Cop, politician nexus lethal for cattle class

The increasing criminality among cops is largely because of the mesmerising aura they carry. The core strength of a tainted cop, howsoever low his rank, is due to the synchronisation of his mindset with the ruling political class that is used to using the police force to gain electoral support.

Former Union home secretary and J&K governor had pointed out in his famous report the reigning supremacy of police and other bureaucracy hand in glove with vested political interests. It’s a quid-pro-quo situation.

Any police reform that dilutes the political executive’s power is unacceptable to the government. Former solicitor general Harish Salve minced no words when he told a TV channel recently that at least five chief ministers had contacted him to move the Supreme Court on their behalf and argue that certain police reforms aimed at disconnecting IPS from law-makers would not be possible.
Salve also pointed out that the rot was at the top and suggested examining five top policemen in as many states.

Much before SC lawyer and former Punjab and Haryana high court judge VK Jhanji, who once heard a case relating to disgraced former Haryana director general of police SPS Rathore, sought a “special law to tame outlaw police officers”, a sessions court judge, who had acquitted the son of a former Delhi police officer in the Priyadarshini Mattoo case, had recommended that criminal investigations involving cops or their relatives must be conducted by an agency with an unimpeachable reputation.

The Police Act, 1861, is undemocratic and makes cops autocrats. That law could be good for police serving the crown, but would it be good for the world’s largest and most populated democracy? The answer is in the negative.

It’s an irony that successive governments never considered amending the antiquated law and making police sensitive to human values. The mounting allegations of criminality, including corruption, against cops are due to their nexus with the political class. This concoction is lethal for the cattle class.