The modern thinking Indian

It is always said that justice delayed is justice denied, the very fact that the criminal justice system in India takes decades to wind through and deliver justice. In that time, people either give up on justice, die, or implemented their own form of justice; conversely, it becomes easier to thwart justice by either witnesses being bought or scared away, their testimony becoming hazy, or witnesses simply not being present anymore. All these reduce the effectiveness of the judicial system as a way of delivering justice to society.
India has had a history of massive riots in the past, even starting from Partition where riots between Hindus and Muslims were horrendous in terms of casualties. After partition, there were cases of riots where the police and administration either were unable to control the riots, or played a partisan role. It is the cases where the administration played a partisan role that are a blot on society, and the inability to judicially address these crimes is actually criminal.
The 2 biggest such cases were the 1984 Sikh riots, and the 2002 Gujarat riots. In both cases, the administration let the riots happen (and it is accused with a lot of testimony and circumstantial evidence) that functionaries of the ruling party played a big role. In the 1984 riots, after Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguards (who were Sikh), there were mobs of people (primarily in the city of Delhi) hunting down Sikhs (on the streets, and in their homes) and killing them by burning them or by cutting them down. Congress leaders (primarily HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, and Jagdish Tytler among the more well known) were accused of leading these mobs, and it was only after 2-3 days that the situation was brought under control.
By then, a community had been horrified, but this was not the only crime. The bigger crime was that this situation was never taken quickly through the criminal justice system, and the perpetrators of such a genocide were never brought to justice (even the Gujarat riots cases are having a tough time in being brought to justice, and it is many years now). It is only occasionally that you hear of a court decision in the 1984 cases, or you hear of the CBI deciding that there was no evidence against Jagdish Tytler, so that he could be rehabitilated.
Why all this ? Well, I read of a judgment where a sessions court sentenced 3 people to life imprisonment for their involvement in attempt to murder during the riots (link to article):

A Delhi court awarded life imprisonment to three people for attempting to murder members of a Sikh family here in 1984 anti-Sikh riots and came down heavily on ‘contrived inaction’ of the police and the Government of the day which led to loss of "priceless lives".
The court slammed the Delhi police and the Government for its inability to tackle the riots that followed the assassination of the then PM Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. "History would never forgive the police officials who were at the helm of affairs and the government of the day for their unprecedented slothful and quiescent role.

The court also criticized the role of the police, the administration, and the local Government of the day. However, the fact remains that these were all failures, but how can the court just not comment on the fact that this judgment is being delivered 25 years after the cases; where it is possible that family members of the victims may have died, where society is totally sensitized about the incidents that happened a quarter of a century back. I watched areas of Delhi burning from the top of a high rise, and can never forget the scene, but in the overall memory of society, I believe the 1984 riots are a forgotten incident.

Labels: 1984, Administration, Case, Congress, Delhi, India, Judgment, Justice, Police, Riots, Sikh Riots, Trial

In the fight with terrorism, there is a thin line between what is justified for national security and what is a violation of human rights. Sometimes, this gets muddled up. An example is when sometime back, the UP police were shown to be shooting down a dacoit when he was coming out with hands in the air. There was a lot of protests and condemnation over the way the police shot him in cold blood. It was only when a second video was released (which showed that the dacoit had earlier offered to give himself up, but had shot the policeman who went to accept the surrender) that the reputation of the police was restored. In many cases, the police and security agencies have been accused of detaining suspects without proper records, and subjecting them to torture to get information. A law and order approach is that the police should document their arrest, and file for detention in front of the court.
One case that caused a huge amount of controversy was the Batla House case. In this case, the national capital got the news, that in a locality in South East Delhi, the police had raided a house and killed some suspects in a shootout, and in the encounter, a celebrated cop had also got killed. This was in the aftermath of the Indian Mujhaideen cases where serial bomb blasts were happening in various cities, and the Government was under huge pressure to show some progress in the case. Almost immediately, there was suspicion that this was a cooked up encounter, with certain aspects of the case causing questions.
Politicians of different hues jumped on the case, given that it involved police vs. minority issues, with even ruling party politicians jumping in to get the case investigated by all manner of agencies. The Delhi and Central Governments however stood firm on the stand that this was a genuine encounter, and the people killed were actually terrorists. Finally, in a court case, the High Court ordered an investigation by the National Human Rights Commission (something that the police still opposed). In what marks almost an end to the case, the NHRC has declared that the encounter was genuine (link to article):

National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday gave clean chit to Delhi police in Batla House encounter case. "We are clearly of the opinion that having regard to the material placed before us, it cannot be said that there has been any violation of human rights by action of the police", the NHRC said in its 30 page report on the encounter in September last year.
Encounter specialist Delhi Police Inspector M C Sharma was killed during the police action against suspected terrorists on September 19, 2008 in the aftermath of serial blasts in Batla House locality in the national capital. The court had directed the enquiry on a plea of the NGO, Act Now For Harmony and Democracy, that questioned the police version of the encounter. Two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists who were killed were identified as Atif Amin and Mohd Sajid. Two other IM suspects Mohd Saif and Zeeshan were arrested from the Batla House area.

This is certainly not the end of the controversy, since there was a report that some politicians and family members of the accused did not accept this report, claiming it to be false. However, the general public, which anyhow forgets things easily enough, will not remember the Batla House encounter for much longer.

