After the Sept 8-9 youths-led nationwide protests that left behind a massive trail of deaths and devastation, Nepal Police, the primary government agency responsible for the maintenance of law and order within the national jurisdiction, is in a difficult situation.

The casualty list of that protest is rather long and includes police personnel, who were brutally killed on duty along with protesters.

In the violent incidents that followed the use of force during the Sept 8 protest that killed several protesters, the law enforcement bereft of morale saw with utter helplessness, apart from the brutal killing of police officers, destruction of its vital infrastructure, from road dividers to traffic islands to police beats, posts and offices, and looting of weapons and police uniform, marking an unprecedented breakdown of law and order and the rule of anarchy.  

The then inspector general of police (IGP), Chandra Kuber Khapung, is under the purview of an investigation in connection with the use of force during the protests while the political leadership at the helm of affairs during that crisis has tried to wash its hands of the entire affair by not even cooperating with the probe. This is in keeping with the ‘well-established’ national practice of going only after low-hanging fruits and sparing the political bosses in every scam, every abuse/misuse of authority and an envious level of impunity that the political brass has been enjoying in Nepal for long. 

Dan Bahadur Karki takes charge as the 33th IGP of Nepal Police at a time when police morale is quite low and the sense of insecurity runs deep in the Nepali society.

Amid all this, the resilience of the Nepali society makes us quite optimistic about the future, even as fears of another cycle of violence lurk.  

Scenes like police personnel back on duty from our roads to beats, people joining hands to rebuild damaged/destroyed infrastructure and resumption of businesses are some of the living proof of our resilience, our never-say-die attitude. Hopefully, this attitude will get us through this crisis too. 

At this juncture, the onus is on the government and the police leadership to boost the morale of the police force and instill in a shaken people a sense of security. If the government fails to shoulder this responsibility, it will lose whatever moral authority it has to rule, forget conducting the national elections slated for March 5 next year. 

Let action speak louder than words.