The junior home minister also backed the police, saying they cannot be blamed for everything that goes wrong.

NEW DELHI: Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju landed in the midst of a fresh controversy over comments that he agreed with former Delhi lieutenant governor Tejinder Khanna that north Indians take “pride and joy” in breaking rules and his advice to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to correct his approach before blaming the police for lawlessness in the Capital.

Rijiju’s remarks came in the context of Kejriwal’s demand that the police be placed under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government and his political campaign targeting the police and the Centre for not being able to prevent crime, particularly against women.

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“I was witness to a statement made by one of the lieutenant governors of Delhi some years back. He had stated that people of north India enjoy breaking the rules and by evening he was forced to apologize. But I believe what he said was right,” Rijiju said.

Rijiju’s comments predictably kicked up a row even as he stuck to his guns, pointing out that people (in the north) refused to follow rules and needed to be disciplined. “Many people say police has become very rude. Police will be rude only if citizens are indisciplined. If people are disciplined, then police will not be rude. But there is a general saying here that until you beat them with a stick, people don’t listen. So if people are not showing the right conduct and they are indisciplined and they don’t listen even when told once, twice or ten times, police will have to use stick to make them listen,” he said.

The minister said if a woman did not feel safe in her surroundings, society would have to take the blame for it. “There is something wrong in society. We have to accept. We are very good in criticizing others (but) we don’t accept (our mistakes). I am very critical of my own conduct, my own system and my own society if they are not perfect. If we don’t criticize and develop ourselves, how will we improve?” he asked.

Though Rijiju did not name Khanna, the former LG had in February 2008 said that “it is a specialty of north and west India that people feel a sense of honour and pride in violating law and boasting that no action has been taken against them”. He had to withdraw his remarks after being criticized by both BJP and Congress.

Rijiju went on to say that people here loved to brag about having threatened a police official. “That means society as a whole needs to change," he said. His comments came against the backdrop of Kejriwal’s allegation that Delhi Police was the “most corrupt”.

“Kejriwal keeps on saying that Delhi Police did not do something or the other but if he himself will not correct his approach what can the police do,” the minister said.

Defending the cops, Rijiju said it was easy to blame the police for any incident or crime that took place anywhere but it was men and women in 'khaki' who kept awake all night to ensure peace and law and order.

Rijiju made these comments on the sidelines of inauguration of two police think tanks – Indian Police Foundation and Indian Police Institution -- which were inaugurated by Rajnath Singh on Wednesday.

Rijiju said it was very "disturbing" and "frustrating" as a minister when there were frequent media reports about harassment of women. "You feel very helpless. But I cannot show my helplessness outside. We have to take action against these things... but it's not enough," he said.

He said the police and politicians were the "favourite punching bags" for everyone and that they were made to do some of the most "difficult" and "thankless" jobs.

Rijiju said just having robust systems for security and police affairs was not enough and sincere reforms were required to improve them.

