HR management lessons from Delhi police vs advocates episode
The incident of the Delhi police force taking to the streets on Tuesday, 5th Nov. 19, can be termed as unprecedented and a dangerous sign for the future. How a small incident turned into a big violence and law and order problem leaves many lessons for all managers, HR professionals, and especially for industrial relations managers to learn and take proactive and preventive actions beforehand to avoid such ugly situations in their organizations.
According to various reports, on Saturday, 2nd Nov. 19, it started with a car parking issue by an advocate in the Tees Hazari courts campus in an area which is kept free for Delhi police vehicles that bring accused persons in buses from Tihar jail to court for regular hearings, and it is taken as a sensitive area. When requested by police personnel not to park his car there and remove it, a scuffle started. After some moments, a bunch of advocates came there, embarked upon the lock-up room area where accused were kept for hearing, thrashed the police constables, ransacked the administrative area, and set the police and private vehicles on fire. It is also reported that one woman police officer of senior rank was attempted to be molested by the mob, her operator was also thrashed while trying to protect her, and police opened fire in the air which hit the advocate. Few advocates and police personnel got injured. Police lathi-charged to control the situation. Videos of advocates beating police personnel mercilessly in Tees Hazari until he fell down unconsciously went viral. On Sunday, Delhi HC took cognizance of the incident, ordered a judicial inquiry of the incident, restrained police from taking any coercive action on advocates, and ordered the transfer and suspension of a few police officers. On Monday, a video of an advocate beating a police constable and a three-wheeler driver also went viral. Other fellow advocates and the Delhi CM went to the hospital to meet injured advocates but no one cared to find out the well-being of injured police officials and on Tuesday what the country witnessed was a big protest and demonstration of police force before their HQ. It was a manifestation of long-time suppressed frustration, anger, helplessness, and not lending support to them by their senior officers.
Learning lessons from the incident
1. When there are signals of even small conflict between two classes (management and employees or two groups of employees), top people responsible for running the business should take it seriously and make all serious efforts to diffuse/resolve the issue quickly before it goes out of hand. In this case, it appears that neither advocates' senior representatives nor senior police officials took it seriously, made no efforts at the initial level to diffuse the situation, and rather proceeded to act against each other to demonstrate their power resulting in the loss of public property, arson, and vandalism, etc.
2. Bosses of both classes should act with maturity in such difficult situations to contain the anger and animosity and avoid making statements which may flare up the situation. In organizations, sometimes middle managers or employees deteriorate the situation by making irresponsible/loose comments/abusive language against each other and ultimately the organization pays the cost in terms of labor unrest/industrial relations crisis.
3. The incident of police coming on the street is not the sudden outcome of this single incident of assault on them by a mob in the court campus. It is the culmination of long-time frustration where the police force was used by bosses, authorities, society, and media as punching bags. The police force is also used by political bosses to meet their objectives. Nothing specific is done by their bosses to understand their mental health, tough working conditions, stress, and strain they carry while discharging their duties. Suspending, transferring the officers, restricting the action on erring advocates, not meeting police bosses to injured police personnel has further fueled the anger. When you see from advocates' angle, the reputation of police is also not very good. There might be some long-suppressed negative feelings among advocates against police behavior and attitude towards them experienced while interacting within police stations or courts which escalated the incident.
In organizations, when tough working conditions prevail, inhuman treatment is given to employees by managers, and a sense of injustice pours in due to impartial certain actions/decisions of senior management, employees' anger comes out either in the shape of protest, demonstration, dharna, or even violent actions. Management should not view such actions merely from the angle of discipline and a challenge to their authority, but also from the human angle as to what provoked them to resort to such an unacceptable course of action. No one should wait for fire to spread and then contain it because they had only big fire brigades and not small fire extinguishers. What went wrong in the past which resulted in disorderly behavior and unrest must be introspected by managers.
4. It was very unpleasant to notice that when the Chief of police came in front and appealed to the protesters to stop protesting and go back to their homes, it did not work; he had to hear the slogan "GO back". It was a complete leadership crisis and utter failure. It indicates that protestors had no faith and trust in their chief. The same happened with advocates. Their body seniors appealed to all associations and advocates to withdraw advocates' strike and return back to work and bring normalcy but advocates did not listen to their appeal.
In organizations, it also happens. When employees protest and demonstrate, many managers don’t even find the courage to go in front of them and initiate discussions because they know that they will not be accepted/honored by them as trustworthy persons/leaders. An acceptance crisis remains there. Leaders/managers who deal with employee relations should work hard on building their trust and respect among employees. They should not behave like an authority or employer agent but also employees' champion to raise their genuine grievances and help them resolve. A leader has to be a protector of his subordinates. He cannot enjoy the right of canning them without bearing the responsibility of taking care of their well-being.
