First published in daily Greater
Don’t ignore sticks
It is time Omar initiates police reforms
By: Arjimand Hussain Talib
The show of political clamour in the State Assembly in on. Every day is a battle of wits – fought on regional, ideological, partisan and even communal frontiers. There is little of substance in the debates. Playing to the galleries has become a culture now.
The political and regional divides in the State look the sharpest today. From the ruling coalition to the constituent regions, hardly anything seems to bind things together other than marriages of convenience. There is urgency for a change. And a new thinking.
Rule of law is critical for bringing in a qualitative change in J&K today. Doubtlessly, demilitarisation is beyond the purview of any government in the State. No degree of the opposition’s hullabaloo and the government’s pointless point-scoring in the Assembly would help our crises.
From the infamous sex scandal to the recent Shopian tragedy, there is one clear lesson: J&K badly needs police reforms. The quality of the rule of law and governance in J&K is closely linked to these reforms. Our current right to information law is of little consequence as long as police reforms remain elusive. Omar needs to act now.
Police reforms are a reality in
J&K needs police reforms the most, primarily because it is grinding under a twin saw: carrying the heavy baggage of the colonial rule and the Dogra Maharajas’ autocratic legacies. Then we have the laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Disturbed Areas Act, Public Safety Act and a serious Official Secrets Act. No genuine democracy and such laws can go together.
In our political system, myriad powers and interests of the political executive, police and bureaucracy often converge. The result is a unique power bloc wherein the checks and balances of a normal democratic system simply dissipate. The Model Police Act emphasises law enforcement as the basic role of the police. It advocates impartial service to the law, without any heed to the wishes, indications or desires expressed by the government. That is something that J&K badly needs today.
J&K needs a kind of policing today which is humane and accountable. Undue political interference with its work needs a check. Accountability and performance evaluation need a new approach. Basic police stations continue to be ill equipped. Policemen at lower levels need better salaries and modern gadgets in dealing with hi-tech and cyber crimes. Police stations need to be networked with computers. Filing of complaints needs to be simplified.
Quite a few states in
One grave problem in J&K’s policing system is that it is highly influenced by the colonial police law passed in
The extra constitutional laws and colonial policing practices reinforce the culture of impunity. A decent degree of transparency is very much possible, even as the ‘sensitive’ areas are guarded from undue ‘exposure’. The Model Police Act in circulation must serve as a reference guide on that. It takes care of the ‘State sensitivities’ by advocating discretion when it comes to information on ‘areas of operations’, intelligence used to plan investigations, privacy of the individual citizen and judicial requirements. Making these exceptions possible in J&K’s context could help in overcoming the inhibitions.
Another issue concerns the powers of the District Magistrate (DM) in our State. There is lack of clarity in the exact role and powers of a DM here. The complex ‘division of powers’ between the DM, the police, the army, etc. often leads to a situation of flux. We need clarity if our police are accountable to the law or the District Magistrate. We also need clarity on the roles of the army and the political executive. This state of flux often manifests in confused official response to crisis situations. What happened in the immediate aftermath of the Shopian tragedy is an important pointer of that.
The Model Police Act stresses that police performance not be evaluated on the basis of crime statistics or number of cases solved. In our case, police officials’ performance is often evaluated on the basis of the number of ‘militants’ killed/arrested, arms seized, information got on “anti national activities” and so on. This system of performance evaluation is a recipe for gross indiscipline. It blatantly undermines the rule of law. In the past, custodial murders of innocent civilians have often been lured by promotions and cash prizes. There could be better performance indicators. For instance, busting crimes which impact common people’s lives. Motivation and incentives could be more professional.
The serious dearth of women police officers and police stations in J&K also needs attention. The way policemen generally deal with women filing complaints in police stations is little gloomy. The manner policemen treat peaceful women protests on the streets doesn’t make a good sight either.
Governance is undoubtedly one area which needs drastic amends in J&K today. And that could happen only when the supremacy of the rule of law is established with meaningful police reforms. Omar Abdullah continues to have a burden of expectations. Time has come for him to initiate these long-pending reforms. And create a State Security Commission and a State Police Commission. Then he could go further to set up Complaint Cells at district and State levels.
Feedback at arjiamnd@greaterkashmir.com
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