The latest attack on the probity of the Indian police has come from Human Rights Watch in a hard-hitting report which accused the police of illegal detention, of the torture and killing of suspects, of partiality toward the rich and powerful and widespread corruption.
It is sad that this latest report, which is backed by specific evidence collected by investigators, should have come from an international body. Yet despite the intervention of the Indian Supreme Court 13 years ago and a series of other local attempts to push for reform, successive governments have shied away from the task. Nor does the problem lie exclusively with the police themselves. One senior officer from the Punjab has pointed out that the judicial system is, at the very least, slow and inefficient and, at the worst, itself corrupt. Therefore it is virtually impossible to establish due process of law and order.
On paper India's police should not be in such a mess. The Indian Police Service (IPS) provides a cadre of university graduate officers whose job is to run the police forces at state and national level. Such a highly qualified group should be better qualified for their work than in many other countries. Unfortunately their quality has been undermined by excessive movement between appointments. In an effort to promote continuity, the Supreme Court demanded that no IPS appointment should be for less than two years and preferably for longer. Then there is the more serious problem that ordinary policemen are poorly-trained, overworked, underpaid and widely under-resourced and are obliged to use antiquated crime reporting systems that date back to the time of British rule over 60 years ago.
Therefore poor leadership and abysmal training, equipment and discipline have all led to wretched policing standards that do the world's largest democracy no credit at all. Root and branch reform is long overdue, with decent pay levels, proper training and retraining, adequate equipment and information technology support. No less important is the need for a transparent complaints procedure that will bring dishonest or violent policemen to justice and punish them accordingly. Parallel to this, India's criminal courts need to make themselves altogether more efficient and focus on applying the law without fear or favor.
There is no exaggerating the colossal nature of this task and it is small wonder that government after government in New Delhi has avoided tackling it. But the time has now come for the work to begin in earnest. It is simply unacceptable that a country on the threshold of a major international economic power should have a seriously Third World police force and justice system. India's armed forces are by and large a model of discipline and efficiency. There is no reason why the same strict standards cannot be applied to the forces of law and order. Maybe one important first move to improve the morale of India's policemen would be to pay them properly and make them understand that only by always upholding the law do they earn the right to wear their uniforms.