Next time when you see even small indications of conflicts or hot exchanges between any two persons or groups in the organization, don’t pass it under the carpet and avoid it. Wake up, take notice, go to the roots of the cause, remove that, deliver justice in a well-demonstrating manner, and keep a watch on follow-up action. Ensure that it worked.
Regards,
Anil Kaushik,
Business Manager - HR Magazine
B-138, Ambedkar Nagar, Alwar - 301001 (Raj.) India
http://www.businessmanager.in
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(2)
Amend(0)
181The incident of the Delhi police force taking to the streets on Tuesday, 5th Nov. 19, can be termed as unprecedented and a dangerous sign for the future. How a small incident turned into a big violence and law and order problem leaves many lessons for all managers, HR professionals, and especially for industrial relations managers to learn and take proactive and preventive actions beforehand to avoid such ugly situations in their organizations.
According to various reports, on Saturday, 2nd Nov. 19, it started with a car parking issue by an advocate in the Tees Hazari courts campus in an area which is kept free for Delhi police vehicles that bring accused persons in buses from Tihar jail to court for regular hearings, and it is taken as a sensitive area. When requested by police personnel not to park his car there and remove it, a scuffle started. After some moments, a bunch of advocates came there, embarked upon the lock-up room area where accused were kept for hearing, thrashed the police constables, ransacked the administrative area, and set the police and private vehicles on fire. It is also reported that one woman police officer of senior rank was attempted to be molested by the mob, her operator was also thrashed while trying to protect her, and police opened fire in the air which hit the advocate. Few advocates and police personnel got injured. Police lathi-charged to control the situation. Videos of advocates beating police personnel mercilessly in Tees Hazari until he fell down unconsciously went viral. On Sunday, Delhi HC took cognizance of the incident, ordered a judicial inquiry of the incident, restrained police from taking any coercive action on advocates, and ordered the transfer and suspension of a few police officers. On Monday, a video of an advocate beating a police constable and a three-wheeler driver also went viral. Other fellow advocates and the Delhi CM went to the hospital to meet injured advocates but no one cared to find out the well-being of injured police officials and on Tuesday what the country witnessed was a big protest and demonstration of police force before their HQ. It was a manifestation of long-time suppressed frustration, anger, helplessness, and not lending support to them by their senior officers.
Learning lessons from the incident
1. When there are signals of even small conflict between two classes (management and employees or two groups of employees), top people responsible for running the business should take it seriously and make all serious efforts to diffuse/resolve the issue quickly before it goes out of hand. In this case, it appears that neither advocates' senior representatives nor senior police officials took it seriously, made no efforts at the initial level to diffuse the situation, and rather proceeded to act against each other to demonstrate their power resulting in the loss of public property, arson, and vandalism, etc.
2. Bosses of both classes should act with maturity in such difficult situations to contain the anger and animosity and avoid making statements which may flare up the situation. In organizations, sometimes middle managers or employees deteriorate the situation by making irresponsible/loose comments/abusive language against each other and ultimately the organization pays the cost in terms of labor unrest/industrial relations crisis.
3. The incident of police coming on the street is not the sudden outcome of this single incident of assault on them by a mob in the court campus. It is the culmination of long-time frustration where the police force was used by bosses, authorities, society, and media as punching bags. The police force is also used by political bosses to meet their objectives. Nothing specific is done by their bosses to understand their mental health, tough working conditions, stress, and strain they carry while discharging their duties. Suspending, transferring the officers, restricting the action on erring advocates, not meeting police bosses to injured police personnel has further fueled the anger. When you see from advocates' angle, the reputation of police is also not very good. There might be some long-suppressed negative feelings among advocates against police behavior and attitude towards them experienced while interacting within police stations or courts which escalated the incident.
In organizations, when tough working conditions prevail, inhuman treatment is given to employees by managers, and a sense of injustice pours in due to impartial certain actions/decisions of senior management, employees' anger comes out either in the shape of protest, demonstration, dharna, or even violent actions. Management should not view such actions merely from the angle of discipline and a challenge to their authority, but also from the human angle as to what provoked them to resort to such an unacceptable course of action. No one should wait for fire to spread and then contain it because they had only big fire brigades and not small fire extinguishers. What went wrong in the past which resulted in disorderly behavior and unrest must be introspected by managers.
4. It was very unpleasant to notice that when the Chief of police came in front and appealed to the protesters to stop protesting and go back to their homes, it did not work; he had to hear the slogan "GO back". It was a complete leadership crisis and utter failure. It indicates that protestors had no faith and trust in their chief. The same happened with advocates. Their body seniors appealed to all associations and advocates to withdraw advocates' strike and return back to work and bring normalcy but advocates did not listen to their appeal.