Labels: Delhi, Encounter, India, Inquiry, Investigation, Murder, Police, Politics, Security, Terrorism, Violence

There are several sections of India that are semi-controlled by the Red Army, by the Naxalites. When I mean semi-controlled, it essentially means that they are regions where Naxalites and Maoists can move around without much fear of being encountered by security forces, and where they can in turn strike at state presence such as Government officers and police stations. Lalgarh is one such region, located in Bengal that seems to be in the control of ultra-left forces (need to make the distinction, since West Bengal is actually ruled by a Left / Communist party which is the enemy of the ultra-left forces).
Many states have declared the Maoists as an illegal force, with West Bengal being a notable exception (maybe because it would be hard for a Communist party to justify calling another Communist leaning organization as illegal). However, it really cannot continue to have a condition where a region of the state is a no-go zone for arms of the State. If they let such a situation continue, the CPM sets itself up to be a target of media all over the country, they let a situation fester where the Maoists have time to consolidate and again target other CPM regions, they are under pressure from the Center to take some action, and so on. So, finally, the combined forces of the state police, specialized force called COBRA, and the para-military forces seem to be having success in their operation to the extent that the Maoists leaders are willing to talk peace now (link to article):

Maoist leader Koteswar Rao said on Saturday the West Bengal Government should stop the police operation in Lalgarh and hold talks with the people to find a solution to their problems. "If the Left Front government wants to have discussion with the people of Lalgarh, the operation by the police and security forces against them should end by this afternoon," Rao, a politburo member of the CPI(Maoist), told a TV channel.
Referring to the ongoing joint operation by the state police and the para-military forces, he advised the Left Front government "not to dance to the tune of the Prime Minister or the Union Home Minister".

No matter what the timing of making this security operation a success really is, the fact remains that in their hearts, the governments of most states infested by ultra-left violence know what the basic problems are - not enough welfare, abject poverty and exploitation (especially of tribals), wide-spread corruption among the government apparatus, no real security and law and order, and numerous other reasons that give a lot of support base to the ultra-left forces (most of whom are people with a similar background to these oppressed folks). Governments however do very little to address these concerns and actually provide development support (and in fact accept that there is a huge amount of siphoning of development money through the government apparatus).
As long as Governments are not able to make the necessary development steps and show their success in doing so, they will be unable to stop these Naxalite forces. That would be a real show since these ultra-left forces do not really have a credible plan to increase development, and instead believe in a class struggle that only turns the poorer classes into canon fodder (remember the other struggler, Prabhakaran who killed so many of his fellow Tamils but did nothing concrete to better the lot of his people).

Labels: Communist, Development, Governance, Maoists, Police, Reform, Security, Violence, Welfare

The case of Varun Gandhi and his detention by the Mayawati Government is reaching a critical point. As a lot of people may be aware, Varun Gandhi, in a speech made some time back, sought to inflame people by speaking against the Muslim community. It is difficult to justify what he is stated to have said, since his speech was supposed to have been very provocative (and I am sure that people will point out that other people have made equally provocative or more provocative speeches and got off lightly, but that is a separate matter). He was condemned by wide sections of the press and political parties, and the Election Commission took note of what he had said (but did not have powers to do much about a speech).
However, what happened next was the troubling part. An FIR was lodged against him, and he was taken in custody. Next, the Mayawati Government stated that it would lodge a case under the National Security Act (meant to be used against terrorists or habitual dangerous criminals) against Varun. And soon enough, the UP Government filed a case against him, using the violence that happened when Varun was being lodged in the jail after surrender.
The NSA is an Act with strict provisions, such as "Under the provisions of the NSA, a person cannot get bail atleast for six months"; if this had happened, Varun would have had to remain in jail till elections are over. However, there is a right to appeal in the Supreme Court, and also the state advisory panel takes a decision on the persons against whom the NSA has been filed. In both cases, the Mayawati Government has not been able to justify the harsh measure used for what is basically a 'hate speech' (not to reduce the significance of what Varun had said, but there are criminals and terrorists against whom the NSA has not been applied). Here is an excerpt of what the state advisory panel stated:

The Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh did not apply its mind and violated cannons of natural justice in invoking National Security Act on BJP leader Varun Gandhi raising a question of bias, says the state advisory board which struck down the NSA against him. The Board said "there was non-application of mind and breach of rules of natural justice" by the authorities which raises a question of "bias" and "legal malafides" for invoking NSA against the 29-year-old BJP leader who was not supplied with the copy of the order and material, including the CD of the alleged hate speeches which were the basis for taking stringent action.

The board further points out that the District Magistrate, the competent authority to pass the NSA order, based these orders on 2 FIR's that were not filed by anybody else but the DM (to re-state, the DM filed 2 FIR's, and then used these 2 FIR's to show as evidence to pass the NSA orders).
Most people have no doubt that the reason that the DM passed the NSA order was so that the Mayawati Government, in order to shore up its secular credentials, could show that it was aggressive in protecting the interests of minorities. While I cannot condone the speech by Varun, it is equally hard to agree when somebody twists laws and justice for furthering their own agenda and scoring political points.

