As the City Police Commissioner walks into his office, he is accorded a guard of honour every day. But on Thursday, it was a bit different. The entire ceremony was conducted in Kannada, including the commands for the team of officials performing the ceremonial duty. Commands like “savadhana” for attention and “vishranti” for stand-at-ease, rung the air. Usually, these commands are in Hindi or English.
City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda posted bodycam footage of the guard of honour in Kannada he was accorded on social media platforms, drawing praise from all quarters. The commissioner said the Bengaluru City Police had adopted the Kannada commands and will henceforth use only Kannada commands in its march past events.
Two years late
However, this has come at least two years late. The first attempt to translate Hindi and English commands in the march past events was made in 2016 by senior IPS officer B.R. Ravikanthe Gowda when he was SP, Belagavi district. The personnel were also trained to issue and respond to Kannada commands. Before this, in the 1980s, some Kannada songs were added to the repertoire of the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) band to add a local flavour.
Following the 2016 experiment, former State police chief Neelamani N. Raju had in 2019 written to the state government seeking permission to include commands in Kannada. Following this, a committee was formed headed by a senior IPS officer, S. Parashivamurthy, to study the Belagavi experiment.
The committee studied various police manuals and submitted a report to the state police chief. The state government issued an order in 2021 asking for Kannada commands to be made a norm in all police events. However, it was not implemented till earlier this week.
“We have adopted Kannada commands in the city police from this week. The staff who have trained in English commands are now getting used to it. Since the new commands are in Kannada, which is their mother tongue, they will get used to it in a short time. In the next few days, Kannada commands will prevail across the State,” Mr. Dayananda said.
