POLICE UNPROFESSIONAL
Policemen are executives of law and executors of the rule of law. As professionals, their only interests are the laws of the country and its enforcement at all costs including personal safety and self-interests. This, however, is only an ideal situation. The job culture and peer pressure play a major role in setting the standards in an organisation. This situation is not quite happy regarding the Indian police now. The reason is the general collapse of the professional instinct, caused by the degeneration of values. Society gets the police it deserves. A country of self-seekers naturally has a self-seeking police force and the consequence is lawlessness. This is the malady India suffers from. The symptoms are crime, disorder and insecurity that have kept the country and its people in a stranglehold.
An incident that took place 16 years ago in Chitradurga district of Karnataka will illustrate the kind of professional commitment Indian police pursue. A gambling den was raided by the police and the owner spoke lowly of the DIGP whom he said was taking “ mamools” from him every month. The matter was reported by a local newspaper. This infuriated the DIG and the police turned its ire on the newspaper. The Deputy Superintendent of Police of the sub-division in which the range headquarters was situated joined the fight and a gang ransacked the office and the press of the news paper a week later. Though a case was registered with the local police station and the owner of the newspaper moved heaven and earth to bring the culprits to book, nothing came out of it and the case went undetected. But the people knew who were behind it all.
Such episodes shatter the trust of the public who cannot look upon the police as the guardian of their rights and interests. Basically, lapses lie more in the concepts than in individuals. The police as a collective force operated to wreak vengeance on the newspaper for factual reporting, though somewhat indiscreet. But going on a rampage, however highly placed the officer in question could be, in nothing but, making a mockery of professional objectives. The most disturbing aspect of the present Indian police is the slow and steady process of replacement of the passion for law, justice and fairness by a single-pointed indulgence of self-seeking tendencies as the drive of the police system. Much more disquieting is the attitude of the public about the development and their complete dependence on the police as the protector of their legal rights, provider of security ad dispenser of justice. What is actually happening is a great betrayal. Indeed, the tool, namely the police, is there to enforce law and provide security. But it has become the handmaid of the rich and influential and serves the interests of the people in that stratum of the population.
Self-seeking tendencies express themselves at all levels of policing and management of organisational matters. As far as policing is concerned, be it crime-prevention or investigation, collection of intelligence or management of internal security or maintaining law and order, self-interest has role to play. It’s expression in crime management is too obvious a matter.
While intelligence collection is becoming a politically oriented function, internal security operations are no more than providing cover to political bigwigs and other influential people at the cost of more pressing problems of national magnitude.]
Law and order has become a tool in the hands of the politicians and the policemen make themselves available for such games. In the process, honest policemen suffer and the morale of the system receives a serious setback. The result is lawlessness spawned by the absence of effective policing and wrong models as the protectors of law.
The parochial instinct of the police expresses itself in the management and organisational matters. Under the cover of discipline and the need of tacit obedience, the game of favouritism is wilfully played on the one hand and any resistance is ruthlessly crushed on the other. Organisational processes such as promotions and transfers are widely used to achieve personal ends. Posts with no job content are created in various ranks primarily to accommodate officers who refuse to fall in line with the higherups for reasons of conscience and professional integrity. It an upright officer takes a sinecure posting in his stride and refuses to part with his principles, he is harassed through other means. Recently the commandant of a training college pressed his higherups and the state Home Secretary for the removal of a functionary of the college from his important postion. The latter was accused of involvement in a fraudulent act involving several lakhs of rupees. The Home Secretary and the chief of the unit ( in the rank of DGP) made sure that the commandant of the college faced the consequences for recommending action on their favourite official. His vehicle was withdrawn, telephones were disconnected, his personal staff was harassed and his subordinates were encouraged to disobey. This continued until the officer who found functioning impossible went on leave. He reported back to duty only after he was transferred out. More surprising is that such incidents take place in the open without any attempt to keep it secret or discreet.
Professional pride is the panacea for the malady of self-interest in professionals. Greating an ambience of professional pride is a sure way of nurturing and promoting high professional standards and efficiency. It is immaterial whether high professional pride creates high standards. The fact is both are important to create a conducive environment of professionalism.
India definitely needs such a professional environment in its police force to strengthen its democratic traditions and the roots of the rule of law. An organised effort is on in the Indian police to force its members to fall in line at the cost of individual brilliance and creative abilities. The policemen are starved of innovative steps. The organisation follows the principle of nipping talent in the bud insisting on unquestioning servitude. The talk of the top brass on public platforms about the need to nurture excellence and the outstanding qualities is a farce. Most leaders prefer status quo at the peril of the growth of the organisation so that their interests remain undisturbed.
For administering the medication, first, topmost police leaders of the country need to be convinced that the police of present India are really ailing with serious problems and the system really needs treatment.