Labels: BJP, Court, Crime, Election, Mayawati, Minority, Police, Politics, Punishment, Secular

Protests have been seen as a sign of legitimate dissent, about raising the voice of ordinary people against some action; in many cases, a protest is about having a good outlet for the frustrations of people. However, it is also true that protests have been hijacked by people with vested interests, and in many cases by lumpen elements. So, for every scene of people walking peacefully with placards, you have scenes of youth rampaging, burning vehicles, disturbing the lives and economic well-being of city-dwellers (think about the daily wage earner or streetside vendor who loses out on the daily income on the day that a protest shuts down all other activity).
As we have seen in the past, the Government, of whom it is expected that they ensure law and order on the street, does not intervene in many cases. In some cases, the protests have been called by the ruling party, or by other elements (which the Government does not really want to put down). Consider the case of the Gurjar agitation of last year in Delhi; in broad daylight, the media could see that the agitators were blocking major roads and burning vehicles, and the police had no interest in actually preventing them from doing such things.
In the past, the Supreme Court (and other courts) has actually levied fines on political parties who have sponsored such violent agitations, but not consistently, and of course, there has been very little other prosecution of the people involved in such violence. However, the Supreme Court has now come out with clear guidelines on how to identify the people involved in such violence (link to article):

In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday put in place stringent guidelines to deal with violent agitations that mandate the police to videograph each and every protest to bring to book mischief mongers who take advantage of a crowd and destroy public and private properties. The Bench, while putting the suggestions of the two committees as guidelines, said its directions would operate till Parliament or assemblies enacted suitable laws replacing the apex court's directions for prevention of vandalism of the kind seen during the Gujjar agitation in 2007.
The new guidelines include a provision that says those seen indulging in violence in video footage would be presumed to be the offenders and the onus would shift on them to show that they are innocent. Focusing on compensating the people whose properties were damaged by the protestors, the apex court said not only should the violent protestors pay the cost of damaged property, but they be also saddled with exemplary cost.

This was also a subtle reminder to the authorities that it is their duty to enforce law and order, which includes both preventing people from breaking the law, and prosecuting those who do break the law. One has to wait and see how the actual enforcement of the law proceeds.

Labels: Agitations, Court, India, Judicial, Law, Police, Politics, Punishment, Responsibility, Security, Violence

The prevalence of dowry in today's society is an open fact; most people see it in operation either in their own marriage, or in the marriage of their family members; or you see it on operation in the case of acquaintances. So as an example, I have seen dowry in operation in the case of a family friend where her in-laws insisted on a car as a part of the marriage (and even specified the type of car that was requested). They had accepted that this was a price to be paid for getting their daughter married (and one should fault them equally for being so desperate to get their daughter married). Of course, in all cases of dowry, the boy's side is always evaluating the value they can get for their boy and have no qualms in demanding the same.
A lot of this dowry expectation is now baked into society, and there do no seem to be any easy solutions (people giving dowry expect that this is the price they need to pay to get their daughter married, and those demanding dowry do not care that such expectations are illegal in law). To make the scale more even, the Government of India has introduced a number of laws that seek to even the scales, and empower women. However, in trying to even the scale, the laws give a lot of power to women, and in some cases, there has been misuse. There have been many reported cases where the threat of usage of such laws (and consequent police action) is used as a level to force settlements; it has been pointed out in court cases and by many pro-male organizations. And when the Chief Justice of India points this out, you can be sure that this is a deep matter of concern:

Dealing a blow to women's rights activists who have been stringently defending the Section 498A provision of the Indian Penal Code, Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan on Saturday said that in some cases this section — that deals with matrimonial cruelty — was being `grossly misused'. Elaborating on false cases being filed in recent times, the CJI said that relatives not involved with a matrimonial dispute were unfairly implicated. "In some cases, 498A is grossly misused,'' he said. Balakrishnan was speaking at a seminar, `Marriage laws -- issues and challenges', organised by the National Commission for Women.
The IPC section allows for immediate arrest of the husband and in-laws by the police on the basis of a woman's complaint and has been controversial.

The various laws that were supposed to empower women, even though trying to balance the scales, do not maintain the old adage of all people being equal before the law, and that everyone is presumed innocent until proved guilty. Unless the law allows for a better investigation and penalties for misuse, misuse will continue.

Labels: Discrimination, Dowry, Investigation, Judicial, Law, Police, Reform, Responsibility, Review, Welfare, Women

The scandal about Satyam just refuses to die down. There are so many questions that remain open, and there is the major feeling that even though the Central Government took quick action once Raju had come out with his confessional statement, the state Government of Andhra Pradesh is not being so open. Before Raju had made his statement, the Chief Minister, Rajshekhar Reddy had made a statement to the effect that the aborted merger was over, and people should get on with their lives. No reassurance about watching out for a company that was the star of Andhra Pradesh and employed 50,000 people. And just a few days after the Chief Minister dismissed all warnings, the Satyam Chief went ahead and wrote his confessional note. And after this, the Chief Minister had nothing to say.
Now, there are so many open questions that it seems that there are so many mysteries to resolve, and the former Satyam Chief is sitting in jail, with some police investigators getting access to him. For some arcane reason, SEBI investigators are unable to get access to Raju, currently in jail (The Andhra High Court has refused SEBI the permission to do so even though a huge amount of investor money went down the drain).
- How many employees does Satyam have ? There are multiple reports about whether it has 53,000 employees or it has a lower number of employees with contradicting statements from the board and from the public prosecutor
- How did Raju divert money away from Satyam to the extent that a software company that has a large margin is very low on money ?
- What are the exact details of the Andhra Government support to Maytas (a company also run by Raju and his family) ? It has a huge amount of Government contracts that are now in jeopardy. In fact, the contract for the Metro was so controversial that the head of Delhi Metro (Mr. Sreedharan) stepped away as a consultant with a talk about this being an unfair contract (and the Andhra Government threatened him with a defamation lawsuit).
- Why has the investigation into this huge fraud case not yet handed over to a central agency with the ability to do a financial and criminal investigation both ?
- Will the money that has been diverted away from Satyam ever be recovered ?
- What was the level of interaction between Raju and the Congress Government of Y Rajsekhar Reddy ?
- What was the exact role of the auditors given that they appear to be grossly incompetent, and maybe involved in a criminal conspiracy ?
There are so many other questions, and yet there are no good answers. The investigation is continuing, but already questions are emerging about whether this is a fair investigation, or whether this is an attempt to try and protect Raju. For a scandal that is India's largest and casts a negative impression on the overall positive India story, the investigations needs to be time-bound and very thorough.

