Prakash Singh captures the 25-year struggle for police reforms in India

Vikash Narain Rai

EVER since the Supreme Court’s September 2006 judgment on police reforms, Prakash Singh, a co-petitioner in the case and author of the book ‘The Struggle for Police Reforms in India’, has been the most visible face of the elusive journey to get the verdict implemented in letter and spirit. An officer with an outstanding police career, he made it his “life’s mission to depoliticise the police”, an obviously impossible transformational goal, and has documented the continuing struggle most forthrightly in this book. As noted in the preface, “It took 10 years to get a favourable judgment from the highest court of the land. Surprisingly and disappointingly, it has already taken another 15 years to get the judicial directions implemented — and the end is not in sight.”

The book begins with an insight into the historical perspective of policing in India before attempting the question: why police reforms? Prakash Singh’s petition of 1996 was based on the recommendations contained in the eight volumes of the National Police Commission (NPC) report, gathering dust in the corridors of the Ministry of Home Affairs since 1980. The book carries the assessment of the NPC to summarise the status of pre-Independence policing: “Prior to Independence, police functioned de jure and de facto as an agency, totally subordinate to the Executive and ever ready to carry out its commands ruthlessly, even though they may not always have been in genuine ‘public interest’ as viewed by the public.”

The author laments, “Unfortunately, after Independence, the politicians found it convenient to continue the system because it enabled them to misuse and abuse the police for their partisan ends.” He suggests tracing the evolution of the police through subsequent landmarks, such as the critical debates in the Constituent Assembly and a stout defence of the All India Services by Sardar Patel, unrest over the reorganisation of states, the Naga rebellion, language riots, significant role during the 1965 and 1971 wars, the questionable commitment of civil and police services towards rulers during the Emergency, followed by the Shah Commission’s severe warning that the system must be overhauled, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, attack on the Allahabad High Court on September 13, 1994 and the excesses committed on the Uttarakhand agitators on October 1, 1994.

Curiously, however, the above list omits the Hashimpura-Maliana carnage in Meerut, the biggest massacre of Muslims in police custody in Independent India on May 22, 1987, and even worse, the 2002 Gujarat riots. Prakash Singh’s own uprightness, though, had always been in the forefront, the book reveals. He had been summarily removed from the post of DGP, UP, on September 30, 1992. “The state government wanted the security arrangements around the disputed shrine to be diluted. These were resisted by me in the light of the Supreme Court’s directions to maintain the status quo. Personally, in my heart of hearts, I was all for Ram Mandir at the disputed site. However, as the police chief of the state, I was quite clear that upholding the rule of law was the highest religion for me.”

The book singles out the response of the Centre in not enacting the Delhi Police Bill as the most dampening factor on the path to reforms. The author rightly notes that the states passed their own Acts as follow-up action on the court’s judgment, but only to legitimise status quo. Blaming the bureaucracy for frustrating the efforts to implement the verdict, Prakash Singh has not even spared the two powerful police background National Security Advisers, MK Narayanan and Ajit Doval. “They never understood the angst of the police, having served all their lives in the Intelligence Bureau. Another reason could be that they were perhaps not prepared to risk the displeasure of their political bosses.”

The book’s approach has two serious flaws. Firstly, it attempts no audit to analyse the impact of the SC verdict on police reforms in the states where it has been fully or partially implemented. Secondly, it completely misses the essentially bureaucratic character of the much-touted overseeing structures these reforms created in the name of autonomous policing. The likes of Police Establishment Boards and Complaint Authorities belong to the same Executive wing of governance that is rooted in power, and not people. Lastly, the final chapter of the book, ‘The Way Ahead’, is mostly a compendium of the Central government’s announcements, schemes and rhetoric within the status quo, transactional at best and not transformational. This is in sharp contrast to the conclusion that a democratic country must have democratic policing and endorsing of the statement of the International Police Task Force that ‘the police serve to protect rather than impede freedom’.

Of late, invoking the 2006 SC police reforms verdict in the corridors of power has become akin to flogging a dead horse. Nevertheless, the true value of this unique book is best summarised in the words of Justice Madan Lokur: “Prakash Singh has done well to document his struggle for police reforms for 25 years. Well worth a read for all concerned citizens.”