The underworld can remote control activities in
the city just as easily as terrorists can wreak havoc. How difficult
is it to police Mumbai and how prepared is the force to deal with the
threat? MN Singh, former Police Commissioner of Mumbai,
speaks to Harinder Baweja
 |
It
was a Tough Task: MN Singh Photo Lakshman Anand |
| |
The writing on the
wall was very clear for anyone to read. All that was needed was
not intelligence, but intelligent people to analyse it. Maybe
they analysed it, or they tried to. They must have thought about
it. But maybe the crooks were smarter than us |
Six attacks
since 1993. What are the challenges of policing a city like Mumbai?
Well, policing
a city like Mumbai has always been a challenge, because it is a very
complex society, it is a mini-India and a city which ignites aspirations,
ambitions and it is an industrial place. Plus people from all over the
country come. It is a big city… provides anonymity, gives scope
for criminals and all kinds of people to flourish. So, it is a city
which has the richest and the poorest of the country living cheek by
jowl. So policing such a complex city is always a challenge, but of
late, after the Babri Masjid demolition, you see it has become a bit
more challenging, because urban terrorism has entered the city. Controlling
urban terrorism, in my opinion, is a little more difficult than controlling
terrorism in the border areas, where you have a well-defined geography,
a well-defined position on either side and you can identify the enemies
and fight them like enemies. Urban terrorism is an added problem for
the police. Other problems have been, of course, organised crime, gangsterism,
underworld activities. Mumbai has the country’s biggest airport
and seaport, hence smuggling, drug-trafficking etc have been major problems.
What was
your toughest challenge when you were Mumbai’s police commissioner?
The biggest problem
I would say, even before I came as commissioner, was controlling this
underworld phenomenon. The underworld had become very powerful and was
affecting the economy of the city. People were threatening to migrate
from the city because they were feeling unsafe. Plus we also found that
the underworld was getting into terrorist activity. The underworld phenomenon
and terrorism were the biggest challenges before me.
How prepared
is the Mumbai Police in dealing with urban terrorism?
You see, you should
think about it, terrorism is not a police problem in the real sense.
First of all, you have to understand that terrorism is basically a political
issue. The problem lies in politics and the solution also lies in politics.
So it is not typically a police problem. The police force that we have
is a civil police force. It is supposed to do the policing of civil
society. Now, since the early 90s, the police has also been called in
to deal with the terrorist problem. Until the beginning of the 90s,
the police were not at all prepared to cope with this problem. Now,
when terrorism made its entry into urban centres, the local police had
to prepare itself and since then a lot has been done. For example, we
have created this anti-terrorist squad, and a quick-reaction-team.
To what
extent are the wounds of the 1992-93 riots feeding into the terror network?
Well, I would
say that the memory of the 1992-93 riots has almost faded away. I was
commissioner of police for close to three years, and I had no problem,
though we had very serious communal riots in neighbouring Gujarat. But
Mumbai behaved. We had riots elsewhere in Maharashtra, in the neighbourhood
of Mumbai, like in Bhiwandi, Thane and Malegaon but Mumbai behaved.
There was an attack on Akshardham temple and on the Parliament but Mumbai
stayed quiet. The Shiv Sena had many bandhs but Mumbai stayed quiet.
So I would say that either people have learnt a very bitter lesson from
the 1992-93 riots, or that the riots were something that happened in
a flash. Like a tsunami overtaking everybody and this Ayodhya was nothing
less than a tsunami. That affected Mumbai also, and Mumbai became the
biggest sufferer.
But the
latest serial train blasts could not have happened without local support.
So, youth are willing to be recruited?
I have been saying
it consistently that these bomb explosions could not have been done
without the help of the local youth. All these bomb explosions that
have taken place in the past and all these seizures of arms, ammunitions
etc which have been made by the police, point to the involvement of
Maharashtrian Muslim boys. They are there. There is no doubt about it.
