The constable, moreover, has been transformed, through sustained processes of class denigration by the media, the courts, the political leadership and what passes for “civil society”, into an object of widespread contempt and, as one serving police officer expresses it, into a “convenient lightning rod that attracts the charged fury of our so-called civil society”. In sum, the constable operates in “the most degrading conditions that can be humanly inflicted, in one of the most volatile societies in the world”.

And this constable — barely educated, ill-trained, ill-equipped and held in wide contempt — is expected to effectively tackle a 21st century scourge like terrorism. Indeed, he is expected to do this while displaying a sophisticated understanding of the niceties of the law, and the subtle exercise of powers relating to arrest, custody, search, seizure, bail, surveillance and the use of force!

In our age of liberalisation and globalisation, this makes sense: you get what you pay for. India is not paying for a modern and efficient policing system. India is not paying for a professional policeman. India is not paying for security. India cannot, consequently, be secure. The beat constable in India will have to be reinvented, in terms of educational and training profiles, equipment, living and working conditions and, crucially, his status in society, before he can be “brought into the vortex of our counter-terrorist strategy”.  

The writer is executive director, Institute for Conflict Management & the South Asia Terrorism Portal

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