Police Mindset

Police Mindset

Policing in a democratic set-up is vastly different from what it is and what the police is asked to be under a dictatorial or colonial dispensation. However, the Indian police has yet to come of age. Ask a commoner what he thinks of the police force and he will say it is one of the most unfriendly, anti-people forces that has ironically been given the responsibility to look after the safety and security of the people. Therefore, as the commoner will argue, the police is bound to fail in its duties and thus fail the people. The khaki, instead of warming up to the people, instils fear in their minds. The lesser mortals loathe the khaki because there is everything colonial and anti-people about it — the attitude of police personnel, the way they serve their political masters to further their own interests and humiliate the hoi polloi, the manner in which they turn a blind eye to the powerful lawmakers in their avatar as excellent lawbreakers, the ease with which criminals with political connections roam about freely only to torture the law-abiding citizens, and the fact that the law exists only for those who can break it with impunity. And whose duty is it to ensure that the law is followed by one and all? In other words, what else should the police exist for?One need not go far to gather evidence to harp on the colonial mindset of the police forces in the country, be it State or Central. Of course, when it is a Central police force such as the CRPF, the roots of the colonial legacy are only far more deeper and cruel — the men in uniform think it is they who are the state and, therefore, they cannot go wrong even as they assault one of the most important and indispensable pillars of democracy, the fourth estate. Why, it was a group of CRPF jawans that mishandled journalists as the newsmen were covering arrested PCG member Hiranya Saikia near the CJM court in Guwahati on Monday. One of the jawans even went to the extent of pointing his gun at the journalists when he realized that he had already been overpowered by the agitated press. It is another matter that he was subsequently detained by the police and taken away. But the fact remains that here was a Central police force whose personnel took it for granted that they were all-time righteous souls with some divine right to regulate an ‘unruly’ and ‘problematic’ press. It was as though they were avenging a press that would not hesitate to bring out stories of human rights violations by the police forces of the country.If that is a CRPF story, there is nothing encouraging about the State police forces too and nothing that makes them any different when it comes to dealing with ordinary citizens. One may ask why it has taken so long to initiate police reforms. The answer is that it is the police itself that has resisted reforms because a reformed police force will necessarily mean a highly — and unfailing — pro-people establishment in which the police cannot be subservient to the political executives of the day and in which the police will have to first prove its commitment to ordinary citizens and make policing a truly democratic exercise. Will not this be so very difficult for the police to evolve into, given its habit and history? Despite the much-touted reforms being talked about in the police, it will continue to be despised if its mindset remains the same. It is at the psychological — or behavioural — level that the police needs to reinvent itself. The cause of the police cannot be other than the people’s. It is the people who are the collective master in a democracy. Which means the police must serve the people like an honest and dutiful servant. Will this ever happen in this country? Source: sentinel assam