Policemen should behave like gentlemen, says CM

Hits out at cops for insensitive handling of gang rape case

The protests on the streets of the capital after the December 16 gang rape and murder “rang the bell for everyone to wake up”, said chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

She slammed Delhi Police for their insensitive approach that has bred lack of faith in people towards the force.

She also suggested that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to the nation on the December 16 incident could have come a little earlier instead of a week after the “horrendous” crime was reported.

Dikshit acknowledged that people “shy away” from helping others who are in distress because they feel that they will be “harassed” by police, and asked the force to change their attitude and style of functioning.
She said policemen should behave as “gentleman” when people need them.

“It worries me. Yes. It worries me that police are not as sensitive or responsive as they ought to be or well-behaved as they ought to be. The judicial system needs to be changed, so is the bureaucratic system,”
she told a TV channel.

“This needs to be thought out. But please remember it is not going to happen tomorrow,” she said.
Fault with men in khaki

“The fault lies with police. I don’t know. I have not minced my words (in saying) where the failure of this has come (from). In fact, I have not overtly but covertly criticised this.”

“It is not my job to appoint a police commissioner or take him away. It is the job of the home ministry, and I am sure they will do something,” she said in reply to a question on who was at fault for the incident.
Dikshit said such mass protests were a challenge to politicians, bureaucracy, judiciary and police. Calling the gang rape of the paramedical student “horrendous”, she said the Supreme Court’s observation that women in Delhi are not safe was “telling” and sums it all.