Labels: Corruption, Economy, Finance, Fraud, Investigation, Police, Politics, Punishment, Stock Market

In India, there are very few things most people dread higher than a sudden arrest by a police officer. And instances of policemen hauling away people to jail happen often enough (if you read newspapers, you will find enough stories of people being arrested and led to jail for being accused of various crimes). These powers of the police, typically without restraints or responsibility, have led to rampant misuse. The power of arrest is also used as a way to force people to take certain actions - so, for example, if they want to arrest a criminal, the police has in many cases arrested family members in order to force the accused to surrender; another case is the dowry and women laws, where the threat of police action forces settlements (and is in many cases used by women when they want to get settlements in their favor or harass their family members).
So, now there is a recent amendment to the law governing the power of police to arrest for crime where there is a sentence below 7 years (this includes a number of crimes such as outraging a women's modesty, the 498A, robbery, kidnapping, assaulting the President, and all offences where the applicable punishment is less than 7 years). What does this amendment actually do ? It prevents the police in normal cases from arresting the accused unless the crime was committed in front of a police officer, or if the police believe that the accused being out of prison could affect investigations. In all other cases, the accused will be presented with a notice to be present, and only if the person does not present himself / herself, then the arrest will happen:

Seven years or less is the maximum penalty for a host of offences, including attempt to commit culpable homicide, robbery, attempt to suicide, kidnapping, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, cheating, outraging a woman's modesty and death caused by negligence. The radical change in the CrPC has, however, drawn flak from a number of Bar associations across the country. Lawyers -- who also observed strike in various courts after the bill was passed in Parliament -- argue that the amendment (in Section 41) doing away with mandatory arrest provisions would remove fear from the minds of criminals who would misuse the provisions under the garb of personal liberty.
The law further says that a police officer arresting a person will have to bear his identification badge or tag. Besides, a memorandum of arrest shall be prepared, witnessed and countersigned. The person arrested shall be told that he has the right to inform a relative or friend.

Overall, this would be a good thing. It will remove the current ability of the police, when corrupt, to harass innocents. However, it is true that those who are powerful or wilful offenders will gain to some extent. And a resourceful police force can still utilize some of the discretionary authority they have under this amended law to decide whether a person should be immediately arrested or not.

Labels: Law, Parliament, Police, Policy, Punishment

For the first time in the country, the term 'Hindu terrorist' has come into common usage. It all started with the Malegaon blasts of September 29, outside the office of SIMI where 6 people died in the explosion, and many others were injured. As it turns out, this was not a case where terrorists, inspired by the word of radical Islam, had committed the crime. While the blast is under probe, all information that has been revealed so far by the ATS, and by the press, is that this was in the nature of a retaliatory attack (retaliation for the bomb attacks carried out by terrorists inspired by radical thought). While investigation is being carried out, this incident and the investigation has already led to a huge amount of hue and cry.
For once, both the BJP and the Shiv Sena are on the defensive. One of the main accused, the Sadhavi, Pragya Singh Thakur, was apparently a fiery speaker who was capable of rousing the spirits of people; incidentally, she was also a former national executive president of the Durga Vahini, and has been shown in the same photo as Rajnath Singh and the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. The BJP has disowned her and her actions, claiming that this was done after she left the organization (and this part may be true). However, many constituents of the Sangh Parivaar are not happy with this and are pitching for the BJP to support the accused. The Shiv Sena is in total support of the accused (one can always consider the Shiv Sena to have a sense of irrationality in their actions).
This is where the BJP should have been a party with a difference. Having a plank of National Security would mean that the party should stand firm against anyone who indulges in matters such as riots and bomb blasts. In this case, the refusal of the party to take a firm stand against the alleged bomb plotters means that the actions of the party are similar to the actions of the Congress, Samajwadi Party and are personally very disappointing. No matter what the reason, there cannot be any justification for supporting any brand of terrorists, whether they be terrorist inspired by radical Islamic theology or Hindu terrorists inspired by some concept of revenge. The bigger worry (based on current police reports) is that a senior army officer is involved, against their duty of protecting the nation:

Public prosecutor Ajay Misar said in the court that Purohit had attended most of the meetings organised by others accused at Kashmir, Pune, Bhopal, Nashik, and Deolali. "Since he is a senior army officer, he could have been the source for the RDX used in the bomb. We also have evidence that he distributed money to several people through his organisation through cheques and cash. The financial transactions are through hawala as well," said Misar, adding, "Purohit also trained several youths in bomb making."
Those arrested also include retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and former Durga Vahini national executive president sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. The ATS completed all the formalities regarding the arrest of Lt Col Purohit — the first instance of an armyman being booked for a terror act — on Tuesday evening. Purohit came in contact with Upadhyay when he was posted at Nashik as liaison unit officer. Sources said he used the Nashik stint to fraternise with the extremists in various radical Hindu outfits and to draw them into Abhinav Bharat fold.

