The police leadership, the “field commanders” in particular, would do well to take note of the home minister’s advice to be judicious in the use of force since “excesses” could prove counter-productive. That Mr Rajnath Singh opted to make that point at a commemorative lecture organised by the Intelligence Bureau ~ the agency is not tasked with day-to-day policing ~ is evidence of concerns over the quality of the cops’ functioning at the grass-roots level. The home minister could so easily have focused on “higher management” issues, such as enhanced sharing of intelligence between various agencies and more effective coordination against criminal gangs and terrorist outfits, but his stress on a basic underscored the importance of the role played by the footslogging constabulary that tends to get overlooked. “There are times when police need to act tough. The sheer presence of police during law and order problems brings the situation to normalcy. But one should keep in mind how much force is to be exerted. It should be decided judiciously as forceful reaction proves counter-productive.”

That, to put it bluntly, was a poor commentary on the leadership. And the minister made the same point when he called for senior officers to be cautious while taking action against young officers. “You should apply a lot of thought before taking action. You should remember you can ruin someone’s career easily”. True that in the course of the IB Centenary Endowment Lecture Mr Rajnath Singh also called for developing skills in tackling cyber-crime etc, yet he reverted to another “basic” when pressing for more efforts towards securing the trust and confidence of the people.

While “police” is a subject on the State’s list, as union home minister Mr Rajnath Singh, by convention if not the rule-book, assumes a high degree of the responsibility for the functioning of the police across the board. And he indicated that by the thrust of his lecture having application far beyond the Central organisations. Police reform is a “popular” topic but there has been very little upgrade on the ground. One reason for that could be that there has been an overly top-heavy approach by Mr Rajnath Singh’s predecessors in North Block.

It might be fanciful to set up new “specialised” units, for the home ministry to try and compensate for shortcomings in the police forces of the state governments, but all such efforts could flounder if the basic functioning of the cops shows little improvement. That is what rendered the home minister’s “lecture” so refreshing, even if it dealt with matters conveniently written off as routine by those who opt to hold their heads “up in the air”. Much too easily have those in authority overlooked the fact that the policeman on his beat remains the cornerstone of the national security architecture.