CRIME, POLITICS AND THE POLICE

Crime, politics and the police are the three meiths of the vicious triangle within
which the future of democratic India and its free people is inexorably involved.
Though wealthy industrial and commercial houses form the fourth dimension
of the unfortunate predicament, their techniques are as yet limited to
manipulative strategies to gain an increscent hold over political power by remote
control in pursuit of their professional interests and seld they jump on the
indignity of involving themselves with the vicious triangle of crime, politics and
the police. It is that their wealth flows to the spendthrift chests of the troika and
operates as catalyst in reducing the normal life of free citizens to a welter of
uncertainties and unending hardships. However, their anfractuosity in the process
of atrophy is rather distant and indirect unlike the trio of crime, politics and the
police. Politicians protect criminals from the grip of the law while criminals
reciprocate by acting as their henchmen in handling underground activities. The
police go officiously to politicians en revanche for job protection and strike an
understanding with criminals to ease personal financial interests. Thus works this
nexus of vile power brokers, preying on innocent people, bloating itself on the
blood of the hapless masses.
POWER AND WEALTH
In a blinkered system like ours, where power and wealth are the ultimate
virtues, where power and wealth in themselves stimulate mutual growth to the
exclusion of all other dimensions of life, it is no wonder, the people of this poor
country succumb to the trappings of power and wealth at the cost of all virtues,
values, pride, dignity and human decency. In an increasingly competitive and
complex world where every day more mouths are added to share limited
resources, where the principle of the survival of the fittest operates to its immane
logical end and where the basic needs of survival and decency can be assured only
with power and wealth, people naturally go all out to ramp the ladder of power
and wealth by whatever means and cost. In the process, justice and morality
become casualties and criminality raises its ugly head as an instrument to achieve
otherwise impossible objects. This is how politics and crime knit together in the
fabric of Indian public life.

183
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

POLICE AND POLITICS

The story of the police is somewhat different. As the catchpole of the nation’s
administration, the police enjoy tremendous power over vast fields of human
activities with responsibilities to life and death of the hoi polloi as well as dignitaries.
In this sense, the police are the cutting edge of the state power and its ultimate
bearer. No power can be its own sans the police on its side as an executioner and
loyal watchdog. This is why politicians felt the need for wooing police to their
side in their activities. The police of independent India have become an easy prey
to the power baits of smarter politicians by the reason of their failing strength
of character and talent. Their greed, unsound social background, lack of
commitment to good values and failure to comprehend police virtues in the right
perspective make them willing partners in whatever politicians do or intend to
do. They refuse to look beyond their political masters with their dispensations
of job favors; and so law, justice, righteousness, professional ethics, morality,
decency, human dignity, common good of people, national interests and even
conscience, otherwise common to any human being, have become invalid
nonsense to them. The police, sans sound character and personal integrity are no
more than a country dog that is what the Indian police have become in free India.
The politicians, inebriated with new power, smartly brought these weaklings to
absolute submission and hold them on a tight leash to be their personal
watchdogs and personal gendarmes in requital for favorable job placements,
undue promotions and other largition from time to time. Nothing is valued
higher than this largess and its dispensers by the new police of India. It is how
the police was involved in the conspiracy against decent public life in India.
POLICE AND CRIME
It was a hop and skip for the police from the plangent world of politics to
the mysterious world of crime and the underworld. The police became a
weapon of politicians to bring about the subjugation of the crime world to prise
their resource for the political ends. They thus made good use of the decreasing
strength of character of the police in forging a nexus between the police and
criminals in furtherance of their own telos. With a weak spine to hold itself and
hapless in the face of odds, the police is only too pleased to follow the footsteps
of its political masters as the cardinal principle of policing. In changed
circumstances, discipline and subordination which form the basic connecting link
of the police hierarchy, lost all their shades of meaning and are interpreted as
dunny and blind subservience to those who have power, seeking personal
interests. And politicians easily led the police to the despicable cul de sac of the nexus
with criminals, the very people whom both are supposed to control and bring

184
 INDIAN POLICE

to book for antisocial activities. With politicians as the custodians of power en

wrier to the hilt to support, the police plunged lock, stock and barrel into the
lucrative crime world; the consectaneous wealth and comforts were in no way
less sweet than the hard-earned money of law-abiding society. This is how the
nexus between the police and crime world was established.
DANGEROUS NEXUS
The trio of manipulators is a dangerous force to reckon with, in the Indian
democratic situation. Cohered as a tight-knit power-block, they have permeated
into all conceivable facets of Indian public life with the sole intention of garnering
all the benefits and pilferages of the inefficient public administration, for sharing
among themselves in line with the proverb that one who dines well in a whore’s
house is wise. Those whom the public trust as their benefactors and protectors
perpetrate the vice is the tragedy here. The amoral side of this operation does not
seem to have affected either the police or politicians in any way and the vile cabal
against the Indian public goes on unabated. It seems that all actors in this tragic
drama think that Indian democracy is a free-for-all field to grab to the maximum
in a world where all look for themselves and only those who grab the most
survive. This approach is certain to undermine not only the democratic setup of
the nation, but also its very social fabric. The blame for this sad end should
squarely be borne by the ugly troika of politicians, criminals and the police.
DILEMMA OF INDIAN POLITICS
Not that politics is all bad. It is, by definition, governance of state through
popular leadership. The malaise of the present Indian politics lies in its tilt to
popularity at the elimination of ‘leadership’ and more dangerously, ‘popularity’
being made a serious business proposition to be attended to by spending hard
cash as an investment to earn returns in multiple proportions. How popularity
can be won by investment remains a mystery of the democracy. However, sine
dubio, popularity is won on the field pro rata to an investment in Indian situation.
It is res judicata that nothing means as much to the Indian electorate as the money
and power to prod them to cast their votes for a particular candidate. The history
of independent India makes it patent that honesty, patriotism, quality, service,
excellence and even charisma have become casualties vis a vis money and power
on the Indian election stage. In this situation, a vicious equation is formed wherein
political power is equated with electoral popularity, which in turn is equated with
money and power, which can be had only through political patronage. The
vicious circle has helped to create a block of manipulative extortionists as divided
from the passive common public. Politics too has its honest and patriotic people
who are committed to the commune bonum. But, sadly, they are caught in the grind

