The political class, which owes its very existence to the people, should show the way, while the IPS officers must know that they no more belong to the Imperial Police Service. A paradigm shift in police legacy, literacy and loyalty is needed
Anand Narain Mulla, a justice of Allahabad High Court, had once famously observed, “I say with all sense of responsibility that there is not a single lawless group in the whole country whose record of crime is anywhere near the record of that organized units which is known as the Indian Police Force.”
Television visuals recently showed an Assistant Commissioner of Police shamelessly slapping a teenage girl, probably his daughter’s age, for the crime that she was protesting the rape of a five-year old child and the mishandling of the situation by the police in Congress-ruled Delhi.
Earlier this month, amidst the clamour for more all-women police stations, reports showed that a minor rape-victim was detained in a lock-up at a women police station in Samajwadi Party-run Uttar Pradesh. A week later, a 16-year-old gang rape victim claimed she was beaten up by the police when she went with her parents to file a complaint.
In BJP-ruled Gujarat, a few women were allegedly thrashed by the police near Surat in March during an altercation between members of a family and police personnel, over an anti-encroachment drive.
In Akali-BJP-governed Punjab, policemen were seen clearly on camera hitting a young woman who complained to them about harassment by a truck driver.
The nation also saw police brutality on students protesting against ‘Damini’s’ gang rape, Baba Ramdev’s supporters and on the people who had joined Anna Hazare’s anti-graft movement. And then there was the violent crack-down by the police on agitating teachers in Bihar, and the atrocities perpetrated on the people in Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East.
While the Opposition has been baying for the head of the Delhi Police Commissioner, television panelists have been crying hoarse, some demanding capital punishment and others advocating social transformation.
But at the core of the problem of lawlessness in the country lies the fundamental question of police attitudinal reforms, which the status quoists are scrupulously avoiding in public debate.
In the wake of the Punjab and the Patna incidents, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi had issued a notice to the Government of India through the Union Home Secretary, all State and Union Territory Governments, Chief Secretaries, State Home Secretaries and Director Generals of Police of all States and Police Commissioners of Union Territories, on the implementation of the court’s directions in the Prakash Singh case on police reforms.
The seven directives included, among other things, the constitution of a State Security Commission, a transparent appointment process of DGPs and the fixation of a minimum two- year tenure for them, the separation of investigation and law and order functions, and the establishment of Police Complaints Authority at the State-level to inquire into public complaints against police officers of, and above, the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, in cases of serious misconduct — including custodial death, grievous hurt, or rape in police custody and at district levels, and to inquire into public complaints against the police personnel below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police in cases of serious misconduct
The recent Justice JS Verma Committee report had also focussed on the urgent need for police reforms, but the report confined itself to demanding the implementation of the apex court’s directive.
Police reform is not just about fixation of tenure or non-interference by politicians or even the establishment of a commission to look into public complaints, but it is a radical change in the mindset and approach of the police personnel towards public at large.
Police reforms are also often confused with modernisation, more boots on the streets, reduction in VVIP security and increased expenditure. Such advocates point out that, according to Government statistics itself, there are over 500,000 vacancies in the police forces in India. They point out that there are are only 131 policemen per 100,000 people, as against the 173 per 100,000 norm prescribed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development. What’s more, 47,000 police personnel are deployed to provide security to around 15,000 VIPs.
There are also sociologists and retired officers who suggest better perks and facilities for the police, including easy availability of leave, keeping in view the long working hours the personnel put in.
Statistics show that reasonably good salaries have not prevented senior civil servants from becoming corrupt nor has prosperity prevented highly paid professionals from treating their domestic helps in the most savage manner. Thus, financial comfort has little to do with behaviour towards citizens.
Not that these ‘reform’ steps are not required, but more than anything else, the need of the hour is attitudinal reforms that can come only through training, sensitisation, accountability and strict punishment to offenders.
Contrary to the norm elsewhere in the world, including london’s Bobby, police personnel in India are feared by the law-abiding citizens of the country whereas the corrupt and culprits feel at ease with them. An honest police officer has become somewhat of an oxymoron. There may be some honourable exceptions of honest police officials and personnel, but they are few and far between. The innocent feel harassed, and the poor and marginalised view the police as a brutal and suppressive force; the rich and powerful look at them as a purchaseable commodity, who is at their beck and call.
Governed as it is by an archaic and colonial police law passed in 1861, which was primarily created to serve an alien ruler and which viewed the natives as unruly and uncivilised subjects, particularly in the wake of the 1857 First War of Independence (or the Sepoy Mutiny as some put it), the police continues to behave like His Master’s Voice (except that the colour of the master has changed). The police forces’ loyalty continues to be to their political masters, and not the people at large.
The police is the first and foremost interface between the people and the Government. It is not only the ‘sarkar’ but also the ‘maai-baap’. Yet, the cane in the hand of the policeman is seen as a tool of torture rather than the mace of Hanuman or Bheem — meant to protect the poor and the meek, and to ensure justice. Elders are often quoted as saying that police, courts and hospitals are best avoided in one’s life-time. A policeman on the street does not inspire any confidence. On the contrary, if a policeman flags down a car, it is seen more as an attempt to fleece rather than a genuine concern for security. The filthy and abusive language the personnel use against the poor and downtrodden is appalling, to say the least. Police personnel are trigger-happy, cane-happy and now water canon-happy, when it comes to dealing with the aam aadmi.
India is a democracy and not a police state. If more boots on the ground is a guarantor of peace and security, then Kashmir, the North-East and the Maoist-affected places should have been the most peaceful regions in the country.
The attitudinal change cannot come through sermons or seminars, but it has to trickle down from the top itself. The political class, which owes its very existence to the people, should show the way, while the IPS officers have to be reminded that they no more belong to the Imperial Police Service. The need of the hour is a paradigm shift in police legacy, literacy and loyalty — in the absence of which, more weapons and boots would only serve to make the police a more brutal force, nothing but criminals in khaki.
(The author is a senior journalist based in Delhi)