That the police is one of the most unpopular institutions in our land cannot be disputed. Even policemen and their leaders will have to admit this. One of the reasons why the ordinary citizen fears and dislikes the police is that the police has been assigned a role that is intrinsically deprivational. But the main reason for the poor image is that the police through the length and breadth of the country has ceased to be professional. They are now politicised to a degree that can only be termed alarming. Complaints of indifference to suffering and injustice, unhelpful attitudes, bad behaviour and runaway corruption make one wonder what has gone wrong with its leadership. The plain answer is that the leadership has allowed itself to be manipulated by a political class that has misused the power of appointments and transfers to patronise weak or corrupt officers for their own selfish ends at the cost of public interest. If the country and its people want a more responsive police force, they need to understand that the force needs good leaders who will serve the people and not themselves. There is no dearth of good men in the IPS from where the senior leadership is drawn. But such leaders are usually sidelined. They are summoned to the ramparts only when the State is in real trouble. Selfish politicians choose the wrong persons for the top jobs because the corrupt or the ineffective are willing to carry out the dictates and wishes of their political masters for their own survival. It is a classic case of two persons scratching each other’s backs. How do we correct this fundamentally flawed position? If we are to be served by a more professional force we should insist on competent police leaders of unquestioned integrity. And this is exactly what the Supreme Court is attempting to do by its order last week, endorsing the recommendations of the National Police Commission made 25 ago. The commission, headed by Dharma Vira, a distinguished ICS officer, had predicted that the management of public security would be fatally weakened by the tendency of the political class to dabble in the day-to-day working of the police forces in the country instead of laying down policy and ensuring that it was professionally implemented. The main areas of political interference are appointments, transfers, rewards and punishments. There is interference sometimes in the investigation of politically sensitive crime or crime involving their party men. The interest in transfers and departmental matters has bred corruption of a magnitude not seen before! Worse, it has reduced police chiefs to secondary roles and deprived them of the only weapon available for keeping recalcitrant officials in check. If a corrupt or indisciplined subordinate dared to go out of hand the chief could transfer or punish him. If that authority is usurped by the politicians or the chief’s orders countermanded the subordinate cease to look up to their own bosses and turn to their political patrons instead. This is what is happening in the police forces across the land. Very few police leaders have the temerity to stand up to the political master; most officers just toe the line lest they are shunted out. Arvind Inamdar and Ronnie Mendonca in Maharashtra were two such officers who were not willing to oblige the State’s Home Minister. They were unceremoniously replaced by more pliable colleagues. Straight-forward and competent officers were sidelined, prompting some to resign. If now the reforms are implemented, only those officials who are empanelled for promotion will be considered for the top jobs. The state DGP will be chosen from among three senior-most empanelled officers. And this choice will be left not to one man but a body presided over by the chief minister or home minister and consisting of the opposition leader, a sitting or retired High Court judge and a few non-political citizens of integrity. Once chosen they will have a tenure of two years and cannot be dislodged except under the most adverse circumstances and that, too, for reasons duly recorded by the State Security Commission. Fixed tenures will also be enjoyed by junior officers. Officers of SP rank (deputy commissioners in comissionerates) and above will be appointed by the home minister on the recommendation of the Police Establishment Board. If the Minister disagrees with such recommendations he will have to record reasons in writing. The Police Establishment Boards, comprising the DGP and the four senior-most officers, will determine all transfers and personnel issues. In particular, officers of the rank of deputy superintendent of police (assistant commissioners in commissionerates) and below will find it difficult to approach politicians for favours. To ensure that the promised operational independence does not deteriorate into a police raj, the court has ordered the institution of a Police Complaints Authority in each police commissionerate and revenue district. These authorities will be headed by retired judicial officers of appropriate rank and will entertain complaints of high-handedness, misuse of powers and injustice by police officials. The separation of the investigation functions from the law and order duties is a natural concomitant of the need to isolate the police from any interference in the administration of justice. It also frees investigators from bandobast and other such duties that currently impair their ability to complete investigations quickly. All said, the reforms mandated by the Supreme Court must be welcomed by the public which deserves a more polite, compassionate, efficacious and professional police. Civil society should thwart any attempt by the political class to stymie these reforms. The writer is one of India’s most accomplished policemen, having served as DGP, Punjab, and Commissioner of Police, Mumbai