185
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

of a system which does not let them surface to prominence unless they come to
terms with it and adopt the venal proposition of winning elections to make
money to win the next election. Only those who correctly grasp the inner
dynamics of this and adapt to its mechanics can hope to make headway. Others
are bound to sink. When the system itself made the election a venal mechanism,
corrupt practices that rope in criminals and police cannot remain far away from
the scene.
CRIMINALISATION OF POLITICS
Whom should we blame for this hapless position? Certainly not the politicians
or their auxiliaries like criminals and police who are unfortunate by-products of
the grind. They are created by the situation, arising from a system that is misfit
to the people to whom it was devised. The blame lies either on the Indian people
who are impair to the democratic system evolved for them, because of their
unenlightened and venal conscience which is so dim-witted that virtues like
honesty, service, patriotism, quality and excellence can make no dent on it at all;
or it lies with the political system devised for them which failed to take their
psychological makeup into account and ipso facto led to the problem of
maladjustment in national life. Otherwise, how can we explain criminals and
goondas winning elections with impunity even while rioting and murders were
committed at their behest on the eve of elections itself. The fact is that the chance
of winning an election often is pro rata to the aura of a tough image built around
the candidate. It is these people who win elections and rule this country! It is these
people whom the Indian electorate prefers to invest with powers to safeguard
their interests! Obviously, the Indian electorate lacks the foresightedness and
vision to understand the consequences of its irresponsible decision. It is yet too
immature to take decisions about the interests of the nation and see how national
interests are closely linked to its personal
interests. It is yet to broaden its perspective to include the life of the nation
as an integral part of its own. Long term and rational decisions are alien to its
nature. Immediate selfish interests and a parochial outlook continue to be the
driving force of all its actions and decisions, whether it is on the matters of
national importance or personal concern. In most parts of India, it is money,
arrack, sari, threat, fear of landlords or the blazoning propaganda of a candidate
that influence it to decide as to whom to vote for. How can the future of this
country be safe in the hands of such an electorate and its elected leaders? How
can an indifferent and irresponsible electorate provide honest and efficient
leadership to the nation? This weakness of the electorate has ultimately left Indian
politics in the heath of violence and manipulative extortions, with the instruments

186
 INDIAN POLICE

meant to protect them mowing the field. Saner elements in politics, which found
survival difficile, have left the field, giving way to the elements that are more
suited to what is required in the field.
It is how politics has become a pit of junk from a class of dedicated and
virtuous leaders. The credibility, which is the pith of any political life, is the biggest
casualty in Indian politics. People are more and more disillusioned with the extant
political institutions and the percentage of the electorate that takes the trouble of
going to polling booths to cast votes is steadily decreasing from election to
election. It is an open secret that an election is an opening for a candidate to invest
money to reap wealth, comfort and power for the next five years. And how he
reaps the wealth, comfort and power again is not a mystery at all. It is corruption
and misuse of public money. If he is ambitious and intends to promote his career
interests, there is no way out in the existing system but to resort to pulling strings
and pursuing other more deadly methods, often with the active collusion of the
officious criminals and police.
POLITICAL MURDERS
Political murders are common features these days in India. When a political
adversary grows to be an irritant, he is seen to be eliminated. No career politician
wants to stain his name with a murder case and get his name registered as a
criminal in a police station. He does the work through his faithful underworld
henchmen whom he keeps in good humour always for being available for such
a need, by providing them political support and protection. For this, he keeps
the police at his side. Intervening in police postings easily does this and helping
to get early promotions for favored ones.
BOOTH CAPTURING
A candidate for an election may even resort to booth capturing through his
criminal aides to facilitate his victory. This operation requires thorough planning
and training of the men involved, apart from the willing cooperation of the
police. An attempt at booth capturing can succeed only with the intrenchant
nexus between politicians, criminals and police for synergy.
POLITICAL PATRONAGE
The unhealthy nexus often leads to and facilitates other forms of crime. Cases
of rioting, assault, kidnap, rape and blackmail, involving the supporters or
relatives of politicians, criminals and police in furtherance of a political cabal are
other usual forms of crime that result from the vicious nexus. Often, criminals
and police are employed to create disturbances or inspire sensational crimes in
furtherance of political goals. The losses of life and property involved in the wily
schemes seld touch the conscience of the politicians, the criminals or the police

187
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

who are responsible for these dastardly acts. The political patronage and the
nexus with police desensitize criminals to the process of law and justice; they are
thus emboldened to commit more daring and ruthless crimes that endanger the
life and property of the plebeians. The police, in its links with politicians on one
hand and with criminals on the other, are in its new avatar as the protector of
vested interests with no more commitment and passion for law and justice. It
has become a discredited force, a willing instrument of power brokers in a
ruthless and violent cabal of power-games with no heart for the common man
and the common cause. This is the requital the Indian electorate gets for letting
its political system putrefy by its nonchalance and irresponsibility.
POLITICISATION OF CRIME
The over world is just the tip of the real, raw world. There are more things
hidden in this world than there are seen. Opportunist Indian politicians who seize
the first available instance to enlist the support of criminals and underground
operators for their nefarious designs soon realize this. This in turn is a god-sent
benison for criminals to restore their lost credibility and social standing with the
help of their association with the custodians of power, apart from the security
and protection from the police that ensues from the association. They promptly
grab the opportunity to their advantage and show how useful they can be to
politicians in their career-promotion designs and wreaking of personal
vendettas. The experience and professionalism of criminals is handy to politicians
to execute their nasty operations without attracting the stigma attached to them.
The vast army of criminals has become a ready resource to them for use
whenever need arises. This has given a sense of confidence and security to
politicians, who are otherwise vulnerable in their highly uncertain, challenging and
competitive environment. Often politicians have so much relied on criminals that
the latter have became their most trusted lieutenants, even getting elected to
legislature houses with their help and blessings. There have been instances in India,
where prominent politicians have refused to disown their notorious criminal
friends in public even after reaching the vertex of their political career. This shows
the sway held by criminals over politicians in the Indian situation. It is a fact that
no syndicate of organized crime in small and big cities anywhere in the world can
survive even for a day without political patronage. Ergo, all syndicates of
organized crime and their menace are the direct outcome of the intrenchant
nexus between politicians and criminals, indeed with the police as bystanders.
PLACE OF CRIME WORLD
No criminal can take lightly the need for political patronage in running his
crime syndicate. Be they smuggling syndicates, gambling houses, narcotics

