Anna stirs to help IPS officers learn crowd management

Mass agitations led by Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare might have left the UPA government fuming. But the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy wants IPS officers to conduct research into these events for equipping themselves with better crowd management techniques.

The academy wrote in April to the director-generals of police of states and union territories, besides heads of paramilitary organisations, requesting them to forward names of serving or retired officers who are willing to take up research on these topics.
The focus will be on how to handle peaceful mass agitations covering recent dharnas by Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare.  

Joint-Director Milind Kanaskar confirmed to Deccan Herald that the institute has taken up the topics for study as it would lend new dimension to policing. Kanaskar, however, said they have not received enough representations from the forces to kick start the research.
 Last year, Baba Ramdev had launched a peaceful agitation at Ramlila Maidan in the national capital against the issue of black money stashed away in foreign banks. He was forcefully evicted by the Delhi Police, a move which came in for sharp criticism from the Supreme Court.
Assault on rights

“The action demonstrated the might of the State and was an assault on the very basic democratic values enshrined in our Constitution,” Justice Swatanter Kumar had remarked asking registration of cases against the police.

Similarly, massive public support to Hazare’s agitation demanding a strong Lokpal Bill has also drawn the curiosity of the academy, although the police have been handling bigger crowds at Magh Mela in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Besides, the academy believes that the police need to learn lessons from the December 16 Delhi gang-rape case.