A Right to Information petition in Madhya Pradesh has revealed there were 600 police transfers in 2008 on instructions of politicians. Each year, Rs 600 crore is spent on 45,000 policemen to guard 13,000 VIPs. Twenty-five per cent of Delhi’s police force is on VIP duty. Meanwhile, the home minister admits 160 districts are prone to Naxalite violence. These geographically contiguous districts are characterised by complete collapse of governance, meaning not only absence of public delivery of physical and social infrastructure, but also law and order.

The current ruckus, following Tuesday’s report from Human Rights Watch on India’s “abusive and failing” police system, is a regular feature of our national conversation. In December 2008, after Mumbai, a group of eminent citizens wrote a letter. Why can’t all political parties agree that police reform and independent policing should be issues beyond political capital? Why, once elected, can’t they agree to introduce police reforms in the first 100 days? These were rhetorical questions asked in the letter. And the letter distilled out present problems into three elements — undue and illegitimate political interference, neglect by governments of constabulary (corrupt recruitment, inadequate training, bad management, insufficient pay, inadequate equipment and infrastructure) and lack of accountability (this spills over into corruption). In every perception-based survey on corruption (not just Transparency International), police figure at the top and Bollywood only mirrors that reality.

Implementing police reform is more important than privatisation (or disinvestment) of PSUs. It is more important than right to education or right to food. It is more important than Balochistan. If the aam aadmi is asked which organ of government hurts the most, the answer will invariably be the police; both in the negative sense of not doing what it is supposed to do — ensure the rule of law — and in the positive sense of doing what it should not do — harassment, rent-seeking. Is police reform on the UPA-II agenda? Arguing it is a state subject will not wash; there are several ways of incentivising states.

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