It is incumbent to nip such attacks and planning in the bud. The country already faces enough problems from terrorists and separatists in many corners of the country without having more people join this front (and there are terrorists who are Hindu as well - the ULFA, Naxalities, and many others). The BJP and other parties should take the lead in cutting such misguided people from getting public support and that there is no sympathy for them. Else, there is no justification in the BJP blaming people for showing support for the terrorists killed in the Jamia Nagar shootout in Delhi.

Labels: Army, BJP, Congress, Hypocrisy, Investigation, Military, Police, Politics, Responsibility, Security, Terrorism, Violence

In India, the police derive their powers from laws enacted during the British time. These laws were meant to enforce the power of the state (and the rulers), and this sentiment drives the power and role of the police. Throughout India, if citizens are polled over the role of the police, you will find it hard to find people who have positive views. This is also my personal view; my interaction with and observations of the police have convinced me that they are generally inclined to enforce the law and protect the rule of law (and there are many honest and great police officers as well), but they also see the law and the threat of force as a way to get benefits for themselves and their masters (who certainly are not the citizens of this country). Further, as every small trader / streetside vendor / other small businessman would volunteer, if you do not keep the local policemen happy, then things will be tough:

AHMEDABAD: Supreme Court has asked additional director-general of police Rajan Priyadarshi to pay Rs 8 lakh towards compensation to the person he assaulted blinding him in one eye, during a demonstration in 1987.
The incident took place on February 1, 1987, when Priyadarshi and then inspector RJ Yadav resorted to lathicharge during a protest demonstration. In this, a Congress leader, who has recently joined BJP, Dr Prafull Thaker was injured and lost his right eye. He moved the court seeking compensation for the injury.

This must be a shock to the police officer, since the police assume that the right to use any amount of force during suppressing a protest is their given right (all the way from the brutal attack on Lala Lajpat Rai during the rule of the British), and the fact that a court could force them to pay compensation was unheard of. In the more advanced nations, powers given to the police are with responsibility and they can be prosecuted for excesses.

Labels: Compensation, Court, Law, Police, Punishment, Violence

RTI, for all its slowness, and huge backlog, is still proving to be beneficial to common citizens. I had mentioned in a previous post, a phrase that I like to use to for the effects of an RTI application - a lightning torch that exposes sloth and shines the beacon of openness on the red tape present in our Government. This feeling gets reinforced when you read about cases such as this one where a rape victim was running from pillar to post to get her case filed and investigated, and the police was not exactly the picture of cooperation:

Now, Right to Information (RTI) Act has brought justice to a rape victim in Umarpada taluka in south Gujarat. Following a notice by Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) in May, an FIR was finally lodged and action taken against the accused. In its notice, GIC slapped a penalty of Rs 25,000 jointly on two police officers for violating provisions of the Act. This followed an RTI application filed by a 15-year-old rape victim demanding to know why action had not been taken on her complaint.
The girl was raped in February last year but the accused was roaming free and police was refusing to register an FIR. GIC has penalised police sub-inspector and public information officer (PIO) DN Patel and assistant police sub-inspector Chandubhai Chaudhary, the deemed assistant public information officer (APIO) of Mangrol police station in Surat district, Rs 12,500 each.

RTI, in this legal form is a very effective tool. It allows citizens to get information about matters that concern them either personally or affects society, and enables this information not to be hidden unless it can be proved that the information being sought is either for commercial purposes, or affects national security.
There is an ongoing debate about whether the Central Information Commission (CIC), the nodal body appointed to hear RTI cases is actually not working as well as it should; on the other hand, there are numerous cases where RTI ensures that people get beneficial effects. In addition, RTI cells and mobile units that seek to empower people by making them aware of their rights are also on the job.
The writer of this piece still believes that to get rid of corruption, all other instruments that have been tried, whether they be strict laws, exposure, penalties for people caught, etc, all have failed to work; the RTI Act however, by its very nature is meant to get information. This availability of information to the common man is a welcome first step to reduce corruption and inaction in our society.

Labels: Law, Police, Punishment, RTI, Women

We talk about the police force being a help to people, a friendly hand towards the citizens of the country; helping them in getting solutions to their problems, and preventing unfairness and crime in society. By now people reading this must be thinking that either I am totally ignorant, or that this article is leading to something else.
That part is true. This article is leading to something else. The police force of any country is supposed to be all that is written above, but you go and speak to citizens, especially those who are weaker, and you realize the terror they live in. And this is something that many of us would have also observed. It may be the poor financial provision to the men wearing the uniform, it may be inadequate training, it may be lack of control, it may be anything, but the police force almost never evokes respect in people. Thus, you read about brave policemen braving terrorists, working under bad conditions, and you feel sympathy for them; and then you witness the normal working like (and read about the level of corruption) and you realize that honesty may be an aberration.
Besides this article that I will be referencing, I witnessed something a few days that reinforced this feeling. At around 9 PM, I was passing a local marker on foot, and there was this roadside vendor selling fruits, and a hefty policeman standing next to him. I was there for enough time to hear the conversation, and feel miserable about what I could hear and not do anything. Essentially, the policemen was telling the vendor to go and get him a bottle of whiskey from the nearby vend, and you could immediately see how the vendor would not be in a position to refuse.
Now read this article:

