Recently, I sat through 3 hours of a movie by Rohit Shetty called Singham. Dubbed a retro-kitsch movie by Times of India, the movie has nonetheless gone on to become the second highest revenue-earner of this year. Clearly, the movie’s simplistic storyline of an honest policeman’s fight against the forces of corruption and political interference (epitomized in the character of Jayakanth Shikare) has touched a raw nerve with the public.

Before we launch into an analysis of what’s going wrong, it would make sense to estimate the extent of rot in the Police system. The Transparency International (India) corruption Study of 2007 has damningly singled out the Police services in India for their ‘alarming level’ of corruption involving BPL households. It’s estimated that the poorest households of our country pay Rs 2,148 million to the police as bribe in a year!

But what is the cause of such blatant corruption? Is it that the police force is morally bankrupt? Or is there a deeper rot: an institutional or an incentive flaw, or a flaw in the separation of powers that has led to this state of affairs? Some of the dialogues in the movie have captured the underlying issues in a way that only popular culture can.

1. Take for example the constable’s lament “…Kya aukad hai hum logo ka. Kuch nahi! Saala jo sheher ki poori raksha karta hai, day and night, uska pagaar corporate company me kaam karne waale jhaado waale se bhi kam hai (What is the status of a constable! While he is the one who protects the city day and night, his salary is less than that of a sweeper in a corporate company. )Over-the-top, you say? Rest assured, it’s not. Various commissions who have worked on police reforms, have pointed out the low salaries of constables  and the limited promotion avenues open to them as reasons for a highly unmotivated and corrupt force.

   But why has the constabulary in India been treated so unfairly? The reason can be traced back to the 1861 Police Act, which envisioned a highly mechanical job for them, requiring absolutely no exercise of intelligence on their part. So entrenched was this attitude that even a 1902-03 police reform Commission refused to increase their pays saying “In regard to Constables, the Commission are of the opinion that the proposals made by some witnesses to double or treble their pay are due to forgetfulness of the principle that the more important and responsible duties of the police ought not to be entrusted to this class of officers…. Constables are not a suitable agency even for the performance of the beat duties ordinarily entrusted to them.” It was the 1977 Commission which sought to reverse this opinion in its first report, and suggested radical pay-revisions & changes in the promotional structure within the police system so that Constable could rise up the ranks. However, till today the situation remains grim. Only a few states have enacted laws which enable constables to be promoted, leaving the rest to rot in a life of stagnation and low salaries.

1. “Tere ko kya laga, tere transfer order ke arzi pe aye he tu? Galat!! Jaykanth Shikare ke marzi se aaya hai tu… Me tujhe yahaan laya jahaan minister log mere peeche aur police log mere jeb me rehte hai!” (The villain to the police officer – What did you think? You came here on your request? Wrong! You came here because I wanted you to come here where ministers follow me around, and policemen are in my pocket! )A research paper titled “Political and Administrative Manipulation of the Police” brought out by the Bureau of Police Research and Development in 1979 had warned of the unholy nexus being formed between politics, police and crime in our country. In fact, the paper had warned that there’s a great need to depoliticize the force if we need to maintain the accountability of police forces to the rule-of-law and not to the ruling party.

   The question that needs to be answered is why are the police not able to push back against this political involvement? The reason again goes back to the 1861 Act. Through this Act, the police forces in India are accountable to civilian bureaucrats and ultimately through this bureaucratic chain to the government. The Act does not allow for any accountability to the citizens. The political class in India has taken advantage of this and manipulated the police-force to their advantage. Upright and dedicated police officials are easily brought to heel by frequent and untimely transfers and postings to inconsequential positions. Untimely transfers could have been stopped if a minimum tenure was guaranteed for an officer, but the Act does not allow that.  Is it then any wonder that police themselves start appeasing the local politicians more than following the rule-of-law?

There are a number of other issues that are plaguing the Indian Police, issues especially pertinent to accountability which I won’t go into now.The common thread running through all of them is the Police Act of 1861. This ruler-centric law passed in the aftermath of the 1857 revolution, was meant to consolidate the power of the British rulers in India. Consequently, all its provisions were meant to promote accountability not to the rule of the law and the citizens, but rather to the ruling power.

Even after independence, this law was not amended or replaced by the states. Time and again, various commissions (National Police Commission in 1978, Ribeiro Committee in 1996, Padmanabhaiah Committee in 2000, Justice Malimath Committee in 2003 and the Soli Sorabjee Committee in 2006 amongst others) had pointed out the necessity of changing this law and had even come up with Model Police Acts. However, despite so many recommendations, states refused to take up police reforms in any substantive way. Finally, the Supreme Court intervened and issued its own directives in 2006. These directives, a subset of the recommendations by the various committees were

1. Setting up of a State Security Commission: to ensure that the State Government does not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the State police and for laying down the broad policy guidelines so that the State police always acts according to the laws of the land and the Constitution of the country.
2. Minimum tenure of 2 years for a DGP
3. Minimum Tenure of 2 years of I.G. of Police & other officers
4. Separation of Investigation: The investigating police shall be separated from the law and order police to ensure speedier investigation, better expertise and improved rapport with the people.
5. Setting up of a Police establishment Board: The board shall decide all transfers, postings, promotions and other service related matters of officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.
6. Setting up of a Police Complaints Authority: at the district level to look into complaints against police officers of and up to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. Similarly, another Police Complaints Authority to be set up at the State level to look into complaints against officers of the rank of Superintendent of Police and above.

A monitoring committee is now monitoring the implementation of these directives by the various states. A report card from 2009 shows that sadly, but perhaps not unsurprisingly, not many of the States have complied with these provisions. In fact, even when they have complied, for example, by setting up of the Police Complaint authority, these have been set up in a slipshod manner. For example, functioning of the Complaints authority in Uttarakhand has been critiqued here.

Ensuring that our police function in a fair, just, non-corrupt, accountable and citizen-centric manner require reforms at various levels: strengthening of the law, strengthening of law-related institutions such as the police, courts, prisons etc. and finally ensuring compliance with the law. India is still at the first step of reforms, it’s still struggling to ensure that the law governing the Police itself is just & fair and has inbuilt accountability mechanisms. The Supreme Court directives on Police Reforms were in the right direction in the absence of any state initiative. However, it’s not enough. Police reforms require political will-both at the top and more importantly at the citizen-level. The current debate on corruption has opened up a space. Now it would do well for us to include police-reforms in its discussion-agenda.