:O

As I switched the news channels after getting bored of the India-Pakistan cricket match, the news trickled in about a farmer’s death in Haveri. These kind of incidents aren’t new to us. But I’m writing about the incident because it has been branded as an atrocities by the men in khaaki by the hopeless media.

So the question here is what makes the police in India commit stuffs like these. We are all reading shocking stories everyday on how the cops are misusing their power and bringing a shame to their daily functioning. The Haveri golibaar incident isn’t an isolated issue of Karnataka state police. One thing apparent from that incident is how low police forces all over the nation are scooping to these days. Why ?

History of Indian police:

The first ever police force in India came into existence in the colonial raj days. The Britishers established a force that worked for them, by keeping the people under subjugation of the British colonial lords. The police force picked few indians who in turn joined the forces to earn out a livelihood. They weren’t ashamed of committing atrocities on their own people when the rulers issued out orders. The British inculcated a system that gave unlimited authority for police to suppress any dissent against the protesters. This culture seeped in sort of into the police machinery as years flew.

Britishers are responsible for the hierarchies that you see in Indian administration these days. Almost all of Indian administration has titles that were invented by the Britishers and the shades of the colonial raj continues even these days. The Indian police force also has a depth based hierarchy that trickles down into constables who are lowly paid as those in the hey days of the administration. In fact the police act of 1861 is still the basis of Indian police machinery these days.

Corruption in the police forces:

So the Britishers left in 1947, and Indians began heading the police force. The concepts brought in by the Britishers were drafted into the rulebooks. The colonial lords were replaced by the local regional influential politicians who wanted to control respective regions for their vested interests. The corruption has been pervasive right from the rank of the police constable to the higher ranked chief of police throughout the country. The colonial mentality still reigns in the administrative measures taken by the police these days. The states governments in India also hold penetrable authorities over the police forces these days. An average salary of the Indian police constable is very low and he is an easy target for the vested interests in the political parties that want to shed the opposite party in bad light.

Politics of self-interests:

The blaming that happens in political circles is nothing new to all of us. The Haveri golibaar incident witnessed the usual political blamewar, with the stupid Congress and appa-maga factory accusing the state BJP government as sleeping over the government formation. The loquacious Siddaramaih even said in KannaDa, “sarkarakke baroDu maja maadoDakke aLLa” ( coming to govt. is not to have fun). In fact, Siddaramaiah’s followers from congress had engaged in similar rowdy play in Jayapura in Mysore ages ago. However all the political parties have their share of mal-administration and it is known how low they scoop to inflict bad image on other parties. One easy target for them is the police. I won’t be surprised if some sane committee investigates the haveri golibaar incident and concurs that the constable who shot the farmer had been paid by some vested interests to commit that blunder.

How to set it all right ?

The deeply ingrained corruption in Indian administrative circles will need decades of cleansing. The police are also humans like us. It is unfair to blame them for every mistakes of theirs’ without delving into the socio-cultural scars that the colonial British have left on them.

1. The chief minister is answerable to all the corruption in the state. He either sits idle and lets his sub-ordinate ministers take advantage of the police or he himself directs police to do unfathomable activities. So it is upto the chief ministers of states to be fair and impartial in administration.

2. The political parties and the media need to think straight in the brain and desist from pressures on the police forces. Example: Noida twin murders.

3. The union government is responsible for corruption at the center level. Point 1 applies to the prime minister and the union cabinet.

4. There are talks about the police act being revised since 2005. The flaws of the age old colonial police system needs to be rectified and revised.

5. Police is seen as an authority not answerable to the public if they want. On basis of the Right to the Information act, they should start mingling a lot with the society, and this helps both parties understand the problems closely. Some good samaritan officers in the police industry are blogging these days that might reach the urban population readers well. At rural levels, the police/political chiefs should lead the way by incorporating monthly visits and conducting a Janta darbar frequently and report back to their superiors and the media. The haveri incident could have been avoided if such a darbar had been incorporated by the officials.

6. The average pay of police services, most importantly that of the constables need to be improved significantly. Sixth Pay Commission has relegated the leadership of police services to a band of utterly demoralized officers and wholly denigrated it’s rank, scale, and promotional avenues – vis-à-vis other all-India and the central Services.

7. Infrastructure in the police station needs to be uplifted. Most of the stations do not even have decent vehicles, cars, bikes and a library, internet etc.

8. Lead by example at highest levels. The highest ranks in Indian police service undergo rigorous IPS exam and subsequent training at Sardar vallabh bhai patel academy upon selections. They should try to bring in knowledge transfer at lower ranks which may not be highly educated and rational like them. The high chiefs should discard the politics, greed for money and lead by example.

9. I dont think that the CBI is fully clean, but they seem to be more impartial than the police forces. The CBI was brought in much later after the colonial rule and they keep revising their policies. The CBI measures can be slowly injected to the police services.

There might be more important points, but I’m not able to get them right now. So I will stop here and hope that the police machinery is reformed in decades.

References:

1. To serve and protect from indiatogether.org [ http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/jan/gov-policeact.htm ]
2. http://www.pay-commission.com/
3. http://www.cbi.gov.in/history/hist.php
4. http://karnatakastatepolice.org/karnatakastatepolice/