Denying policemen complimentary tea proved costly for Raju Shukla, who now lies in the emergency ward of Balrampur Hospital. Shukla was brutally assaulted by four cops from the Chowk fire department late on Monday night. Raju, who runs a tea-stall at Koneshwar Crossing in Chowk area, was even branded a thief by the fire personnel and handed over to the Chowk police station. The version of the fire cops though changed in some time and they charged him with assaulting a rickshaw puller.
Talking to TOI, the only breadwinner in the family of five, Raju said, "hum garib admi hain bhaiyya, Koneshwar par chai ka stall chalate hain. Ab yeh log aakar kehte hai ki muft me chai do, to aap hi socho ki agar hum muft me chai batenge to humara ghar kaise chalega." (I am a poor man, running a tea stall at Koneshwar Crossing and these cops demand tea free of cost. If I do so, how will my family survive.) Lying on the hospital bed in pain and unable to even turn on his side, Raju said, "the men from fire department even got my stall removed earlier when I refused them free of cost tea."

The problem now is that the police force has almost zero believability index. Even if the person was at fault (and it is difficult to see how), almost everybody would believe that it was the policemen who were responsible, and the story is very believable. Most people would not expect any action in this case as well, since it involved a poor man, and the police force is typically loath to act against its own.

Labels: Citizen, Corruption, Law, Morality, Police, Punishment

The recent attacks (bomb blasts) in Delhi that killed 10's of people seem to have finally made the Government realize how its hands are being burnt with respect to having an anti-terror law. Over the past many years, most observers have come to the realization that any policy change in India happens only for political reasons, and the same is true with respect to having a much tougher anti-terror law.
When the BJA (NDA) Government was in paper, it had brought in the tough POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) that curtailed many civil liberties and made it easier for the security agencies and the police to keep people in custody whom they believed were important for their investigations. It is also doubtless true that there would have been cases of misuse of this law, and such instances (and many other accusations) would be more true in the case of the Muslim community in India. Consequently, the law was soon proclaimed as against minority interests, helped by the fact that the 'anti-Muslim' BJP was in power. Any party wanting to court the Muslim vote would have to adopt a policy of anti-POTA, something that the Congress party adopted, and they quickly fulfilled this pledge after they came to power.
Fast-forward a few years, and the UPA (Congress) Government is on the mat in terms of internal security; bombs go off as if the terrorists just have to pick a place and they can cause numerous explosions, the security agencies make almost public appeals that they need a stronger law, and the Congress Home Minister (Shivraj Patil) is seen as a very weak and incompetent minister. The Congress seems to have even weathered the continuous bomb blasts in Bangalore and Ahemdabad and the many other bombs found in Surat (and many other bomb blasts earlier, including Jaipur); they were criticized and the Gujarat Chief Minister embarrassed the center by getting his police to quickly arrest some of the alleged conspirators.
However, the media by now had taken to savaging the Government's political driven need not to bring in a more enhanced anti-terror law, and it were the Delhi blasts (in open places and prominent locations) that seemed to have currently broken the political will of the Government. The Congress seems to have realized that they are being taken as weak on internal security, and for the first time, the Prime Minister seems to be talking about intelligence failures and other measures:

In the wake of continuing terror attacks in the country, the UPA government has mooted a "tougher-than-Pota" law. Although the recommendation has come from the Administrative Reforms Commission, the timing of its release — when the government is struggling to shake off a "soft on terror" tag its rivals have sought to pin to it and ahead of state polls — is seen to be loaded with significance.
Implementation of the law is not going to be easy because the Congress has not just opposed Pota, it has campaigned for its repeal. It will also have to contend with allies who remain opposed to a special anti-terror law. More crucially, special terror laws have been a fraught issue evoking strong negative vibes from the minority community, which has maintained that these have been used to frame innocents.

It is very much possible that the Government is seeking to dissipate some of the current pressures on it by talking about a law, and will slowly let all this talk slide when the situation seems to come under control, and there are non-bomb related other issues that occupy the attention of the country.
The BJP also uses the refusal of the Central Congress Government to sanction a Gujarat special anti-terrorism law based on similar lines as the current Maharashtra one. The BJP argues that the Congress is doing it for political reasons, and it really does not care about the security of the country, a trap that the Congress wants to avoid as we draw near to elections.

Labels: BJP, Congress, Intelligence, Investigation, Law, Police, Security, Terrorism

