It is a thought provoking article. We have talked about lack of accountability
many times in this net.If you read the article to the end, you will find this
article provides some details of the mechanism that results in lack of
accountability.
Dilip
From the Assam Tribune:
EDITORIAL
---------------------------------
Are we moving towards a police state?
Poonam I Kaushish
Its a scene straight out of a bizarre psychopath movie. A macabre crime
saga, a la Hitchcock. Thirty-eight children vanished from Nithari village
next to Noidas 31 Sector over the last two years. A well-educated
industrialist, Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surender allegedly
slaughtered 30 of them, after sexually abusing them. The police recovered
skeletal remains, blood-stained clothes, footwear, school belts and socks of at
least 20 children most of them girls and boys between 4-12 years old from a
drain behind the house of the industrialist. The world gasped in disgust and
horrow.
It all started with a tenacious fathers refusal to buy the police version of
his missing daughter Payals happily-married-in-Mumbai line. His dogged
persistence forced the cops to act which, in turn, enabled them to stumble on
the serial murders. Payals mobile phone was found on Pandhers servant who
reportedly confessed to having murdered her and six of the missing children.
An aghast nation watched as the till-now-deaf-and-dumb police, which had
refused to record the FIRs of the parents of the missing children got cracking.
The UP State Government sacked six policemen and suspended three others for
dereliction of duty. The Central Government set up a high-level four-member
committee to probe the killings and give its recommendations in two weeks.
Quick-fix solutions for chronic maladies.
More. In an era when political image is branded like detergents, leaders of all
hues and colours, shapes and sizes fell over themselves to visit Nithari to
make political capital out of the horror crimes. They demanded a CBI probe and
accused the Mulayam Singh Government for the deteriorating law and order. Never
mind the angry taunts of the parents of the slain kids, You are here for the
sake of politics. Have you come to count the bones?
Arguably, one can understand the coldness of a man who sexually abused and then
killed children he had lured into his lair. But what explains the heartlessness
of the police? That it doesnt care a damn? Does it take bagfuls of bones to
get it to act? The moot point: Are we slowly but surely moving towards a police
State?
The Noida-Nithari murders have exposed as never before how the police has
become not only more and more powerful but also less and less accountable. Turn
to any mohalla, district, or State in the country, the story is tragically the
same. Be it a minor offence or a major crime. Brutality and bestiality have
become synonymous with the police. Want to get rid of somebody? Call up the
police. From bride burning to road rage to out-of-court settlements, fake
encounters and torture deaths. It has trapped all with bullet-proof precision.
Sending petrified shivers down ones spine.
An example: A complainant goes to file an FIR. The SHO refuses to record the
complaint if it pertains to the rich and powerful or demands money, threatens
and shoos him away. A woman complainant is molested and raped, as happened in
Bihar recently. If the FIR is against a corrupt policeman, God help. Who will
investigate it? How will evidence be collected? As none of his tribesmen will
do so given the general tendency to protect ones own. Leaving the complainant
with limited options. Highlight his plight in the media or write to a higher
authority and hope to hell that somebody will pay heed.
What of our polity? All know what is happening and discuss it. Committee after
committee is set up to spotlight the malaise and offer remedies. So far umpteen
Police Commissions have been set up and more than eight reports presented. Yet,
all have been dumped in the raddi and merrily forgotten. Why? At the crux: Who
should control the police? The State Government or an independent body? A
Catch-22 question for our power-greedy polity to honestly answer and for us to
stupidly expect.
Witness our leaders ruckus over the implementation of the Supreme Courts
landmark judgement last September, directing drastic changes in the police
administration to make it more accountable and to protect it from political
interference. Virtually overhauling the outdated, 145-year-old Indian Police
Act, the Court ordered the Centre and the States to implement its seven-point
directive to prevent politically engineered mass transfer of officers on change
of a Government. It called for setting up of a national security commission to
ensure that the selection of chiefs of Central police organisations was fair
with a fixed two-year tenure. And a State security commission to monitor
transfers and postings.
Further, the DGP to be selected by the State from three senior-most officers
empanelled for promotion by the UPSC with a fixed two-year tenure. A police
establishment board was to look after transfers, postings and promotions of
officers below the rank of DSP. A State police complaint authority, headed by a
retired Supreme Court or High Court judge, was to look into all complaints
against officers of the rank of SP and above. While the district complaint
authority, headed by a retired District Judge, would look into complaints
against officers of the rank of DSP and below.
Predictably all hell broke loose. Nearly a dozen Chief Ministers protested that
the Courts directions infringed on the powers of the State as per the
Constitution. These also undermined the federal structure and eroded the
authority of the legislature. Asserted a senior bureaucrat: A fixed tenure
would be disastrous. An incompetent or corrupt SHO could wreck havoc for two
years as a State Government helplessly watched from the fringes. Besides, who
would the DGP be accountable to? Would the State Legislature decide his Annual
Confidential Report? This is not reform but deform.
Arguably, is the police more sinned against than sinning? Are the main culprits
the politicians? The truth is midway. Both work in tandem in furthering their
own self-interest, with the result the system becomes self-perpetuating. Where
criminalisation of politics has given way to politicisation of crime and
political criminals. We have come a full circle.
In the past, the DM was totally in command and control over the discharge of
police function within the districts. It was he who wrote the annual
confidential report of the SP. Today the DM and the SP are on par. The SP now
reports only to his superiors bypassing the civilian authority. Bringing things
to such a pass that stories of how our leaders bypass the DM and get their
dirty work done by the SP are legion. Resulting in the complete brutalisation
and dehumanisation of the polity and the police.
Consider what the Third Police Commission had to say: Sixty per cent of all
arrests in the country under normal laws are unnecessary or unjustified and
that unjustified police action accounted for 43.2 per cent of the expenditure
in jails. Thus, over the years not only has the police become more and more
powerful but also less and less accountable. Times out of number, the checks
and balances which are a prerequisite of democracy have been dumped.
Where then lies Indias salvation from this leech-infested politico-criminal
police nexus. It is imperative we get our priorities right. The police will
have to change radically in order to become people friendly. The goal should be
to reinforce-the Rule of Law. Law and Order should be divided into two separate
departments. With a separate police force for each.
Our leaders had better pay heed before it is too late. Tough times call for
tough action. The strength of democracy and the quality of life enjoyed by
citizens are largely determined by the ability of the police to discharge its
duties honourably and independently. Tragically, the assassins are still at
large. But there is no sign of the police. with you, for you. Never! INFA
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