India is on a march, will be one of the leading nations when it turns 100: Doval

Ajit Doval said maintaining law and order in every part of the 32 lakh sq km of India is also the responsibility of police forces.

India will usher in a new era as it paces towards the 100th year of Independence and will be known for its “many achievements and many accomplishments” as one of the leading nations across the world, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said on Friday.

"It will be a different India at that time. India is on the march and you will see that you will be leading these police forces at a time when it will bring India which has got a new place in the international arena," Doval told young Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in Hyderabad.

The NSA was speaking at the passing out parade of the 73rd batch of IPS probationers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA).

The quintessence of democracy does not lie in the ballot box but it lies in the laws which are made by the people who are elected by or are elected through those ballot boxes, Doval said.

“You are the ones who are the enforcers of those laws. Laws are not as good as they are made. Laws are as good as they are executed and implemented and service the people are going to get out of them,” he said.

“The implementation of those laws are important. No nation can be built where rule of law has failed. People cannot feel safe and secure where law enforcers are weak, corrupt, partisan," he maintained.

Police have to work closely with other organisations for which they require a mental attitude together to serve the nation, he said.

Wars have ceased to become an effective instrument giving their political and military objective even as they are unaffordable, uncertain about their outcome, he said, adding it is the civil society that can be subverted, divided and manipulated "to hurt the interest of the nation," Doval said.

"If internal security fails, no country can be great. If people are not secure, people are not safe, they cannot rise to the potential and probably the country will never grow," he further said.

He also said that police forces have a greater role in border management besides maintaining law and order. He said maintaining law and order in every part of the 32 lakh sq km of India is also the responsibility of police forces. Doval said, “India's sovereignty goes as far as the last police station's jurisdiction from the coastal areas to the border areas.”

"…Not only the policing about which you have been trained very well. But it will extend. You will be responsible for the border management of this country. Fifteen-thousand km of the border, most of it has got these peculiar problems of its own," he added.

"There is a border in Pakistan with China or Myanmar or Bangladesh. We have got different types of security-related issues which are manned by the police and the central police organisations which are manning these borders," Doval said.

The Hyderabad-based Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy trains officers of the Indian Police Service, selected through the Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Published on Nov 12, 2021 01:50 PM IST

By Shishir Gupta