It seems like we are living in a B-grade movie about some invisible hands deciding to blow up things all over the country, and soon you have explosions happening on a regular basis in various cities over the country; and on the movie theme, the politicians the police are either involved, or are incompetent. Well, guess what, this is not a movie. Terrorists are cocking a snook at the country, and the incompetent Central Government can do nothing but mount platitudes about how 'This is a great tragedy', 'We need a central agency for terror prevention', 'These things will be properly investigated and the culprits brought to trial', and so on. You must have heard of all of these ?
And we move on. There have been so many bomb blasts that happen nowadays that we are temporarily shocked by the carnage that happens, by the inability of the police to catch these people (even when it seems that a large number of people would be involved due to the number of simultaneous blasts), and then we all forget about it. I can remember a time when the transistor bombs in Delhi buses had shaken everybody, and now we routinely get bomb attacks in which more 10's of people die, and ... we move on.
What do we see the Government doing ? Well, I am sure that the intelligence agencies will be doing something, but the fact is that, in a federal structure such as ours, there are a number of different central and state level intelligence agencies (as well as the very weak intelligence network of the police); as a result, unless there is effective coordination, things are not going to work together. And who is responsible for doing this coordination ? There are primarily 2 gentleman at different levels for this - one is the National Security Advisor (Mr. Narayanan, who is unable to stem the rot in RAW, and unable to get the Government to reform things so that people find working in the intelligence services rewarding career wise).
The other is the Home Minister - Mr. Shivraj Patil. If India had ever had a home minister who was more low-profile, and unable to make a mark, it is difficult to find one. It is during his time that we have had a massive escalation in the security problems in the country (with more bomb blasts than ever before); the enduring image of him from the time of the Gujarat blasts is of him trying to prevent his clothes from getting dirty during the rain. It was telling on the state of confidence in the central Government that the Gujrat police was the one that seemingly cracked the terrorist blast cases of Surat and Ahemdabad without much support from the center. When he is asked a pointed question about the terrorist cases, even Congressmen would not be surprised if he says stuff such 'we are investigating', 'we cannot blame others', 'current laws are fine to handle terrorist cases', or more mournfully 'we need a central agency, but the states are not cooperating'. Given the rampant misuse of the CBI by the Congress, it is not hard to see why the states do not want to trust a Central Congress Government with a central powerful anti-terrorist agency.
What is the solution ? Steps like the Deoband school declaring such bomb blasts as anti-Islamic help, and some more intense investigation with inter-agency cooperation would help to solve these immediate cases; but there is a total lack of long term steps as propounded by many experts:
1. Get beat constables to go around the neighborhoods more often
2. Make intelligence wings of the police more lucrative to join
3. Prevent politicisation of anti-terrorist efforts
4. Make safety more important (for example, today I had gone to the Lajpat Nagar market in Delhi - a fairly crowded place). In the central market, there is cordoning off and entry is only through a walk-in bomb detector gate, but the effect was gone. The gate was not working, and there were no policemen nearby. In India's crowded and culturally mixed population, it is hard to detect potential terrorists, but at least things should not be made easy for them)

Labels: Congress, Governance, Intelligence, Investigation, Police, Politics, Responsibility, Security, Terrorism

India has a variety of problems relating to traffic management, such as overall bad conditions of road, not enough road capacity in cities, a variety of slow-moving and fast moving vehicles on the roads, and so on. One of the worst, observable by almost every person on the road, is the lack of following of traffic rules and laws. People feel that traffic rules are guides that can be followed or not depending on one's wishes, and this attitude is reinforced by a very lax enforcement of traffic laws by policemen who catch drivers violating all rules.
People almost never stop before the zebra crossing, jump red lights with gusto, do not think twice about going the wrong side of the road if they can save a few minutes, speed limits are a formality, but by far the worst such transgressions are those where a person drinks and drives.
Drinking and driving is seen as one of worst offense that a person can commit on the road, since drinking (above the legal alcohol level) means that a person is no longer in full control of their senses, and as a result, is driving a powerful and heavy machine that can easily maim or kill. In countries where drinking and driving is penalized, a person caught easily loses their license to drive for some time, may have to spend a night in jail, and is on probation for some time after that. In India, incidents such as Salman Khan driving over people, Sanjeev Nanda driving over people when drunk happen; and these are the celebrity ones, there are many more that happen on a normal basis.
So far, the law was only on the books, but for the past some months, the Mumbai police seems to have taken this far more seriously. They have been catching drunk drivers, sending them to cool off a day in jail (recently they jailed the very first lady who has been caught like this for a day). Sample this incident which shows the crackdown, as well as the general attitude of people:

Keyur Parikh must have never imagined that the traffic police were actually tracking his movements, after a court suspended his driving licence in July for a period of six months for drunk driving. On Monday, the police caught 28-year-old Parikh outside Heera Panna mall, a stone's throw away from his upmarket Tardeo residence, for driving without a valid licence. Parikh then started dropping names and threatened to summon his lawyer, hoping to get off scot-free. But the cops ignored his arguments and hauled him to the Girgaum court. It turned out that he had been booked for four other parking offences as well in the past.
"Nearly 9,000 motor driving licences have been suspended by the court since June last year. We had a hunch that some of these motorists might still be driving despite their licences being suspended. A list of 10-15 such drivers was prepared and we tracked their movements from their residence to their place of work. Our officers were armed with their vehicle registration numbers and photographs. Parikh walked into our trap on Monday,'' said deputy commissioner (traffic) Harish Baijal.

This is another part of the whole problem. How many people have not heard of cases where people receive traffic citations by normal post, and tear it up without paying, since they are confident that the traffic system of generating these citations are not computerized, and that there is no major problem if they don't follow up. I recently heard that the Delhi police head was talking about such a system; and the fact that so many years after computerization, availability of hand-held system, police still cannot check real-time whether a car in front of them (and its driver) have other citations against them.
However, one should be happy when things start working. In this case, I have been hearing of this drive for many months now, so this is not a campaign that starts, runs for some time, and then stops. It is only when people believe that they are in danger of getting caught, and they cannot escape either by paying a bribe or dropping some high names that there is some progress. Of course, educating drivers is also necessary, but without some enforcement, it mostly does not work.

