Wars have ceased to become effective instruments for achieving political or military objectives. They are too expensive and unaffordable, and at the same time, there is uncertainty about the outcome, said National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Kumar Doval on Friday.
He was addressing the 73rd batch of the Regular Recruit Indian Police Service officer trainees after reviewing their impressive and spectacular Dikshat Parade (passing out parade) commanded by Darpan Ahluwalia at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad.
Explaining the importance of law and the safety and security of people, Mr. Doval said no nation could debate when rule of law had failed. People would not feel safe and secure when law enforcers were weak, corrupt and partisan. “Safety and security is your responsibility,” he said.
“The people are most important. The new frontier of war – what we call fourth-generation warfare – is civil society. But it is the civil society that can be subverted, that can be suborned, that can be a divided idea, that can be manipulated to hurt the interest of a nation,” he said. “And you are there to see that they stand fully protected. The service of the people is the greatest service not only from the point of view of our nation-building but also from the point of view of national security.”
Observing that technology was another frontier in which many of the trainees had to excel, Mr. Doval, a retired IPS officer of the 1968 batch, said these were vital elements in nation-building. “You are leaving this academy not only as police leaders but also as the soldiers of the new coming vibrant India. Without you this nation cannot succeed,” he said.
“If internal security fails, no country can be great. If the people are not secure and safe, they cannot rise to their potential; probably, the country will never grow,” he noted.
Congratulating the officers after presenting trophies to winners, he said: “Don’t forget the first word in Indian Police Service. You are for India and India is for you. Every other identity gets subsumed into this Indian identity. The interest of India should be supreme – the Constitution of India, the values, the traditions, the civilisations that this family represents.”
Emphasising the importance of democracy and law, the NSA said that the quintessence of democracy did not lie in ballot box. It lay in the laws made by the people who got through those ballot boxes. “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 the service that the people are able to get out of it,” he said.
“If you fail to implement and enforce them, and the letter and spirit in which they were made, they were as bad or as good as they were made. So, the success of our democracy in the enforcement of laws that are given by the people to their elected representative lies in your efficiency, your commitment in your values, in your attitudes, and in your performance on the ground – implementation is more important than legislation,” he said.
Mr. Doval said that he wanted the younger generation to not only think of reforms but also not commit the mistakes his generation did. “You have to be transformational. Now the police forces will have to bring about transformation, think about the future and find the solutions today.” Earlier, NPA director Atul Karwal presented the report of 73 RR batch to Mr. Doval.
Dr. Ahluwalia, who was the overall topper of Basic Course Phase-I training and bagged the Martyr KS Vyas Trophy for Internal Security and Public Order and Field Crafts and Tactics, is the sixth woman in the history of the academy to command the parade. She is borne on Punjab cadre.
