Editorial
Police and politics
UNDP survey makes compelling reading
There is hardly anything new that a UNDP survey on the police administration reveals. And yet there are all the intriguing bits that come across to us. When senior policemen finally find a way of informing the country of the political compulsions they traditionally, and regrettably, work under, we are not exactly amused. In a political situation where for years together the police department has been utilized for partisan purposes, it is only natural that those who have borne the brunt of the pressure will be tempted to let us in on the manipulations they have always been subjected to. The damage that such partisan use of an organization of the state then goes through hardly requires any explanation. The damage comes in the form of corruption which is again a consequence of the corruption politicians resort to when they blur the distinction between government and party politics.Matters related to police administration have by and large exercised the public mind over the past many years, to the extent that questions have always arisen about the reforms necessary to get it back on track. In recent days, moves to bring about some positive changes in the police force have been appreciated across the country. But a very significant question which still needs to be answered concerns the ways and means of de-politicising the police force in a way that future governments will think twice before attempting to undermine its professionalism. The survey, in such a perspective, comes in handy. It simply reinforces the urge among broad sections of the population to have the police, as also other areas of administration, decoupled from party politics. A police force at the beck and call of governing political parties runs the risk of turning, eventually, into an anti-people organization. That, by the way, is precisely what we have noticed in these last few years. Additionally, the fear among policemen that they will be subjected to political vindictiveness once they take a professional stand has greatly reduced the efficiency and self-confidence of the force. In the end, narrow politics has quite emasculated an institution that ought to have been a symbol of dynamism. The problems of the police administration, when taken in conjunction with those encountered by other state organizations, reveal in glaring detail the corrosive role of partisan politics in the country. Obviously, such realities cannot be ignored. And that precisely is why proper lessons need to be drawn from the UNDP survey and corrective measures brought in.
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