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Beginning a New Year
Unlike 2009, the year 2010 did not begin with a bang but the first month of the year took its toll of human lives in the worst ever earthquake in the history of Haiti. Thousands died and the entire country lay devastated. The incumbent President of Sri Lanka Mahindra Rajapakse was officially declared elected – a second time for him. While the Talibans had launched an attack at the heart of Kabul, the President of Afghanistan opened up a line of communication with them for ensuring peace in the region. A new earth-like plant has reportedly been located. The wonder of wonders – a girl without hands now holds a valid pilot license to fly a plane with her feet.
There was no let off in terror-related violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakstan. According to Stratfor reports, 700 jihadis are waiting across the border to strike in Jammu and Kashmir with the objective of triggering a conflict between India and Pakistan. ‘Internet Imams’ are now recruiting members for Al Qaeda. Reports suggest seven year olds are being groomed to be suicide bombers. UK as the nursery for terrorists was again established with some institutions being identified as the ‘universities of terror’. A new study, however, suggests that terrorists can be won over. The Maoists in India continued their depredations in more brazen fashion – three policemen were beheaded in two incidents. They have reportedly developed the capability of cloning AK series of rifles.
Cyber security came to the fore in India with offices in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat being reportedly breached and a communication between the top cop and the Chief Minister in Jammu Kashmir being intercepted unauthorisedly. Over 30-million German bank credit cards were hit, causing serious concern to all.
While the flag of the private security industry in South Africa flew high with its deep involvement in security arrangement for the forthcoming World Cup in that country, its image got tarnished in India with employees of a private security company being arrested for being involved in a case of robbery. Things may, however, improve with reports on the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005, likely to be enforced in the capital city of Delhi soon.
The Apex Court of India has issued ten guidelines for self-defence. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in India have issued elaborate instructions for Psycho-Social Support and Mental Health Services (PSSMHS). Computers can now read faces. One should be careful in writing out notes as Israeli scientists can now detect lies from handwriting. And, should you wish to have a ‘chat with god’, you can see a model in the General File. There are also highly interesting stories on half burnt biscuits and apparently paradoxical commandments. You may now be in a position to recover your stolen cell-phone – all in the General File. Readers may please put in their contribution in this File for the edification of all. We will be grateful.
Thanking you and with best regards,
D. C. Nath, IPS (Retd.)
Former Special Director, IB (MHA), Govt. of India,
Editor-cum-President & Director General,
International Institute of Security and Safety Management,
New Delhi, India.
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‘‘May like to glance through the input below from The Indian Express on private security agencies in India:
Different uniforms
The core duty — indeed, the key characteristic — of a functional modern state has been identified for centuries: it should exert a monopoly over the legitimate use of force within its territory. In other words, no non-state actor must set itself up as an alternative source of the threat of violence. In well-governed modern states, the police and paramilitaries are sufficient to maintain order. But in most, that’s not enough: hence the need for private security agencies. But — and here’s the crucial point — even where these exist, it must be absolutely clear that they possess no authority of their own, that they derive their legitimacy from the state.
India has 65 lakh private securitymen. Six and a half million, with their number growing at 25 per cent a year. That number should give us pause. It is many times larger than the strength of the Indian army itself. Put together our armed forces, our paramilitaries and our state police forces, and only then do you begin to approach the scale of the pool of non-state security personnel in this country. Naturally, a grouping of this size needs regulation urgently. Not just for reasons of public order and safety, but also because anything that smacks of a retreat of the state from the exercise of its legitimate, core power cannot be allowed to stand. Parliament passed, in 2005, the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act; word came in on January 5 that one of the key provisions of the act, that private guards be registered will finally begin to be implemented in Delhi this week. This is, of course, welcome — if belated — news. Bringing these employees into the registered workforce is good all round: for the security people, for the state, and for prospective employers.
But more needs to be done. Some security agencies — G4S, for example, has 130,000 employees in India, which it claims makes it India’s second largest employer — have grown truly large. Many of these have set up internal ranks, as in the armed forces; have chosen uniforms that are close enough to genuine military or police uniforms to fool even the careful observer; and, consequently, have personnel who could acquire an exaggerated sense of their own power and authority to use force. The norms the government needs to enforce must remind both itself and them: the state alone has that right. The difference between private security and those genuinely empowered to keep the peace must be more than obvious.
The Indian Express – January 7, 2010.
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