188
 INDIAN POLICE

dealers or plain hoodlums, the only way to survive is to have comfortable

political protection at the right levels. The crime syndicates en revanche, pay a good
percentage of their criminal gain to the protectors. Thus, it is an arrangement to
mutual advantage. The crime world also provides hoodlums as volunteers to
perform challenging tasks during the election campaigns of their political
patrons, apart from liberally financing these campaigns. How can a politician,
after he gains power with the help of a criminal, ever let down the criminal? This
symbiosis of politicians and criminals that has emerged from the extant Indian
political system is the root cause of all the complications discussed until now.
The very fact that politicians are prepared to risk their reputations rather than
distance themselves from the crime world shows how highly the world of crime
is regarded by the politicians in their scheme of things. Politics and crime have
become the two faces of the same coin in the present state of affairs and a saying
goes that there cannot be politics without crime and no crime without politics.
In the present Indian situation, it is true that the lotus of politics can blossom only
in the offal of crime.
IMPORTANCE OF VIOLENCE
The need for organized violence is so high on the priorities of the Indian
politics that all political parties have created youth and volunteer wings to
accommodate young hoodlums as a fighting and street-smart force to further
the interests of the political party in street-fights and gang wars. Those who stand
out among the recruits to these wings for their exemplary courage and toughness
are provided with fast promotional avenues to reach the top and the fact that
a very high percentage of ministers in Indian Governments are the fighters from
this arena gives a glisk to the high priority of violence and crime in the present
Indian political setup.
CRIMINALISATION OF POLICE
It is an irony that politicians, whose patronage criminals sought to ease them
from the straints of the police, brought the latter closer to each other, building
a bridge between them. The understanding reached between criminals and the
police goes a long way in criminalizing Indian public life and blunting the
effectiveness of the policing. Though the nexus between criminals and the police
is not a new phenomenon, that what was an exception once has become a rule
now and what was a rule once has become an exception. The criminals overawed
the weak police with their connections with powerful politicians on one hand and
lured the police with easy money and comfort on the other and thus tilted the
balance to their advantage from the mouse and cat disadvantage they once
suffered not long ago. Though criminals played their political cards with

189
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

adroitness, their real target a tout propos was easing themselves from the pressures
of the police. This, they achieved with little cost by deftly flaunting their political
connections to a weak and crumbling police. Criminals did business with
officious police for huge grist to their coffers of professional interests without
giving away anything substantial in return, save trifling throw always. This itself,
however, was an unimaginable bonanza to the lowly police of all ranks who had
never seen life with open eyes outside their regimens.
CRIME AND INDIAN POLITICS
If some are born criminals, some choose the path consciously and some
others are constrained to follow the path. While faulty financial and social policies
forged by unenlightened politicians are responsible for forcing several helpless
people to the path of criminality on the one hand, their opportunistic, politically
motivated demarche more often drives sensitive people on the path of revolt to
inclip the fold of terrorism and violence. Naxalism, Sikh terrorism, the ULFA
movement, Kashmir separatism, Hindu and Muslim militancy and even
sympathy in India for the LTIE cause are direct outcomes of the nonchalant
political handling of the national issues.
India has seen isolated political attempts in the past to lure people out of the
clutches of the crime world and rehabilitate them; these, however form
exceptions. The famous Chambal experiment initiated by the late Sri.
Jayaprakash Narayan had some success in spite of discordant vibes raised by the
machinations of certain politicians in the area.
POLITICAL KIDNAPPING
Political kidnapping is an international phenomenon that comminated the
world of diplomacy in excelsis in the 1970’s. The menace trickled onto the Indian
scene though slowly, decisively in the 1980’s. The realization that political ends
can be easily met by the malengine of the kidnap-drama opened up an aboideau
to the terrorists who were desperate to meet their political targets. The increase
in terrorist activities in India, perchance, as an outcome of the suspected
“balkanisation of India” policy adopted by some foreign countries, made
political kidnapping a ubiquitous reality on the Indian political scene from the
latter half of the 1980s.
The terrorists of Kashmir and Punjab set the tone in India that was picked
up by the People’s War Group and the ULFAs in the 1990s. The inexperience
of Indian political leaders in tackling the problem complicated the matter. While
most countries around the world explicated a policy of stubborn refusal to yield
to kidnappers’ demands under straints a tout prix the Indian leaders goofed by
displaying their weaknesses while people close to them were abducted, in

190
 INDIAN POLICE

yielding to demands as a quid pro quo in releasing a large number of dangerous

terrorists who were arrested at huge cost and loss of lives. The situation has been
further complicated by adopting a policy of double standards in sacrificing the
lives of lesser mortals in some other cases. It is obviously sending a wrong
depeche to the would-be terrorists that the closer the proximity of the kidnapped
to a political leader, the bigger is the chance of meeting their political ends.
The publicity attached to the kidnap-drama and the arousal of the public
interest in the developments that follow is another dimension of the political
kidnapping that brings an identification and gives an image to a terrorist outfit
as nothing else can. It has become the fashion to initiate a terrorist outfit with a
kidnapping operation. This chevisance in the inchoate drama proves the strength
and resourcefulness of the new outfit and its locus standi among such other outfits,
in the way that the murders committed by a recruit decide his place in the Mafia.
The finesse displayed in executing the operation to a successful end decides the
future of the organisation apart from the advantages of the ransom money and
release of compatriots. Interestingly, the first experiment of political kidnapping
in the Indian scene was conducted in a foreign country in the form of the
egregious abduction and killing of Mr. R.H. Mhatre, a junior diplomat in the
Birmingham consulate in the first week of February 1984 by JKLF militants.
Political kidnapping and murder is tout court the most heinous crime that often
involves the cold-blooded murder of absolutely innocent people for political
ends. The mental agony and subsequent destruction involved to the maledict
hostages and their near and dear ones because of the misguided entrainement of
a handful of greenhorns naturally make kidnapping an infructuous political tool
at the end.
The considerable fall in the incidences of political kidnapping on the
international scene of late is an indication of the increasing realization of this fact.
Crime scarcely survives in the situations of haute politique like diplomacy and
relations between nations. High thinking by enlightened people functions as a
catchpole to check the criminal tendencies from being perpetuated. Political
kidnapping on the Indian scene is also bound to be a temporal phenomenon as
seen other where in the world.
A disturbing trend in political kidnapping is the possibility of professional
criminals like smugglers and drug peddlers resorting to political kidnappings at
the hest of their illegal profession in the guise of political kidnappers. The
increasing dependence of terrorists and professional criminals on each adds to
the complexity. This unhealthy situation is already true in India as it is in many

