Bangalore: An order from the chief minister is always obeyed, one would think, but it appears Siddaramaiah may have bargained for more than he can handle with a directive he issued to the police top brass recently. Siddaramaiah had wanted lower rung police officers to be barred from speaking to the media, especially on sensitive or high-profile cases. No sooner was the note circulated among senior IPS officers than it was promptly leaked!
Following a series of horrific crimes – the Frazer Town horror and the rape of a six-year-old student on the campus of her school to name just two – Siddaramaiah called a meeting of top police officers including state police chief Lalrokumo Pachau, city police commissioner MN Reddi and chief of the intelligence wing AM Prasad (ADGP). The chief minister raised concerns that these crimes and the way the police went about tackling them were bad publicity for the government.
The chief minister eventually hit on an Orwellian solution: Rather than curb crime, Siddaramaiah wanted officials to keep details of such crimes under wraps.
“Kaushik Mukherjee, the chief secretary, was present at the meeting,” said a senior officer who is privy to the details. “Mukherjee suggested that the Bangalore City Police appoint a PRO to brief the media, just like the CBI does. The PRO should be briefed on what to tell the media. Mukherjee argued that bad publicity can be stopped in this way.”
However, some senior officers differed with the chief secretary’s view and pointed out that the city police hierarchy is very different from an agency like the CBI which has a unified command. Bangalore on the other hand has several police stations, while a number of senior officers in various ranks head different offices.
Various kinds of crimes are reported to stations on a daily basis. Members of the media, especially electronic media, rush to the scene of a crime on getting a tip-off from officers posted in stations.
It was at this point that the idea of banning lower-rung policemen from speaking to the media was suggested. These lower-rung personnel are unaware of the consequences of crimes being frequently highlighted in the media, it was opined. It affects the image of government. So, the best way of tackling crime is to check the flow of information to the media.
The idea appealed to the chief minister, who issued directions that henceforth, only the police commissioner or the DG&IGP can speak to the media on serious crimes like rape. If necessary, the police commissioner can authorise deputy commissioners of police or officers of higher rank to talk to the press on less serious crimes. Clear instructions should be given to subordinate officers not to brief or talk to media either on record or off the record, the CM said.
Siddaramaiah also felt that incidents like the ADGP Ravindranath episode and the Skyye incident, in which a MLA and his men are accused of assaulting policemen, have the government a bad name.
“I got maximum criticism because of crimes and not on any policy issue,” the CM reportedly said at the meeting.
Following the CM’s directive at this meeting, a confidential note was prepared by the home ministry and was circulated to senior IPS officers in Bangalore last week. BM has a copy of this note. BM readers need not be alarmed over the CM’s directive as Bangalore Mirror will continue to report and bring to light such crimes.
