"My friends, please forgive me for saying this, we havefailed the IPS. We have not been able to improve the image ofthe IPS and of the police. There may be some individuals inhis own individual capacity, somewhere, doing extremely goodwork but the sum of the whole is that we have not been able todo what was expected of the police," Kumar said, whiledelivering the annual founding day lecture of the Bureau ofPolice Research and Development (BPRD) on "good governance". Kumar, a 1963-batch retired Indian Police Service (IPS)officer, has held top positions in various prestigious forceslike NSG and Delhi Police. He was appointed as the Governor ofNagaland in 2009.
BPRD is the apex police research organisation under theUnion Home Ministry which undertakes studies and scholarlyworks for improvement on a wide variety of policing subjectsfrom security to health of police officials.
"The fact (is) that the constable doesn't get his dueeither from the government or from the public. How you aregoing to get the constable to improve is what I, in my humbleopinion, feel is the key to improve the situation. If thathappens, if the constable is in position to hold his ownagainst the people of that area, he has self respect, then Ithink we will be taking a big step towards improving policeleadership," Kumar said.
Top officers of central police forces and retired IPSofficers listened to Kumar in rapt attention as he, in hisover an hour long speech, spoke on various issues which plaguedevelopment and hinder good governance.