191
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

other countries, a pernicious cohabitation that’s a commination to peaceful

international order.
The kidnapping of Romanian charge d’ affaires in India, Liviu Radu on
October 9, 1991 on his way to office by the Sikh militants is the first instance of
a high ranking foreign national of diplomatic corps being kidnapped by Indian
militants to meet domestic political goals. This succeeded, a series of similar
kidnappings of Indian and foreign officials by the People’s War Group, the
ULFA and the Kashmir militants. The abduction of Mr. K. Doraiswamy, a
senior director of the Indian Oil Corporation by the JKLF militants and his later
release in exchange for nine arrested Kashmir militants hit headlines in Indian
newspapers by the reason of the ‘Stockholm syndrome’ noticed in the hostage
after his release. His empathy with his captors and their cause and sympathetic
references to Azad Kashmir, liberation struggle, misguided boys etc. after his
release rather than a degout to them were explained in the language of the
cooperative behaviour se defendendo of the pusillanimous hostages of a bank
robbery in Stockholm in 1973, and is indited in psychology texts as “Stockholm
syndrome.” The tendency of a diffident hostage to cooperate sans gene as the only
dernier ressort and even aid his captors at the dumdum of seity may well nigh turn out
to be a malengine in the hands of resourceful criminals to force a change in
political attitude in the symbiotic world of the criminals and politicians. The
salutary references of Mr. K. Doraiswamy to his captors also throw light on the
possibility of his being conducted well, non obstante his other where political
affiliations, ipso facto suggesting that political criminals more than often are gens de
bien of high principles and a selfless goal to achieve. It is why these criminals come
under a distinct class and command furibund aficionado from specific sections
of the society, it be Subha and Sivarasan of the LTTE or Sukhadev Singh (Sukha)
and Harjinder Singh Jinda of the Sikh militants of yore.
POLICE AS A LINK
It can be categorically said that the business of crime cannot survive anywhere
if politicians and the police join hands to bring the crime world to heel as is
expected of them. Alas, it is not to be in a world of opportunist politicians and
muticous, weak police, both with an eye on the spoils of the crime world. The
police, actually, are the weak link in the troika of power brokers. It is just a
significant link between the major players of the drama, namely politicians and
criminals, and functions as an instrument of politicians to bring criminals to their
grip and to tighten the prise. The role of the police as a law-enforcing agency and
its consequential hold on criminals makes it a handy instrument for politicians.

192
 INDIAN POLICE

POLITICISATION OF POLICE
The police are imprimis an executioner and odd job boy of the government.
This image of police is effectively made use by politicians for all conceivable
personal and official purposes. While low-ranking police are put to use as body
guards, gunmen, messengers, watchmen and odd-job attendees, high-ranking
police are put to the travails of the same odd jobs in higher forms. It is a triste
commentary on the present police that while low-ranking police do the job as
an unavoidable duty, high-ranking officers compete and fight among themselves
to get and attend to the odd jobs of their political masters. This they do, even
while they are fully aware of the criminal antecedents and police histories of some
of their benefactors. Where is the passion of our police for law and justice, the
fighting spirit against crime and lawlessness that should be the cardinal
professional emotions at all levels? It is just that our police have no more
commitment to justice and social cause and nothing seems worth the effort, save
career promotions and creature comforts.
Not that the police force is devised to be the personal handmaid of the
politicians. It is to be the ultimate power-bearer, the moving force of power on
the field. This necessitates discretion and exemplary personal dignity to be its
primary traits. It has to be a cornucopia of strength of caractere and probity and
stand up as a model to less fortunate people of the country. This beau ideal is also
relegated to oblivion in current Indian policing where all-out self-promotion by
devious methods is the norm.
SUBSERVIENCE IN POLICE
The present police, particularly at higher levels, condescend to any mean level,
even at the cost of personal pride, human decency, individual dignity, social
standing and professional ethics, just to get a pat from its political masters. There
are instances wherein police officers of higher rank exposed their careers and
lives to deadly risks by pursuing deviant methods to please politicians. The
mishandling of the Bangalore Bandh on December 13, 1991 wherein violence
was let to spread and intensify till it went out of control in the evening is a point
in issue. These facts only make out a point that a normal man, once he enters the
police service, somehow unconsciously assumes to role-play the canine nature
and gives a go-by to human instincts, conscience and such noble traits, which are
exclusive to the human animal. The question is should the police be so? Is it
imperative to shed human qualities and assume canine instincts to join the police
service? Is it true that policing can be effective only with the canine instinct of blind
loyalty and instinctive obedience, deprived of all individuality, conscience and
rational judgment? The answer is a categorical ‘no.’ On the other hand, policing

193
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

can be genuine policing only with the strength of character, tempered with
rational judgment and healthy exchange of ideas at all levels.
VOICE OF REASON IS SILENCED
It is not as if all people who join the police are always weaklings. Saner
elements made up of stronger fiber too once in a way enter the police. However,
numerically superior leeway swimmers with their stronger positions, by courtesy
of officious politicians, strangle the reasonable voice of the enlightened few who
enter the service. If some among such a minority are found to be implacable and
refuse to be illaqueated, they are easily crippled by murky malengines that bring
mayhem on their career prospects. The police display an extraordinary unity of
purpose in executing the telos of eliminating the common enemy of its personal
ends, though, otherwise, it is as polarized as any conteck-ridden organisation.
Career-long enemies become friends and most inefficient officials become
thorough professionals in fulfilling this task. Most of the righteous few yields to
the straint and fall in line with the majority pursuits. This success has made the
police think that its weapon is inviolable, though foul and dangerously wrongful.
However, sadly, it has forgotten that all are not the same and that there are
exceptions for everything. It is quite possible that none of such unethical methods
affect the few exceptionally strong-willed, noble individuals, but obsign their
resolution not to yield to the pravity and fight out a tout prix.
CASUALTY OF INDIVIDUALITY
A police official who commits his time to the services of his favored politician
is aware of his weak position that it may embarrass him when the concerned
politician loses his power. This consciousness sensitizes him to the need of
garnering support from all around, including subordinates, colleagues and
seniors. Any source of plain speaking among subordinates is taken with serious
apprehension and everything possible, either legal or illegal, is plotted to keep
such a source in place. It is ruthlessly hit in its most sensitive parts to bring it to
its senses. This approach has led to a myriad number of casualties: really bright,
outstanding, conscientious and foursquare officers who inadvertently joined the
police. Either they are made to blunt their sensitivities and caliber to adapt to the
ground reality or pack-up right away. The travails of ploughing the field for a
fresh approach are not only not allowed, but even the thought of such
experimentation is roughed up. Is the police department doomed to be the cold
storage of musty, old skeletons without room for resilience? Those who reached
the top with the support of opportunistic politicians think so.

