Indian Police

Lets see - if we took a list of all the trustworthy organizations/departments in India, Indian Police would be among the bottom if not the bottommost (there is strict, cut throat competition with politics/politicians). This department unlike judiciary reports to politicians (home ministry) and hence has become a vested interest. Additionally, there is substantial power vested to police and hence misuse and abuse are commonplace. In fact at one time, umpteen jokes associating police station as the place for rape were common [magazines and movies]. Honestly, what is your personal experience of a sincere and trustworthy police[wo]man who did not look like Vijaykanth?

I think very low about Indian Police. In fact, given exception for extreme circumstances, I would go out of my way to avoid contact with them - including traffic police. I remember this incident several years ago. I was probably in my eighth grade. My mother had sent me on an errand to buy something from the market. I had to cross my neighborhood police station for this. Unusually this time, a policeman called me inside. As I went up to him, he handed me a rupee and asked me to buy a cigarette for him. That time, fear was my primary emotion and I meekly obliged. But this incident fills me with disgust when I think about it even now. I had never bought a cigarette even for my closest friends or relatives till then. Here I was doing that duty for my protector! Another incident from much more recent times was when I was at the beach. It was a little late in the night, but not too late [10pm or so]. I wanted to venture towards the waves but the place was solitary now. I was accosted by two policemen (in uniform). One of them reeked with alcohol smell. This policeman asked me to go back towards the beach entrance. I should have known better than to retaliate - I just replied back with an irritated "Why?". I didn't like the alcohol and police dress going together. Of course, it wasn't taken well and the subsequent interaction between us wasn't good either. I just walked away from that scene partly in anger and partly in regret at having engaged with them. But these personal experiences, umpteen magazine articles, other first hand experiences of witnessing police (including traffic police) taking bribes and several dramatized movies about their state all get together and don't exactly present a rosy picture in my mind.

But then, I hadn't encountered someone like Kiran Bedi in my life. Reading through her biography ("I Dare"), the final emotion is unabashed admiration and pangs of yearning for someone like her. But the irony of all things was that politicians and other police officers got to her as well. And why wouldn't they? But her stellar accomplishment at the end of her exalted career is coming out straight and clear through this convoluted maze of lethargy and politics. Even then, she had to quit early (a year and a half or so) to avoid being kicked one last time by politics. If anything goes against her - and I state this by facts presented in that book, which one might assume should be taken with a pinch of salt - might be that she was a fan of attention and adulation. At best, it is that others couldn't stand her hogging the limelight but that was just an outcome of her work (very very plausible given what she did, especially in Tihar). In the middle, it might be both. At worst, she might have made some judgmental errors in handling certain situations. But her sincerity and dedication are rock solid and unwavering like a towering monolith. Actually, if someone had applied this kind of work in the corporate world with intelligence, they would have become multi-millionaires. Her life reminds me that people can be sincere even in a corrupt world living in their midst.

I will however, never forgive what the administration did to Tihar after she left the place. The commonly used quote in the book is that "she changed it from a jail to an ashram". Again, more than one inmate is quoted stating "this looks like a hostel"! The administration's way of taking revenge on her (for all the attention she was gathering) was to revert it back to its original state which Kiran Bedi herself calls a "hellhole". The posting was a "dump post" reserved for officers to be punished. But her stature has always been to throw herself 101% into everything and in the process transform the situation through her actions and her subordinates' cooperation. It's hardly a surprise that success and limelight followed her everywhere. Again, that is also why she got selected for UN training and spent several months in international assignments. (Does it surprise you that her training was never utilized once she returned?)

Her life gives me hope. It is living proof that a rotting system is no excuse to rot with it but a small part of transformation can percolate to other parts. I cannot write off as the system being 100% corrupt, but surely the straight ones are far and few and hidden from public visibility - possibly being put down like how she was put down. I salute you madam - not just for what you did to the police service but also for showing what involvement means.

But unless some kind of conscious leadership flowers here, Indian Police will always be - Avoid if you can. Doubt if you cannot. Trust only when extremely sure.

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From the perspective of the public, I see the following fundamental problems with the police:

1) Abuse of power (umpteen cases of accused being physically harassed, false cases etc)
2) Shirking work (refusal to log complaints and/or FIRs)
3) Bribery (swaying of responsibility or lack thereof for money)

For 1: Why can't we remove this right from the police? Why not make it impossible by law for police to physically abuse people for interrogation? Just verbal interrogation. Police indulging in this act can be candidates of a complaint themselves?

For 2: I think technology is the most powerful tool for this. See what online booking for railways did to the system? Why not embark on a major project to centralize the complaint/FIR database. Allow people to file a complaint online and do not allow anything to sit on a physical file. This will build transparency and accountability. Then allow for an automatic escalation process through the system itself and allow the original complainant to reopen the complaint if it is closed without resolution.

For 3: No idea!

I think a side process will be for judiciary to work 365 days a year and a way to clear all backlogs. But that is a separate story!