Uttar Pradesh chief minister Rajnath Singh's exhortation to the police to kill four criminals and Naxalites for each of their victims is shocking. He is reported to have assured the police that there would be no pressure on them if they acted freely to maintain law and order in the state. Singh made this assertion while paying homage to a constable killed in an encounter with the Naxalites. Whether it was the emotional outburst of a greenhorn or not, his remarks evoke serious concern. Eye-for-eye kind of justice might have been practised during the medieval period but it certainly has no place in modern-day jurisprudence. What makes the chief minister's statement distressing is the impact it will have on the Uttar Pradesh police. If civil rights groups in the state and outside call it the "licence to kill", they cannot be found fault with. After all, there is the unforgettable experience of the police literally implementing a similar exhortation in the past. Two years ago when the law and order situationdeteriorated, then chief minister Kalyan Singh gave a similar carte blanche to the police. Under pressure to show results, the police organised dozens of fake encounters to bump off hundreds of "criminals." But as it transpired later, many of the so-called criminals killed in encounters were poor people, who fell into the police dragnet for one reason or another. Some of them were too young to fit the description of a criminal.Fears that the police would follow in the same footsteps to impress the new chief minister and show results are too real to be scoffed at. In fact, there is a lot in common between the two exhortations. Even otherwise, the record of the UP police vis-a-vis human rights violation is far from edifying. In the past, the National Human Rights Commission has had to take cognisance of umpteen incidents of police brutality. Deaths in police custody have become so routine in the state that they no longer evoke surprise; at the latest count 159 people have died in this manner in the state this year. It is a misconception that it is only through strongarm methods that criminals can be fought. Far from that, it is the judicious application of the law that can bring them to book. After all, it is the certainty of punishment and not the severity of it that deters crime. Since investigations are time-consuming, police make demands for tougher and tougher laws like TADA which, incidentally, was used more against pickpocketsand petty criminals than against terrorists.The new chief minister's anxiety to improve law and order in the state is understandable in view of the electoral challenge that faces him. But that does not mean that he can exhort policemen to take the law into their own hands. The implications of his call notwithstanding, his own credentials to fight criminals remain questionable. As it is, many of his ministerial colleagues, cutting across political affiliations, have a criminal background. Surely their presence in positions of power can only encourage criminals. To say that he is not bothered about their past as Singh has done is to compromise his own commitment to fight criminals. The right place for criminals is neither jungles nor the Assembly but behind bars.