194
 INDIAN POLICE

A POLITICAL INSTRUMENT
In an atmosphere where placements and transfers are decided by the needs
and wishes of self-seeking politicians, no police can efficiently function nor can
it be free from the vice prise of the politicians. It is not surprising that power-
esurient politicians more and more grab powers that are legally and traditionally
invested with the police department when the top brass lack the strength of
character and conviction. This leads to a position wherein the police department
becomes a chessboard on which politicians move their pieces to checkmate their
adversaries and win the political game in their favour. In other words, the police
sans effective leadership are becoming more a handmaid of politicians by
moving away from its sacred role as the guardian of law and justice and protector
of the society and the common man. The credit of bringing the police from its
height of power to the present level of absolute submission should go to the
superior strength of personality of wily politicians who bent the police on their
own terms with selective use of stick and carrot. This police are not the police
and what it does is not policing in the proud sense of the term.
CHANGED ROLE
With the increscent involution of the police with glidder politicians, the
conception of the police about its own role has undergone a large-scale change.
No more does it look at crime control and maintenance of order as its first duty.
With this, the concern for crime control received a setback and crime control and
investigation have receded to the last priority except when politicians are
interested in them for a specific purpose. Only crimes that disturb politicians
foment police to galvanic and meaningful action. Other crimes receive no
priority. The very definition of the gravity of crime is adapted to suit the new
conception. Those crimes that are tolerated by politicians are no more crimes.
The self-image of the police as ‘a fearless arbiter of crime’ is changed to a
solicitous servant in attendance at the pleasure of a politician master. This blunting
of the crime card of the police has made it less awe-inspiring and less deserving
of respect from the criminals. The police have more and more realized that
criminals, particularly those from organized syndicates are personal friends of its
political masters and it is no match for the criminals in terms of wealth, influence
and social standing. The men of the police see those criminals on equal footing
with their political masters and learn to treat them with awe. They find it absurd
to act with authority against the immarcescible criminals who are too high for
the small stature of the police. It is unfortunate that the police of the present day
has never realized its infinite stature as a law-enforcing agent vis a vis all others

195
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

including criminals and politicians whom it is empowered to search, arrest and

take to court if they deviate from their rightful path. Sadly, the trifling wealth and
the concomitant “big-man” image of others appear to the present police as more
appealing than its own awful police authority.
REVERSAL OF FUNCTIONS
The very possibility that policemen trade off their awful authority lucri causa
is an astounding phenomenon. Undoubtedly, the poor salaries and inadequate
working conditions have brought about this sad state of affairs. The hafthas and
such periodical shares of the spoils from criminal activities often are the mainstay
of the well-being of many police families. This triste glissade has unfortunately
permeated even to the highest levels in the police as reported in a shameful case
from Karnataka sometime back in 1990 wherein a IPS man and his wife on the
day of the former’s retirement were taken to the court of law by the public on
the complaint of defrauding the public by selling tickets in the name of a spastic
society charity show and collecting money eo nomine. The event made big news
with bold headlines splashed across newspapers at the time. That apart, the
importance of various police jobs is determined in police circles on the basis of
the potential of the posts for attracting illegal money from the crime world. And
jobs with potential for such gains are most sought after and the concours for such
jobs is so high that often postings to such jobs are bought by paying money in
lakhs of rupees. Indeed, the investment is made with the esperance of making
it back several times over within a short period thereafter in synergy with the
crime world. It is the reason why law and order posts, traffic policing, postings
in the food enforcement cell and even certain vigilance jobs outside the police
as in the KEB for instance are known as jobs to be earned by beating out cut-
throat competition while many other jobs are known to be punishment postings
and are largely detested. It goes without saying that judging jobs on the basis of
the gauntlets they provide or on the opportunity of service is now a matter of
yore. It is the crime world with the wealth it appropriates to each job that decides
the importance or otherwise of the police jobs and ipso facto controls the type and
caliber of officers in each job. In other words, it is the criminals who invisibly
control the police ab extra rather than the police controlling the criminals. This
reversal of functions has lots to do with the low morale of the present Indian
police. Its members find themselves at the mercy of criminals whom they are
supposed to trammel and bring to book. The police are no more confident that
it is mentally and organizationally equipped to treat criminals in malam partem.

196
 INDIAN POLICE

WEAKENED POLICE
The increasingly powerful and modernized crime syndicates vis a vis the age-
old police force have made crime control a misnomer in the Indian context. The
decreasing percentage of the police presence due to its failure to keep pace with
the population growth in the face of the increasing crime density, the
disadvantage of the police in re the speed of communication, transportation and
weaponry before the ultra-modern machines of the crime world, the advantage
of criminals in terms of the choice of time and place of operation and
concomitant superior numerical strength and ability to produce surprises and the
highly skilled and motivated cadres of the criminal world pressing down a
demoralized and indifferent police give criminals an edge over the police in their
encounters. Consequently, police fatalities in such encounters are increasing. This
holds good for terrorist groups, too. Ergo, the police in India are no longer keen
to actively interfere with the activities of the crime world. The understanding
between the criminals and police is that both confine themselves to their
respective fields and avoid embarrassing each other. The police are duly paid for
its silence while stray troublemakers who jump in medias res are silenced. The
Indian police are sane enough to quickly realize that its interests are safe in silence
while an uncalled-for tangling with the crime world may invite a host of
complications and comminate individual job security and lives.
POLICE LEADERSHIP
The albatross of the atrophy of the present Indian police solely rests on the
incompetent police leadership of independent India rather than on anything else.
Unimaginative organizational planning, uninspiring operational guidance and
control and lack of leadership conviction in modem police leaders has led to utter
chaos, resulting in a random chorisis of the organisation without any conceivable
planning or application of mind to the needs of effective supervision and control
mechanisms; dangerously ineffective recruitment, ineffective training, misuse of
the facilities of confidential assessment of subordinates and the degeneration of
control and supervision machinery are symptomatic organizational maladies.
The present Indian police force is utterly demodulated from its professional
objectives and police jobs are considered only as devices that provide rank,
power, social status, sundry comforts and a comfortable job to fall upon when
an urge to work arises. How can the people of India depend upon a police force
of this sorry state of affairs for their security, protection and orderly living?
ORGANISATIONAL GROWTH
How deeply the police are self-centered even within its own organisation and
what care and concern the police leaders show to evolve a perficient and planned

