The Manipur Police had an image makeover in the recent G20 Summit hosted by the state. The road and streets where G20 delegates from several countries passed through were lined with police and security personnel in civil uniform and not with gun-toting personnel in khaki and camouflage. It was a welcome sight unlike that of the Sangai festival where uniform personnel were omnipresent on the roads and venues. Even specially trained women police commandos equipped with the latest models of automatic guns assigned for duty during the Sangai festival to assist and guide tourists at the various venues of the festival.
For the first time, police tourist booths with police personnel wearing fluorescent jackets are being arranged at various festival venues to assist tourists, especially foreigners and tourists from outside Manipur during the festival. Of course, they are there to see that nothing untoward incident happens during the festival and keep the peace besides projecting the image of a tourist friendly police. That must be why, security and police personnel armed to the teeth lined the highways and roads leading to the festival venues and also huge deployment at the venues itself. And then, the VVIPs coming to grace the festival are again accompanied by not less than 2/3 vehicles full of escort personnel uniformed and plainclothes.
For the locals, the sight of gun-toting police and security personnel is kind of normal and they feel no different. Decades of being exposed to police and armed forces brutality enabled by the overarching Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and its resultant aura had conditioned the attitude and outlook of the local populace. Although they do not feel a sense of safe and secure environment in the presence of police and security personnel around them, they have begun to feel that it is a part of the necessary evil package in Manipur.
We had earlier suggested that the state needs to revisit its attitude and priorities in security management. There was absolutely no indication of a threat perception with regard to outstation or foreign tourists coming to participate in the Sangai festival then. No threats were issued by the underground outfits.
The reason perhaps was that the security apparatus here in Manipur is yet to come out of the security cocoon that it had imprisoned itself in the previous decades of unrest and insecurity. Foreign visitors to the state had in the past questioned the presence of uniformed police and security personnel everywhere they go, while journalists from outside the state had written about it numerous times.
Whether it is the G20 summit or the Sangai festival, the state is endeavouring to attract investment and more tourist footfall by showcasing varied facets of the state and its communities. What kind of message were we sending out to the probable tourists with the outright display of armed police and security personnel and detailing them to guide the tourists? Somehow, that attitude seems to have changed this time with regard to the G 20 event. We must thank that person or official whomsoever he or she may be for the recent image makeover of police and security. However ill-fitting the dark suits and shirts may be, the personnel on the streets with walkie-talkies directing traffic and managing pedestrians were a welcome change.
We certainly hope this sort of security management continues even after the events. A change of attitude from among the general public towards police and security personnel needs to be triggered by such management and as long as sheer display of arms and uniform continues the hostile attitude would remain.
Gone are the days when darogas with waxed moustaches or gun-toting commandos cast a terrifying spell on the general folk to ensure peace. A friendly police both in dress and action as well as attitude is necessary. As they say, insurgency has come down by 80 per cent in the valley and AFSPA has been withdrawn from many parts.
--Editorial
