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Video Editor: Mohd. Ibrahim
On 5 January, masked goons unleashed violence inside Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the national capital. Delhi Police came under severe scrutiny after many alleged that they stood as mute spectators when students and teachers were being brutally beaten. In Uttar Pradesh, cops were caught on tape vandalising shops, vehicles and CCTV cameras on 21 December in the aftermath of anti-CAA protests.
As protests rage against CAA, NRC and NPR across the country, former Mumbai Commissioner of Police Julio Ribeiro says the police must be depoliticised immediately to ensure law and order.
Speaking about how the police should learn the art of dealing with students who have been spearheading the protests against CAA and NRC, Ribeiro highlighted the importance of communicating with them.
“You have to have that kind of sensibilities or feelings like, ‘Look, these are young people who are going to be future leaders and they have their own way of thinking’. Let us go down to that way of thinking and talk to them on that level. I think the police should learn how to deal with students.”
He added that the police should use minimum force.
Condemning the act of police vandalising shops, vehicles and CCTV cameras in Uttar Pradesh in December, the former police commissioner said that the cops should be prosecuted for their act of damaging property.
Ribeiro also added that cops should have self-respect and must stop approaching politicians for appointments and transfers.
“Cops should have some self-respect. They have got a job to do, they should do it properly. If they go on approaching politicians for transfers and appointments, sometimes so that they could make money and sometimes just for the sake of importance, I think they should stop that. Stop the habit of approaching politicians for appointments and transfer because then the people today have understood it,” he said.
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