197
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

police organisation can be assessed by the trend of evolution of the police

organisation as an increasinglyly top-heavy setup and the speed with which
promotions are affected at different levels. In states where there were only two
officers of the rank of Inspector General of Police, for say forty thousand men
and officers about thirty years back, there are now nearly hundred officers of and
above the rank of Inspector General of Police, for say three hundred thousand
men and officers: thereby the last thirty years account for 750% expansion in the
lower levels against 5000% expansion at higher levels. What these people at the
top do for policing apart from being a drain on the state revenue and a strain
to officers down the levels with conflicting instructions of dubious merit?
Almost nothing. It is unfortunate that none in the police administration realizes
that it is not the rank, but the real human stuff inside that decides the height,
excellence, merit, intelligence, honesty, integrity, responsibility, work knowledge
and human qualities of a person. Promotion to higher rank serves no purpose
unless the higher rank provides a really higher and challenging job content and
a suitable man is perforce selected to meet the increased challenges. This is not
the case in present police promotions where sinecures are created to facilitate
promotions to satisfy in-group instincts. Most of these jobs are without any job
content and responsibility and often are places to relax from the pressures of
family life. However, the same courtesy does not extend to the more unfortunate
ranks at lower levels including the constabulary. While vacancies at the topmost
level are filled up by promotions strictly overnight, promotions at intermediary
levels are effected in weeks or fortnights or months, depending on the rank in
the police hierarchy. It is years in the case of the constabulary. There are cases
where vacancies of Head Constables and Assistant Sub-Inspectors or Sub-
Inspectors are not filled up for several years, depriving the constabulary of their
de jure promotions. There are any number of instances of men in the constabulary,
retiring without a promotion non obstante their eligibility and seniority for the
existing vacancies, which are not filled up from many years. Policing is a job,
performed mostly at lower levels with decreasing involvement up to the level of
Superintendent of Police. Beyond that, it is tout court a supervisory task and in a
police force with no supervision to speak of, higher ranks are just de trop. Any
move to expand these ranks and any undue haste to promote to these levels
cannot be called honest decisions in the functional or public interest.
Unfortunately, the Indian police are doing just that and there is none to put it back
on the right track.

198
 INDIAN POLICE

MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

The position is worse in recruitment. Selection has become a misnomer. It
is random at best and high business at its worst. This approach to recruitment
may turn out to be a highly dangerous situation for both the governance and
public life of India. Policing is a highly sensitive profession and requires only
specially equipped people to handle it. It demands certain specific traits in its
officers, which cannot be learnt by any amount of training. The police being the
ultimate power-bearer on the street, the public look to it as a model and its mien
decides public trust in the government. In the circumstances, the wrong selection
to the police is bound to be fatal to the national life. India is deeply mired in such
a dangerous situation now. There is a price fixed for each rank of the police. How
can a fresh recruit who enters service by paying a bribe be expected not to reap
returns from his large investment? What can be his mental picture of the service
he enters? It is absurd to expect professional policing from such a recruit. Those
who permit such nasty doings in the police or involve themselves to bring the
organisation to its painfully slow sphacelus are the butchers of a great tradition.
Even when there is genuine scope for proper selection in recruitment, nothing
is done to rope in the really competent. It is either because none bother much
to have a really competent person in the slot or because of the incompetence of
the persons entrusted with the job of selection. The common aim of the police
in recruitment now is to complete the job without inviting legal hurdles at the
best.
Sometimes, even rules are overstepped to cut short procedures and do away
with cumbersome work. Even sensitive posts at the lowest level like police
drivers are filled up arbitrarily and quality suffers as a result. This is equally so in
matters of transfers as discussed in detail elsewhere.
LINE OF COMMAND
Everything is not right in the spine of the police organisation namely the
hierarchical order-itself. The importance of honesty, integrity, hard work and
excellence is replaced with personal loyalty and usefulness for personal odd jobs.
This is the outcome of the natural devolution of personal loyalty to politicians
at higher levels on the ladder. Those who do not come up to the expectations
of personal loyalty, fall out of favour and are eliminated from the line of
command as persona non grata. This pravity has a more demoralizing effect in a
force of line of command than meets the eye. This trait in the organisation results
in the deflection of brighter, proud and foursquare officers to insignificant jobs
to the advantage of the opportunistic ones who are insecure and ergo tend to

199
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

make up their famishment with personal loyalty to those in power. It is the main
contributing factor for the slow degeneration of the present Indian police.
QUALITY IS SUPPRESSED
There are some unwanted under currents in the Indian police that make pride,
efficiency, excellence, originality and such superior qualities the objects of fear
and hatred. Perhaps, these superior qualities do not go pari passu with the line of
command by the reason of the insecure feelings, these superior qualities rouse
higher in the line. The fear is not based on reality in a disciplined force like police
where the line of command functions a tout propos without reference to personal
traits. The question is why this fear surfaces in the modem police while the pre-
independent police with all its better manpower could run without it. The
possible answer is that the line of command is a perfect mechanism in a
disciplined force when the force indulges in de jure professional duties. However,
the line of command becomes increasingly strained when it is used for personal
ends as of late. Ergo, ultimately, it is a vicious circle wherein poor leadership leads
to elimination of quality and that in turn results in poorer leadership that slowly
blights the police organisation to its triste logical end.
POLICE BROTHERHOOD
The police are a sacred confrerie of those who choose policing as their
profession. It is here, as brothers irrespective of caste, creed, social standing, rank
or personal traits, they live as one, in the interests of the common objective of
crime control and maintenance of law and order. How can this ideal which was
once a strikingly kenspeckle reality survive in changed circumstances where there
is no common cause except personal advancement at the cost of everything?
Consequently, groupism is abounding in the police force and jealousy has
become a characteristic feature of the ranks. There is no mutual warmth among
police personnel. The police force, once a smooth silk fabric, is now in shreds
with each group pulling on opposite sides to the detriment of the unity, essential
to its survival in view of the natural job hazards. Indifference to the other’s
predicament is a rule in the police these days. Often, those in the police contribute
to each other’s misfortune because of accidental bad blood or just fun. No
confrerie is patent anywhere in the present Indian police.
LACK OF PLANNING
The police, by the nature of its jobs, are required to walk hand in hand with
modem advancements to keep it fit and functionally effective. The general
reluctance of the Indian police to adapt to new ideas and the ungainly handling
of modernization projects have resulted in its falling en wrier in terms of modem
machines and organizational techniques in comparison to the syndicates of

