IPS officer Dr. Kumar Ashish’s recent initiative, ‘Coffee with SP’, created a lot of buzz in the Motihari district (East Champaran) of Bihar, as well as on social media. So, what was this coffee time all about? It was the officer’s way of interacting with youth in an informal setting to make them aware of the many drug de-addiction and prohibition campaigns he has been running for a long time now, and also motivate them into helping out.
Dr. Kumar chose the occasion of the International De-Addiction Day for his coffee session with youths of the district. It was organised at the district’s new auditorium and he made use of the opportunity to talk to the youths on a varied topics other than de-addiction, like competitive exams, tricks of success, how to become a good citizen and work together for a crime-free society, etc.
Indian Masterminds interacted with SP Dr. Kumar Ashish to know more about his coffee initiative.
COFFEE WITH SP
The basic idea behind the initiative is to motivate the youth to become good citizens of society and appeal to them for cooperation in implementing prohibition and de-addiction programmes. The officer also made it a point to talk to the youths about career choices, preparation for competitive exams, and also discussed tricks for success.
Talking about this special coffee session, Mr. Kumar said, “The aim of the ‘Coffee with SP’ initiative is to connect with the youth and guide them in the right direction. We discussed on many topics with more than 2000 students, answered their career-related questions, shared the expectations and experiences of the administration with the youth. Everyone took oath with utmost energy for free of alcoholism and complete de-addiction. I appeal to young friends to contribute in building a better and crime-free society.”
GUIDING THE YOUTH
Bihar witnessed violent protests against the union government’s Agniveer scheme. However, Mr. Kumar was able to motivate the youths into shunning violence after making them understand that violence can never be a solution.He instead asked them to start preparing for the Agniveer recruitment. The response was overwhelming as more than 2000 youth joined him for ‘Coffee with SP’ and they discussed preparation for competitive exams and setting positive goals in life.
GIVING EXAMPLES FROM HIS LIFE
While discussing with the youths about preparing for competitive exams, he also talked about his own UPSC journey. He talked about how his choice of optional had taken people by surprise and many advised against it. His optional subjects were Geography and French literature.
“French literature was chosen as I have done my higher studies (BA, MA, M.Phil, Ph.D) in this language from JNU. So, it was a natural choice despite the fact that there was no success from this subject till now and there was not a single material available in the market for French Literature,” he told Indian Masterminds.
During the session, the officer took numerous queries on varied topics from the youths and answered them all, giving examples from his own life wherever possible. This informal session helped foster a trust relationship between the district police head and the youths and was successful in what it sought out to do: to act as a confidence-building measure between the police and youth.
