People’s Police – In India, people will
only laugh on this word; it seems quiet an alien thing.
Police
and that to for people, haaaa….. If you ask somebody about police in India,
then you will not get even a single positive response; there are hundreds of thousands
of stories which highlight the poor condition and plight of so called rakshaks
(saviors) of the our society. But then there are people who are not only
complaining about the condition of the law and order but also working to reform
it.
Last
weekend I got a chance to meet Mr. Prakash Singh (retired DGP). And that
meeting was an eye opener. Hundreds of times I bragged about the lawlessness
and poor policing of our country; but never thought about it in a way which Mr.
Prakash made me to think.
The
Indian police in its present form has its structural framework based essentially
on the Police Act of 1861. The British raised a police which would be
“politically useful” to the imperial masters. The police would carry out all their
orders, right or wrong, lawful or unlawful, constitutional or otherwise.
But
at the dawn of independence, it was expected that a new philosophy would be defined
for the police, that it will be made accountable to the law of the land and the
people of the country. Tragically, the sour arrangement has continued even
after independence. “The only change is that, the relationship that existed
between the police and the foreign power before independence was now continued between
the police and the political party in power”.
The
police force has completed 150 years of its existence. Normally, this would
have called for a celebration. But there are no talks of observing the
anniversary; as the police department has failed in its basic duty ‘to serve
the people of the nation’. It has become a slave to the political powers; and the
country has paid a very heavy price for this political stranglehold. The
tragedy of 1984 anti Sikh riots could have been averted if the police had
played a bigger role than just of a mere spectator because the hoodlums
belonged to the ruling party. The demolition of the disputed shrine at Ayodhya
in 1994 even in the presence of state and central paramilitary forces at the
location; and the Gujarat riots in 2002.
To
end the stranglehold of the politicians on the police department and make the
police subservient and accountable only to the laws of the land, two retired
police officers Mr. Prakash Singh and Mr. NK Singh filed a writ petition in the
Supreme Court in 1996. In 2006, the Supreme Court while delivering its
judgment, aiming to make the police objective and de-politicised, issued
several guidelines to reform the police system in the country. And obliging to
our Indian culture, even after six years of the Supreme Court ruling, nothing
has changed but matters have gone from bad to worse.
The
Court battle will go on, God knows till when. But what we can do is to build an
atmosphere in favor of Police Reforms and help the persons, who are fighting
for us.
P.S.
Please do check http://peoplepolicemovement.com/
