As long as police reforms remain in the political arena, police forces in India would be influenced by political motives. In India law and order is a state subject. This was primarily made, because it was thought that local political leaders – the Chief Ministers of the states – would have a better understanding of happenings within their smaller jurisdictions. It was a good arrangement, till political leaders found goodness in virtually taking over the police in their respective regions and politicising them into such awkwardness that not only has their efficacy dropped to levels of stupid, but corruption within the forces have had skyrocketed.
As per recent data while crime rates are shooting up, as is insurgency, expenses for the police forces account for only 3 percent of government spending. This will leave the huge vacancies – 24 percent vacancies in state forces and 7 percent in central forces – that lead to extreme inefficiency at one end and extreme pressure at the other.
Also salaries of police personnel, despite several pay commission recommendations, have remained low. Bright students enter through the IPS route, only to find that they have set their sights and lives on a super corrupt system that is set to please only the politicians.
Moreover, as has been seen in the recent past, central agencies, such as the ED, the CBI and more, also under total control of the politicians, have repeatedly undermined the activity and efficacy of the police force.
To cap it all, of course, is the lethargic and virtually stationary legal justice system of the country with pendency in the courts shamefully high.
So, who will bell the cat? Not the politicians.
When CNN ran the news item: ‘NYSE will be run by a woman for the first time in 226-year history’ and tweeted it, it was pleasantly accepted by Twitterati in general and the thinking, sane public. It was welcome news in this world, divided along narrow lines of colour, nationality, sex, creed and, in India, caste as well. It was information which told about women’s rights being acknowledged at the top levels, even in places where female presence was unheard of a couple of a decades back, The New York Stock Exchange. It was like the soccer stadium amid sporting arenas.