The optimism generated by the Supreme Court’s directives on police reform needs to be tempered by the situation on the ground. Two caveats are in order. Law and order and policing can never be divorced from politics in a democratic polity, even though the police constitute an instrument of law. However, what a healthy democracy needs is that there should be no political interference with the police at any level.

Welcome as the reforms blessed by the Supreme Court are, they will not achieve this objective given the Indian genius to circumvent any law, unless the root causes for the dependence of political parties on the police to gain power are eliminated. In the Indian milieu characterised by bewildering social diversity, political fragmentation, and parliamentary democracy in which the chief executive is vulnerable to pressures and even blackmail from his legislature supporters if he has to survive in office, this is indeed a formidable task.

In another respect, too, there is need to set the record straight. That is the widespread belief that the Indian Police Act 1861, which is still in force, was designed as an instrument of colonial oppression. The Act is, no doubt, outdated and therefore not comprehensive enough to cater to all the challenges facing the police today. But except for one provision which subjects the district police to the control and direction of the district magistrate, there is nothing in it that smacks of colonial intent. One can safely bet that this provision will not be given up even if a new Act were to come into being.

... contd.