There is an undercurrent and a segment of the Muslim youth has become
communalised. This phenomenon I would attribute to the rising strength
of the simi and the mushrooming growth of madarsas, where very communal
and sectarian education is given. The Muslim youth are not allowed to
have the freedom of liberal education. They are not even allowed to
mix up with the general population. They have a very strict dress code.
So a warped-up personality is being developed, and so by the time they
grow up, they have lost their power of thinking. They turn out to be
the biggest fanatics. And their number is increasing gradually. Now,
these are the people who are the readymade material available in the
hands of the terrorists. These are the boys who are being employed in
these terrorist activities. And their number, as I said, is increasing
and therefore they will always remain a threat to security. The time
may come when it will move out of hand. So, something has to be done
about this. It has much to do with our overall education policy. It
has much to do with our constitutional arrangement. It is time to rethink
the extent of all these guarantees that there are in the Constitution,
the freedom to run your own educational institution, the freedom of
giving religious training and education.
How much
pressure do the politicians put on the Mumbai Police? You are the one
who arrested Bal Thackeray.
Let me tell you,
you see, political interference is a fact of life. Politicians have
not really grown mature. They think of everything in terms of power.
They don’t think in terms of their duty and country. They think
they are not powerful if they can’t appoint a sub-inspector of
their choice. When I was commissioner of police in Mumbai, I had banned
Narendra Modi from coming in after the February 2002 riots. I am amazed
with the kind of clean chit Mulayam Singh Yadav has given to the simi
so soon after nearly 200 innocent Indians died. Politicians only think
of vote banks.
It is frightening
that despite the seizure of huge quantities of RDX and AK 47s in Aurangabad,
the intelligence agencies failed. Is the Mumbai Police not capable?
Intelligence does
not mean a direct pinpointed intelligence that such and such thing is
going to happen at such and such time. Such intelligence is very rare.
It is just not possible. Intelligence means an intelligent analysis
of the available information. If you have the intelligence and you have
the knack to find out a trend, you draw your logical conclusions and
then you know what is likely to happen. It is the likelihood of a thing
happening that is called intelligence. The recoveries of weapons and
explosives at so many places indicated that something was cooking. The
writing on the wall was very clear for anyone to read. All that was
needed was not intelligence, but intelligent people to analyse it. Maybe
they analysed it, or they tried to. They must have thought about it.
But maybe the crooks were smarter than us. And it can happen. I would
not blame the police. We are human beings, we are not God. Despite all
the best possible efforts, they can be sometimes smarter than us.
But what
about deterrents from our side? The 1993 blasts case is still in court.
Oh, yes, that is
my biggest tragedy. I have been talking about it so openly and bluntly.
I don’t think anyone has talked so bluntly about that. That is
the most unfortunate part. Our laws, legal system have, I would say,
virtually collapsed. The criminal justice system has virtually collapsed.
We are not punishing the criminals, and unless we punish, the law cannot
be a deterrent
Why do
you think Mumbai is becoming such a frequent target of terror attacks?
I think we are
paying the price for our resilience. Resilience is a good thing, but
this spirit of Mumbai that our politicians like to talk about has numbed
our people into inaction and complacency. We are paying the price for
our so-called resilience
If you were
the police commissioner today, what would you be worrying about?
I will be really
worrying about the next terrorist strike because 7/11 was not the first
terrorist strike, and it was certainly not the last. I am worried about
the jehadi movement that is underway. Our Muslim youths are being converted
into a fanatic lot. Something will have to be done to arrest this growth.
It is going to prove very dangerous for Mumbai and the rest of the country
because of Mumbai’s image: that of a great financial capital,
a business capital, a cosmopolitan city etc. Another strike will harm
the country badly. We need to strengthen our anti-terrorist measures.
We will have to upgrade our system, and we will have to have the right
people in right places. And prepare ourselves further to meet this challenge.
Today the underworld is not such a big problem. The police has been
able to deal with them and bring them under control effectively. Let
me ring a note of caution. Let us not make the mistake of leaving everything
on the police. The police can only contain it. But it cannot eradicate
the problem of terrorism. In fact, its capability to even contain it
is in doubt unless some qualitative upgradation is brought about.
