as I was unlucky to be part of intelligence operations too and working with those senior police officers who even lacked common sense forget about high average intelligence.)Our Indian police service has gone to militarisation rather beaten even military brass when it comes to public display of pomp and show but never learnt anything from its big brother(Military) when it comes to professional ethos and accountability. Recently centre goverment has given nod for creation of additional posts of special DGs(Lt.General rank) in central police organizations but they will be nothing more then burden on public exchequer, as there is hardly any requirement of them, there are no special operational plans that needs to be mobilized by these officers. Tactics of all the Operational plans of all these special cell organizations hover at the levels of sub inspectors and Inspectors. These additionally created Generals will never ever mobilige forces to the quantum of an army corps commander and needs to be done away with. There is big chasm that divides the real life functioning and requirements of these police organizations and the academic leadership with superfluous knowledge that is way beyond realistic operational requirements.The ultimate need of the hour is for the public to rise and question every act of these emperors on the issue of accountability, whether it is question of destruction and collection of evidence in Jessica case or Priyadarshini mattoo case, arushi case or Nithari case or ADOBE India Chief's son's release case or Ansal plaza case. that only will save the country from impending, inevitable disasters of special operations by Special Director Generals and their encounter specialists of Special Cells and we will keep creating martyrs and paying homage to Sharmas and Singhs and let me reiterate at the end of this email that in real life encounters there are no specialists but in cold blooded murders there are, because, real life encounters don't give you second chance but fake ones do.ADJ Singh

White wash and comissions-Hunter Better Than Nanavati

Hunter Better Than Nanavati
By R.B. Sreekumar
29 September, 2008Countercurrents.org
The Nanavati Commission report deserves the description as a whitewashing document of the aggressors than the conclusion of an enquiry. This is an immature, partisan and inconclusive report which has a political motive. It can only be seen only as a predetermined script. The report hides the heinous acts of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and co, who were the perpetrators of the violence. This is not a blind attack by me, but an analysis based on facts.
I am a police officer, committed to the Constitution, who has filed four affidavits before the Nanavati Commission. Every commission has the responsibility to analyse and probe the truth about the information even if it is scribbled on a torn piece of paper. As the report of a senior Intelligence officer in the state, my affidavits have their own seriousness in the state where genocide (it would be a big lie to history as well as to humanity to term the atrocities unleashed in Gujarat as Hindu-Muslim riot) took place. Many things, with proof, about the situations that led to the riots and the roles of the senior officials in them have all been included in the report submitted before the commission.
I have been threatened by Government Pleader Aravidn Pande and Home Secretary Murmu that it would cause repercussions if I tell the truth before the Commission. (Pande's poisonous hissings had been brought before the people of the country by 'Tehleka'). I have even recorded their speeches and presented before the Commission. The Commission had the responsibility to verify the truth about them. The Commission should also have recommended punishment for me had the affidavits I submitted been false. Instead of this the Commission canonized the perpetrators of the riots.
The Supreme Court has authorized a committee headed by former CBI director Dr. Raghavan to probe into the incidents. It also gives rise to a lot of suspicion about the submission of the Nanavati report when their work is in progress. This report disappoints every citizen who wants to see the rule of the law and secularism surviving in the country.
Right from the start there had been flaws in the workings of the Nanavati Commission. The Hunter Commission which probed the Jalianwala Bagh mass murder had recommended punishment and demotion of the British officials responsible for the incident. It is at once shameful and dangerous to note that a probe held in independent, democratic and secular India under a Justice is not even as honest as the Hunter episode. It will, in no way, be helpful to the people of India, instead, it will foster insecurity in the minority Muslim community and also create a mistrust in Muslims for the law and justice system of India.
This report has made Modi happy. BJP has also vociferously welcomed it. Because it is a report against a community, which they want to throw out from the country. Like Modi's men another group will also be happy about the report: the nefarious forces which want to exploit the discontent in the Muslim minds and attract them to become the pawns of terrorism. However who doesn't know both these forces have the same ulterior motive to exploit the situation created by bloodshed and instability.

R.B. Sreekumar was Additional Director General of Police in Gujarat.