Different uniforms

The core duty indeed,the key characteristic of a functional modern state has been identified for centuries: it should exert a monopoly over the legitimate use of force within its territory. In other words,no non-state actor must set itself up as an alternative source of the threat of violence. In well-governed modern states,the police and paramilitaries are sufficient to maintain order. But in most,thats not enough: hence the need for private security agencies. But and heres the crucial point even where these exist,it must be absolutely clear that they possess no authority of their own,that they derive their legitimacy from the state.

India has 65 lakh private securitymen. Six and a half million,with their number growing at 25 per cent a year. That number should give us pause. It is many times larger than the strength of the Indian army itself. Put together our armed forces,our paramilitaries and our state police forces,and only then do you begin to approach the scale of the pool of non-state security personnel in this country. Naturally,a grouping of this size needs regulation urgently. Not just for reasons of public order and safety,but also because anything that smacks of a retreat of the state from the exercise of its legitimate,core power cannot be allowed to stand. Parliament passed,in 2005,the Private Security Agencies Regulation Act; word came in on January 5 that one of the key provisions of the act,that private guards be registered will finally begin to be implemented in Delhi this week. This is,of course,welcome if belated news. Bringing these employees into the registered workforce is good all round: for the security people,for the state,and for prospective employers.

But more needs to be done. Some security agencies G4S,for example,has 130,000 employees in India,which it claims makes it Indias second largest employer have grown truly large. Many of these have set up internal ranks,as in the armed forces; have chosen uniforms that are close enough to genuine military or police uniforms to fool even the careful observer; and,consequently,have personnel who could acquire an exaggerated sense of their own power and authority to use force. The norms the government needs to enforce must remind both itself and them: the state alone has that right. The difference between private security and those genuinely empowered to keep the peace must be more than obvious.