Sixty years after its founding, Chandigarh Police received the nation's highest honour for a uniformed force — the President's Colour (Rashtrapati Nishan) — at a Diamond Jubilee ceremony held in Chandigarh on Sunday, 1 November 2026. Union Home Minister Amit Shah conferred the award, marking a force that once patrolled streets scorched by insurgency and today guards one of India's most secure urban territories.

Posting on X, Shah wrote: 'Shaurya, seva aur sushasan, yahi Chandigarh Police ki pehchaan hai' — 'Valour, service and good governance: this is the identity of Chandigarh Police.' He called the President's Colour a tribute to every officer who spent six decades building safety, peace and stability in the region, and pointedly noted the force's journey: a city once 'scorched by the fire of terrorism' now ranks among the country's safest.

What the President's Colour actually means

The President's Colour is the highest institutional honour the Indian state can bestow on a police or military unit — awarded for sustained exemplary service, gallantry and distinguished contribution to national security. It is presented by or on behalf of the President of India, making it a constitutional seal of excellence rather than a routine commendation. For a Union Territory police force directly under the Ministry of Home Affairs, receiving it carries particular weight: the Centre itself is endorsing sixty years of policing under its own watch.

From 1966 to now: six decades under the Centre's direct mandate

Chandigarh Police was formally constituted in 1966 after the city became a Union Territory under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, which bifurcated the old Punjab state into Punjab and Haryana, with Chandigarh serving as joint capital of both. Unlike state police forces that answer to elected state governments, Chandigarh Police operates under the direct administrative authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs — making its performance a direct reflection of central governance.

The force's most defining test came during the Punjab insurgency of the 1980s and early 1990s, when separatist militancy pushed parts of the region into near-collapse. Chandigarh, as the administrative nerve centre, was a prime target. The city's return to normalcy — and its subsequent reputation as a model for urban safety — is the arc Shah invoked in his post.

Shah's governance narrative and MHA's pattern of recognition

The ceremony fits a deliberate pattern from the Ministry of Home Affairs: publicly elevating police forces that embody the transition from high-militancy eras to professional, metrics-driven security environments. Shah, who has positioned police modernisation and internal security as signature MHA themes since 2019, used the occasion to underscore the 'good governance' dividend — the idea that disciplined, accountable policing is as important as hard counter-terrorism operations.

The broader signal is directed at other Union Territory and state forces: institutional excellence, across decades, earns national recognition. It also anchors a political message — that the Centre's direct administration of Union Territories produces measurable security outcomes.

For the personnel of Chandigarh Police, the Rashtrapati Nishan is more than a ceremonial standard paraded on a parade ground. It is the state's acknowledgment that ordinary officers, across six decades of shifts and postings, kept a city safe through India's most turbulent internal security chapter. That is the only statistic that needed to be said.