200
 INDIAN POLICE

organized crime which keep themselves pari passu with neoteric findings and
inventions to keep themselves in excelsis of the effectiveness. En attendant, modem
communication, information, transport, office and armament gadgets are
bought for the police on the advice of some sales agents without creating the
adequate infrastructure or trained personnel for their use and without assessing
the real need of such equipments in the existing police situation. As a result, the
gadgets so bought fall apart with desuetude after the initial entrainement cools
down. Such a light-hearted approach to modernization results in the police
becoming more and more an obsolete unit, apart from putting an unproductive
burden on the state exchequer.
The police are one of the most vital instruments of the public administration
and works as a link between the executive arm and judiciary. It is the ears, eyes
and limbs of the government. No government with a failing police system can
survive whatever be its other assets. It is against this background that the glitches
bedeviling the present Indian police should be viewed. Any complacency at this
stage about the existing police system may prove too costly for the unity and well-
being of the country and the health of its governance.
PROFESSIONAL POLICING
The police of India imprecise should be extricated from the clutches of
criminals and politicians to make it a professional policing outfit with objectivity
and commitment to its task as the cardinal gospel. Both criminals and politicians
have stakes in the style of functioning of the police and neither of them, the
criminals with their easy money and the politicians with their easy power, let the
police slip from their grip. There is no point in beginning the cleansing operation
from the sides of the criminals or politicians. It has to begin from the side of the
police by insulating it from the vile influences of criminal wealth and political
power. If this bifarious object is fulfilled, all others fall into place by themselves.
Once the vile shadows of the criminals and politicians are removed from the face
of the police, it is certain to resile to its old professional self-a highly committed,
motivated and efficient force. But the golden question is how to achieve this end
and save the police from these two debilitating influences.
INDEPENDENT POLICE
In a free society like India with a democratic political system in the saddle,
interaction between various strata of society is a natural phenomenon and efforts
to raise barriers between blocks are bound to be infructuous. Yet the gauntlet
of saving the police from dangerous influences should be courageously taken up
in the national interest. The fact of the police being a disciplined force is both an
advantage and disadvantage in this stupendous challenge. It is an advantage

201
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

because the weapon of discipline, if discreetly employed, can be used to block

the police from undue interaction with unwanted elements. It is a disadvantage
because the police with its trained response may find it difficult to isolate itself
from the personal behests of its political masters. It is left to police leaders to
devise appropriate techniques to make the best use of the existing advantages in
this sacred and patriotic task. To begin with, somebody among the police leaders
should decide to bell the cat. Who can do that while all of them are willing
partners in creating the vested nexus that helps them to ascend to their present
high positions in the hierarchy? Yet, the world is not as bad it is painted. There
have to be exceptions for everything and thus, good people among the police
too, who by the quirks of dextro tempore avoid the long arms of Satan and survive
to reach the place where they rightfully belong. These breaches in the otherwise
swarth layers of clouds throw rays of hope upon the future of Indian police.
POLICE AUTHORITY
The first and foremost job to be done is to free the police from the unhealthy
influence of all hues of politicians by making it responsible to an independent
authority with absolute power to take decisions on matters pertaining to policing
and police organisation. The authority should be a professional body with men
of proven probity and quality as members, who have reached a stage from
where they need not sacrifice their convictions to appease those in power. A
working arrangement is to be devised by which the authority is responsible
directly to the legislature and functions as an independent authority like the
judiciary, Comptroller and Auditor General or Election Commissioner.
CORE GROUP
Overhauling the recruitment procedure and investing utmost care to ensure
that really the best from the job seekers are let in to the service can undo the
damage already done to the police by the ancien regime. Any interference in
matters of recruitment should be promptly and decisively resisted. To make
recruitment an efficient operation, only highly qualified officers of proven
probity should be entrusted with the task with the absolute authority to take
decisions within the framework of law. The ugly head of bribery in recruitment
should be ruthlessly crushed and the unhealthy tendency of making recruitment
a business should be curbed tout a fait. Infusion of good blood at least at this late
hour is certain to undo the damage done till now and bring the ancien regime yet
extant inside to its senses. Indeed, the recruitment should be followed with a
sound training that sensitizes the recruits to their professional ethics and motivates
them to their sacred duties and responsibilities.

202
 INDIAN POLICE

CONTENTED POLICE PERSONNEL

Police jobs should be made attractive with good salaries and satisfactory
working conditions that give the strength to resist the bait thrown by the
criminals. It is proved by social scientists that the incidence of bribery is inversely
proportional to the financial strength of a social group. Therefore, better salaries
and eximious working conditions definitely make the police less sensitive to these
lures. This would be a major step in breaching the hold of criminals over the
police. The measure must be closely followed by a perficient and strictly
professional policy of placements to ensure the right man comes to the right job
with merit and honesty being duly rewarded. Measures to ensure an unbiased
assessment of the work and character of subordinates strengthen and place the
police organisation on sound footing. Those who are empowered to assess
subordinates and their work must be made answerable therefore and any
unscrupulous and random discharge of their duties should condemn them
forever for the misuse of this sacred responsibility to the future of the
organisation.
FAIR PLAY
Creation of a high power core group of people who are adept in assessing
men and character within the aforesaid police authority may help to create a
feeling of confidence and job security and prod them into discharging their
official duties fearlessly. This group that oversees the work of police personnel
from a distance should be made ultimately responsible for all career decisions.
The responsibility of officers in assessing the work of their subordinates which
forms the major embarrassment of the present Indian police must be limited to
giving their opinion about performance to the core group; the expert core group
processes the opinion by its own research, expertise and discretion and takes
responsible decisions on its own. The group must be made responsible for
development planning of the police, work assessment, job analysis, recruitment
and management of human resources. Institution of such a core group to
oversee the career development of police personnel without personal bias may
bring revolutionary changes by committing the police to its work ethics and
professional ends with due single-mindedness.
MENTAL QUALITY
It is a tragedy in the current Indian police that there is no relation between the
efficiency and performance of an official and his standing in the organisation. The
police officials are so indifferent to the performance of their subordinates and