In organizations, it also happens. When employees protest and demonstrate, many managers don’t even find the courage to go in front of them and initiate discussions because they know that they will not be accepted/honored by them as trustworthy persons/leaders. An acceptance crisis remains there. Leaders/managers who deal with employee relations should work hard on building their trust and respect among employees. They should not behave like an authority or employer agent but also employees' champion to raise their genuine grievances and help them resolve. A leader has to be a protector of his subordinates. He cannot enjoy the right of canning them without bearing the responsibility of taking care of their well-being.
Next time when you see even small indications of conflicts or hot exchanges between any two persons or groups in the organization, don’t pass it under the carpet and avoid it. Wake up, take notice, go to the roots of the cause, remove that, deliver justice in a well-demonstrating manner, and keep a watch on follow-up action. Ensure that it worked.
Regards,
Anil Kaushik,
Business Manager - HR Magazine
B-138, Ambedkar Nagar, Alwar - 301001 (Raj.) India
http://www.businessmanager.in
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(2)Amend(0)
Dear Anil, Your article is a graphic and unbiased presentation of the unfortunate incident of violence between two groups of society, namely the police and the lawyers, who have the primary official and professional responsibility of upholding the rule of law. It is all the more disturbing that the incident took place in a court complex, which the lawyers and the police personnel have to regularly visit.
The stand-off between the police and the lawyers isn't new. If we make a dispassionate analysis of any such incident, we can easily find that a lack of professional courtesy and emotional outbursts are the basic reasons for the conflicts. Each one is always skeptical about the other. As for the police, though they have sufficient basic training in handling situations, the lower rung of officers and constables who have to frequent lawyers in courts as well as at the police stations have to be advised by the superior officers to observe utmost courtesy in their transactions with the lawyers. Interestingly, we don't hear of any senior lawyer or any senior police officer getting involved in such unsavory incidents. Therefore, it is imperative on the part of senior counsels and Bar associations also to inculcate emotional intelligence in the minds of junior lawyers to avoid unnecessary confrontations with police.
Coming to your observation about the uneven handling of the unfortunate situation by the Delhi Administration that culminated in dragging the policemen to the streets with their families, it reminds me of the succinct remarks of Mangal Pandey prior to the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, "If you don't redress the grievance of the sepoy, the sepoy knows how to redress himself." Court premises are a public place where everyone has to behave properly.
Your analogy of such a conflict situation in the industry is very apt and deserving of appreciation. The occasional blips prior to such a situation should be well taken by an effective manager as a preemptive measure, and when that too fails, he has to be very firm with moral conviction.
Regards, Anil Kaushik, Business Manager - HR Magazine B-138, Ambedkar Nagar, Alwar - 301001 (Raj.) India http://www.businessmanager.in
From India, Salem
Acknowledge(2)
Amend(0)
The stand-off between the police and the lawyers isn't new. If we make a dispassionate analysis of any such incident, we can easily find that a lack of professional courtesy and emotional outbursts are the basic reasons for the conflicts. Each one is always skeptical about the other. As for the police, though they have sufficient basic training in handling situations, the lower rung of officers and constables who have to frequent lawyers in courts as well as at the police stations have to be advised by the superior officers to observe utmost courtesy in their transactions with the lawyers. Interestingly, we don't hear of any senior lawyer or any senior police officer getting involved in such unsavory incidents. Therefore, it is imperative on the part of senior counsels and Bar associations also to inculcate emotional intelligence in the minds of junior lawyers to avoid unnecessary confrontations with police.
Coming to your observation about the uneven handling of the unfortunate situation by the Delhi Administration that culminated in dragging the policemen to the streets with their families, it reminds me of the succinct remarks of Mangal Pandey prior to the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, "If you don't redress the grievance of the sepoy, the sepoy knows how to redress himself." Court premises are a public place where everyone has to behave properly.
Your analogy of such a conflict situation in the industry is very apt and deserving of appreciation. The occasional blips prior to such a situation should be well taken by an effective manager as a preemptive measure, and when that too fails, he has to be very firm with moral conviction.
Regards, Anil Kaushik, Business Manager - HR Magazine B-138, Ambedkar Nagar, Alwar - 301001 (Raj.) India http://www.businessmanager.in
From India, Salem
Acknowledge(2)Amend(0)CiteHR is an AI-augmented HR knowledge and collaboration platform, enabling HR professionals to solve real-world challenges, validate decisions, and stay ahead through collective intelligence and machine-enhanced guidance. Join Our Platform.
Industrial Relations Management.pdf
Competency-base d HR Management.ppt