Retired IPS Officer Dr. Prateep V Philip of 1987-batch and Tamil Nadu cadre had escaped death not once but twice! Both times he defeated death to live to tell the tales. The second near-death situation happened when he was escorting Late Rajiv Gandhi on his assassination day. These experiences left him sober and wiser as he went through a period of evolution, both in his personal as well as his professional lives.
He became the first author to publish 3333 original quotes in his book ‘Fillipisms’. He is also the brain behind various concepts including ‘Equilibrium Thinking’, Excenomics, etc. But, more importantly, he is known for revolutionising community policing in the country while it was just in its infantry stage.
During a conversation with Indian Masterminds, the ex-DGP of Tamil Nadu talked about his pathbreaking initiatives as an IPS officer.
FRIENDS OF POLICE
Dr. Philip had got severely injured in the suicidal attack on Ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi that took his life. It took more than a year for the officer to recover from all the injuries that he got.
He says, “At one point of time during my recovery, I even thought of quitting the service. Fortunately, I had the energy to fight back and I joined the services after six months of special disability leave. I was limping, so I was given a soft posting for few months.”
After full recovery, he was posted in Virudhunagar district and handling law order situation there helped him regain confidence. Then, he was posted in Ramanathapuram (Ramnad), a district not only famous for pilgrimage but also considered a tough posting for police due to coastal security and communal violence issues.
Dr. Philip considers it the best time of his career as he started ‘Friends of Police’ there in 1993. Talking about it, he says, “On the assassination day, a police inspector put me in the jeep and went to save others. Suddenly a young man appeared as a savior. He put my head in his lap and gave me drops of water with cotton. He just disappeared after taking me to the hospital. When I joined back, I decided that I have to do something useful for society. So, I started off with establishing FOP in Ramnad.”
This was a movement to mobilise volunteers from among common people to help the police. In Ramnad, it became a huge success as police solved number of cases, including the ones related to property-related crime. After the huge success, it was replicated in several other districts and states as well.
KNOW YOUR CRIMINAL
As DGP, Crime Branch, Crime Investigation Department (CB, CID), Dr. Philip coined the concept of ‘Know Your Criminal’ in the lines of bank’s KYC (Know Your Customer).
“This was basically started to keep the records of criminals, their gangs, their modus operandi and their history sheets. In Tamil Nadu, even an app was developed for this. It helped the police to keep a tab on hardened criminals which eventually led to controlling crimes.”
VICTIM ASSISTANCE SCHEME
In 1994, Dr. Philip was posted in Dharampuri district, where one particular incident pushed him to recommend ‘Victim Assistance Scheme’. This was first in the country. Under this, victims of any kind of crime have to be given compensation. On his recommendation, a corpus fund was set up especially for this. After its success in Tamil Nadu, it was taken up by the Government of India and turned into a policy. The amended CRPC thereafter provides for victim assistance.
SOCIAL JUSTICE TEA-PARTY
To battle injustice and discrimination among upper and lower castes, Dr. Philip started the ‘Social Justice Tea-Party’ while he was posted as IG, Social Justice.
“During that time, discrimination was very common. Even tea was served in different cups to lower caste people. I wanted to break that system and bridge the gap between castes. So, we started this tea party.”
Under this, 50% members of upper caste and 50% of lower caste were invited to the main tea-shop in a village. There the DySP not only enjoyed tea with them but also talked to them about the law that penalises discrimination and also made the people from lower castes aware about the programmes that could benefit them.
“The major thing that was conveyed in the tea-party was associated with globalisation. We made them understand that if their children are moving to foreign countries and face discrimination there, they would not like it. So, they should also avoid such things.”
Dr. Philip also got sanctioned Rs. 75 lakhs from the Government of India and the Tamil Nadu government for this initiative. He used those funds to host tea parties in 40,000 villages.
Author of The New Khaki, Arvind Verma, also attended one of those tea-parties and has written about it elaborately in his book.
