Rotten police system
Vijay Oberoi
A lot has been talked and written about the horrific recent
gang rape in Delhi, as well
as its
aftermath. While the people reacted
spontaneously and emotionally, there is a need
to view this unfortunate
incident in the light of the fast deteriorating law and order
situation in
the country. ‘Fear’ of the police as a deterrent to the criminals, seems to
have disappeared. The reasons are obvious.
Unfortunately, the police have given their professional abilities a go-by
in favour of
making money, kowtowing to the politicians and bureaucrats,
and harassing the
common people. While the police hierarchy must accept the
blame, the political
leadership and their bureaucratic advisors are equally
responsible for this state of
affairs, because all three entities are directly
responsible for governance and
interacting with the public.
The politician-bureaucrat-police nexus has crippled our nation’s potential
to grow
into a superpower. Now we seem to be headed towards ruin.
Politicians’ platitudes,
and the bureaucrats and the police patting each
others back, appears weird,
especially when the people are groaning under
bad governance. In fact, the Delhi
gang rape episode reflects the breakdown
of the political, bureaucratic, social and
the police systems in our country; and the scant respect we have for women in our
society. This rot,
and the terrible wrongs being perpetrated on the people, needs to
be
stopped. While emotions are important, we need to look at the larger
picture,
and find both short and long-term solutions.
Police, and their acts of omission and commission, have brought us to such
a pass
that crimes are committed everyday with impunity; and they keep
rising, both
quantitatively and qualitatively. The media constantly
highlights the steadily increasing
crime graphs - the rich and the powerful
getting away with the most heinous crimes;
the inaction and inability of
the police to curb crime; the widespread corruption in our
police force;
and the kowtowing of our police to the netas - but to little avail. The
police
needs a thorough revamping. Although the prevailing milieu has been
subverted by the political leadership and the bureaucracy, it can still be
brought back
on track by the people; and it is heartening to see that the
people have not given up.
The repressive culture of the police in our
country has existed for a long time.
However, it has been deteriorating progressively, and now seems to have reached
its nadir. Prior to
Independence, the police, as an instrument of the colonial state,
was
widely used by our British rulers to ensure the continuity of the “Raj”.
While it
was a repressive force to curb dissent, the police was an
efficient force in most other
policing duties, from maintaining law and
order, to investigations, to documenting
cases correctly, to having an
efficient intelligence network. It was also fairly
supportive of the
public.
The main reason for this was that it was led by good officers, mostly
British, but
some Indians, too; and a large number of mostly Captains,
seconded from the army.
It was on account of this that at least in Punjab a
Captain was better known as a
police officer than a military officer.
After Independence, as the political leadership deteriorated, so did the
police.
The netas became progressively more venal, only concerned with
making a fast
buck, instituionalising corruption, and focusing only on
elections. In this milieu, the
co-option of the senior bureaucracy was
almost axiomatic, as they were happy to join
in the loot. This rot soon
spread to the lower bureaucracy, and India transited from
the ‘British Raj’ to the ‘Licence-Permit Raj’. The police soon joined the bandwagon
and
governance continued on its southward spiral.
The focus of the emotionally-charged nation after the shocking gang rape,
is on
more stringent laws and punishments, including the award of death
sentences.
However, mere enactment of laws would lead us nowhere. The need
of the hour is
to implement the existing laws, and a complete overhaul of
the police system. Police
reforms that have been hanging fire for decades
need to be implemented. The
politicians and bureaucrats do not want
reforms, as they feel that this would reduce
their powers and their ability
to accumulate illegal money. Their chances of getting
re-elected would also
be seriously impaired as an impartial police force would
ensure that the
criminal elements in the
political parties were steadily eliminated, and
our future electoral process gets a long-
awaited cleansing. If the reforms,
including getting rid of weak and corrupt police
persons, are decisively
implemented, corruption would also reduce.
Today, the police are well ensconced in their inefficient, highly corrupt,
abusive and
violent avatar. That is the reason for major deterioration in
police functioning. The only
way the police can become an efficient and
people-friendly force is for the politicians to
introspect and desist from
using the police in the improper way it is being used now.
The present system of selection of IPS officers must be discarded. Their
selection and
training must be on the lines of the army. It would instill
discipline, character and
leadership qualities in them. In the interim,
there is a need to induct a substantial number
of officers from the army at
the level of Superintendent of Police (SP), whose services
could be
utilised to start the process of revamping the police force. The
recruitment of
the rank and file of the police must also be on scientific
lines on merit, and not at the
behest of the political leadership; for whom
this is a good way of making money on the
side, for consolidating their
power centre, and for meeting promises made to kith, kin
and party workers.
Politicians would find dozens of reasons why the police reforms can
not be
implemented. But the public will have to bite the bullet if we want an
efficient
and progressive police force that is people-friendly and
disciplined.
(The writer is a former Vice- Chief of Army Staff, and former founder Director of the Centre
Land Warfare Studies)
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