Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday mooted the idea of "One Nation, One Uniform" for police, saying it is just a suggestion for consideration and he is not trying to impose it on the states. Addressing a "Chintan Shivir" of state home ministers, Modi also advocated close cooperation among the states to tackle crimes and criminals. He said cooperative federalism was not only the feeling of the Constitution but also the responsibility of the states and the Centre. "The One Nation, One Uniform for police is just an idea. I am not trying to impose it on you. Just give it a thought. It may happen, it may happen in 5, 50, or 100 years. But let's give it a thought," Modi said.
The prime minister said he thinks that the identity of the police across the country could be identical. He also urged the state governments to review old laws and amend them to the current context as he batted for coordinated action by all the agencies to meet the emerging challenges of law and order and security. Modi said it was "very important" to maintain a good perception of police and the "wrongs here" should be addressed. Even though law and order is a state subject as per the Constitution, they are equally linked with unity and integrity of the country, he said.
Modi said every state should learn, get inspired from each other and work together for internal security. "Working together of states for internal security is a constitutional mandate as well as responsibility towards the nation," he added. The prime minister said all agencies -- both central as well as that of states -- should cooperate with each other to ensure efficiency, better outcome and protection to the common man. He said law and order is directly linked to development and hence it is everyone's responsibility to maintain peace.
"When the strength of the country will increase, the power of every citizen, every family will increase," he noted. Modi said it is very important for the entire law and order system to be reliable and stressed for maintaining a good perception of police among the people. He said several reforms for strengthening the law and order system have taken place in the last few years. "We need to think about a common platform for technology that can be shared by all. Best practices of one state can be shared with others," the prime minister said, adding smart technology should be adopted for a smarter law and order system.
Referring to the circulation of fake news, Modi said fact check of such news is a must and technology plays a big role in it. "People must be made aware of mechanisms to verify messages before forwarding them," he said. The prime minister said the good old system of generating human intelligence by the police and security agencies should be strengthened for achieving better results. He asked the states not to look at the budget while selecting technology as "investment in today's technology is a saving in the future".
Modi said in the next 25 years "we will build an 'Amritkal Peedi" (self-reliant) generation" for the benefit of the nation. The two-day 'Chintan Shivir' is being organised here by the Union Home Ministry with the objective to prepare an action plan for the implementation of 'Vision 2047' and 'Panch Pran' announced in Prime Minister Modi's Independence Day speech.
Home ministers of all the states are confabulating at the event to discuss a host of internal security issues like development of an ecosystem for cybercrime management, modernisation of police forces, increase in usage of information technology in the criminal justice system, land border management and coastal security and other internal security.
The prime minister addressed the programme through video-conferencing.