203
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

their work turnout that they are absolutely in the dark about the standard of work
turned out under their supervision. Another reason for this sad affair may be that
they are unqualified to assess. This situation leads to random assessment when
a senior is statutorily bound to assess and in the process, talent withers and
opportunists overtake high-caliber workers on the hierarchical ladder. This tragic
melange can be brought to order by exposing police officers periodically to
motivation courses where they are taught about the work they are required to
perform, its importance and how to discharge their duties. There is an innate trait
in the police that makes people entering it shut their minds and distance
themselves from all hues of mental activities. Police training must endeavor to
break this trait and coax trainees to open their minds and reflect on all matters
before making decisions. Often, the habit of reading becomes a casualty, once
a person enters the police. The police are in no way antipodean to mental and
scholastic pursuits. It is a mystery what there is in the police that bind its men to
let their minds and hearts languish by desuetude. Police researchers must look to
this matter to mould the police into an organisation that acts and thinks before
resorting to action. Before this happens, police training has a major role to make
a recruit a thinking animal with a heart to feel and an intelligent instinct to follow.
PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE
This negative approach to reading and thinking has resulted in poor
professional knowledge in the police, particularly at the higher ranks. Work
knowledge is generally limited to what is remembered from previous work
experience and bits of what is learnt from books during police training, decades
before. Their defective conception about supervision compounds the situation
by depriving them of the benefit of learning new things during supervision of
work. The style of supervision in the police should be seen to be believed. All
orders to subordinates emanate from a perfect void. The orders warrant
subordinates to feed them what is to be done in a given situation and the reply
received is returned to the same subordinate as an order to perform. The best
style of supervision in the police is no more than holding a meeting of
subordinates wherein the latter are allowed to arrive at a course of action to meet
a given challenge, and the decision is returned to them as an order to perform.
This style of ineffective supervision must stop if quality is required in police work.
The system of overlapping supervision because of multiple ranks, where none
really discharges his supervisory role must be scrapped to make the police a
meaningful organisation. A thorough overhauling of police training
programmes and application of modem organisation techniques to bring in

204
 INDIAN POLICE

effective check and control mechanisms would go a long way in ameliorating the
ground realities in the police.
UNIVERSALITY OF CRIME
On ultimate analysis, crime is a universal phenomenon. All living beings are
criminals in varying degree. Criminal thought is a part of the natural function of
a healthy mind as is the moral restraint that prevents the criminal thought from
being acted upon. External restraints brought about by the fear of law, custom
and adverse reaction reinforces the inner restraint to prevent the committing of
crime. However, as the force of external restraints weakens for diverse reasons
and the proportion of gain to be made in committing a crime overweighs the
risks involved in the balance sheet of the operation, the lure of crime increases
and the deed is done. It is the social situation that controls the external restraints
to make committing a crime an asset or a liability and thereby decides the
proliferation or suppression of crime with human nature being what it is always.
Criminals are criminals because society gives them easy openings to thus meet
their needs. Politicians love to befriend criminals rather than bring them to book
because the society they live in makes their lives comfortable with criminals as
friends rather than as adversaries. Policemen find the crime world sweeter
because it is how things stand for them. The remedy for the proliferation and
endearment of crime lies in changing the social dynamics to make crime a liability
to criminals and criminals a liability to politicians and the police. In the existing
nexus of politics, crime and police, crime is an asset to criminals and criminals
are an asset to politicians and police. Criminals should not be construed as a
separate block of citizenry. They are a cross-section of people from all fields of
life who have moved beyond a commonly accepted degree in their criminal
tendencies. Criminality may be prolific in certain civilized fields like commerce
and industry in the form of tax evasion, violation of foreign exchange regulations,
hoarding etc; such crimes are generally not taken seriously in spite of the public
awareness of the crimes, with the social standing of the criminals remaining
unaffected. Government servants too come under this category of criminals
because of the unconfined corruption in public life. It is a fact that Indian public
life is a vast fields of criminal activities and politicians and police, though the
custodians and protectors of the Indian public life, form part of the crime world.
However, knowledge of the involvement of politicians and police in this nasty
world stirs the public conscience, for the reason that they are supposed to be the
people on whom the public relies to save them. But, it cannot be because they
are also part of the society that makes public life a nasty affair and nourishes it.

205
 PRAVEEN KUMAR

CRIME AND NATIONAL ECONOMY

A word about the effect of the nasty nexus between politics, crime and police
on the national economy. Unity gives strength. It is true about the nasty nexus also.
The only telos of the nexus is gain by synergy, the synergy that brings confidence
and courage to the troika in its nefarious activities, thereby inducing it to more
daring and innovative criminal activities. This results in proliferation of crime,
apart from affecting the quality of crime by opening up new avenues for
operation. As the ultimate end of all crime is illegal gain and the incidence of crime
is directly related to increase in black money in the national economy, the
proliferation of crime invariable results in inflation and the weakening of the
national economy.
More dangerously, it results in a polarization of the society into criminal rich
and honest poor and destroys the country’s moral fabric. The increscent
incidence of easy money, material comforts and political power of the criminal
rich ultimately leads to internal strife, emeute and popular terrorism.
SOCIAL POLARIZATION
The indulgence of the rich and powerful in crime popularizes criminal
activities by bringing an aura of status to them and negating all inhibitions in the
popular mind. Society easily accepts the example of the wealthy and powerful
for making an easy buck to lead comfortable lives in the world where life is
becoming increasingly difficult because of the spurt in black money, caused by
the proliferation of crime. While decent life becomes impossible by honest
methods, the need of survival forces honest citizenry to accept crime as a way
of life as the last resort. This would be where politicians, criminals and police lead
the country.
Easy money and easy wealth have a tendency to inflate. Criminals tend to
spend lavishly. This ends up in a spurt in prices of land, building and essential
commodities while honest men have to toil hard for an extra quarter. Crime
begets money and money begets more money and more money begets power,
comfort and everything. In the crush, honest man is lost forever. The ocean of
criminal wealth around him that is beyond even his wildest dreams frustrates him
and ravages his sense of morality and righteousness. It turns him violently against
all human values and decency, leading him to a world of crime and violence. It
is what we see in Punjab, Kashmir, Assam, in far away Srilanka or even in
Naxalism where it is hidden in the guise of political ideology. It is an irony that
politicians and the police, who create the demons, eat their own pies by falling
to the bullets of the grievously hurt, self-righteous, once innocent people. It is said

206
 INDIAN POLICE

that even the dacoits in Chambal are symptomatic of this social and economic
malady.
It is true that crime cannot be eliminated from any society, as the tendency to
commit crime is ingenerate in human nature. However, crime can be suppressed
by appropriate straints. What straints and how they are to be applied are ironically
decided by politicians and the police. If they come out of their indulgent interests
to commit themselves to their professional objectives, they can certainly save
India from the present predicament. Not that every politician and every
policeman can come out to achieve this noble task, but there certainly are noble
elements yet surviving as exceptions among them, who should take up cudgels
in favour of the Indian polity and sacrifice their lives and careers, if necessary, to
make the renaissance of Indian police and Indian public life possible. The
question yet to be posed is whether the inveterate vested interests will let these
sacrifices bear fruit. Let us hope for the best.

207