CHANDIGARH: K.S. Dhillon, former Director General of Police, Punjab, has said that the Indian political authority has been “dishonest” in allowing the police to take the law in its own hands during the insurgency in Punjab.
The Indian state, he said, did not want to give legal powers to the police to deal with the situation. The excesses committed by them were not just ignored but positively encouraged, he added.
“No police force could have done better,” he said, adding, however, that the assumption that militancy has “For most people, the ‘indicator’ of success, however, is that the rivers of liquors are flowing, late night parties are going on, the price of property has gone up and bhangaras are being organized”.
Deceased forever was not really correct. “The euphoria in the state following t peace is misplaced. This is because the factors that caused the Punjab t crisis in the first place, have not really 1 been addressed effectively and are still alive,” he asserted.
“For most people, the ‘indicator’ of success, however, is that the rivers of liquors are flowing, late night parties are going on, the price of property has gone up and bhangaras are being organized,” he said laconically.
In his paper, ‘A decade of militancy and violence (Punjab 1981 to 1991). Dhillon has partly blamed the Congress for the Punjab problem and for not giving any political power to the Akalis.
“The Indian National Congress, pursued partisan politics of the worst kind in order to keep the Sikh political party, the Akali Dal from coming to power in the Punjab,” he said, adding that the Congress moves were not only to dislodge the Akalis from power but to finish them off altogether as the legitimate political voice of the Sikhs. Regarding the excesses committed by Punjab Police and its human rights violations, Dhillon said that some excesses could not have been pre- vented when a large scale, outright war is going on against. “Some departure from lawful action is un avoid- able,” he pointed out.
Dhillon stressed, however, that the Terrorist and Anti Disruptive Activi- ties (prevention) Act (TADA), must be scrapped.
“This is an enactment which was never really made use of in the courts where it was meant to be.
Ultimately, it gave powers to the police which, though lawful, were an assault on the freedom of the common man,” said.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 10, 1995