Labels: Driving, Drunk, Law, Police, Punishment, Traffic, Transport

The police force in this country is a mixed set, with many good and bad. There have been dedicated officers who have brought a lot of good name to the country such as Mr. Riberio, Ms. Kiran Bedi, and many others. They are a credit to the police force, and serve as a figure of awe for many of the citizens of this country. However, it is also true that there are many members of the police force of this country who are corrupt, or a law unto themselves, and who besmirch the whole police force by their actions. It is they who make people scared of the police force, and fear an encounter with the police. Take an example of these cops who actually tried to steal money:

KOLKATA: Two policemen were among three people arrested on Sunday night for duping a Bongaon trader of Rs 6 lakh on August 11. Posing as CID officers, the policemen intercepted Mantu Saha, a trader from Bongaon, near Mohammad Ali Park and accusing of carrying fake notes, fled with the money.
Suspecting that policemen had a hand in it as the seizure list resembled those usually issued by police, police tracked down Pankaj Ghosh, a former colleague of Saha, who confessed to having masterminded the operation through GRP's Sanjib Chakraborty, an assistant sub-inspector, and Debasis Mukherjee, a constable. "The three have been remanded in police custody," said Jawed Shamim, DC (DD).

The biggest problem is that these corrupt policemen used the advantages that the police force give in terms of evoking fear among people, an unwillingness to stand upto them for fear of the consequences. As when dealing with criminals, if these cops are found to be guilty, they should be punished to the maximum extent possible under the law.

Labels: Citizen, Corruption, Penalty, Police, Punishment, Responsibility

Most people have their own story about their interactions with the police force, especially in their stronghold (police stations). Let me give an instance of what happened in a police station when I made the mistake of losing a draft (actually the draft did not reach the destination when it was sent via courier, but for the bank, I had lost the draft). I had the counterfoil of the draft, so approached the bank for how to reclaim my money. And this started the adventure.
Given that the draft was sent to an education institute, we did not know that the draft had not reached till it was around 3 months later, since that was the last date of the money to be received; and the institute contacted me. After some back and forth, they convinced me that they had not received the money and things would be terminated unless I sent them the money.
I contacted the bank, and guess what ? They told me a whole lot of things to do - get a notarized affidavit for having lost the draft, get a note from the institute acknowledging that the money was not received, and .... get a FIR from the police station about having lost the draft (since a draft is different from money; more importantly, RBI regulations apparently require it). So, I managed to convince the bank that the institute will not give me a letter; affidavit was made. Now for the police station. That was fun.
First, where was the draft lost ? "Well, it was sent by courier and never reached". I knew I should have made up a story about having lost it at home, or somewhere else that was definite and that did not cause any jurisdictional problems. The police station totally refused to cooperate, since they did not believe it to be their problem. Beaten, I managed to convince the bank after around an year of discussion and got my money back.
Okay, why this long story ? Well, people have faced problems in getting FIR's filed for far more serious stuff - for fraud, criminal assault, modesty / molestation / rape, etc. The weaker you are, the more difficult it is for you to get the police to file an FIR. Having more FIR's filed is liable to get you in the dock when a starred question comes up in the assembly / parliament about number of unsolved cases, so easier option is to try and reduce the number of FIR's filed. Well, the Supreme Court has jumped right in:

Commoners, often harassed by the police's refusal to register FIRs (first information reports), have turned the tables on the men in khaki, thanks to the Supreme Court. Stating that officials in India understood only the "crack of a whip", the apex court on Friday ordered that a policeman turning away a person without registering his complaint could face contempt of court charges and cool his heels in jail if he failed to justify non-registration of the FIR.
The court has provided a detailed mechanism to citizens to make the police accountable. The bench comprising Justices Agrawal and G S Singhvi said if the police refused to register an FIR, the aggrieved person could move the area chief judicial magistrate with a complaint against the concerned officer.

If you read the linked news, you would be able to figure out the mechanism as well as the reasons behind this move. In addition, most states did not even respond to the notice by the Supreme Court, making the court even angrier.

Labels: Anger, Bureaucracy, Citizen, Governance, Judicial, Law, Police, Reform

The Section 498(A) of the IPC is meant for prevention of crimes against women, something that this country has struggled with for quite some time now. If you read the actual Section, it talks about: "Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine". This was meant to ensure that a woman subjected to harassment in her matrimonial home can take legal measure to protect herself. However, as with any law that favors one side of the dispute, it is subjected to misuse (and there are numerous complaints about the law being misused - refer to this link).
The main complaints against this law (from whatever I have read so far in various articles, web sites, and email) is that:
- the law has allowed the daughter-in-law to subject the entire family of her husband to its provisions
- the police do not investigate the case, but based on the complaint, have been known to drag all the accused (including elderly people and children)
So here is an update from a directive sent out by Bihar police:

There have been talks about misuse of laws relating to crime against women for quite some time now. Bihar police’s CID also admitted this when it directed all the SPs in the state to ensure proper investigation into FIRs lodged under Section 498(A) of the IPC before going in for arrest of the accused. “Sometimes such cases are framed against in-laws or others just to harass or settle old scores. Hence, the precaution against arrests,” ADG (CID) Yashwant Malhotra told TOI recently.
In his letter to district SPs, government railway police, range DIGs and zonal ADGs/IGs, Malhotra said it has been observed that in cases relating to crime against women, particularly those registered under Section 498(A) of the IPC, all the in-laws of the alleged victim are named as accused. And they are arrested without proper investigation into the case, thus marring the interests of justice.

This is actually a mixed step (in reality). One would like to think that, as per judicial and legal standards, the practice of doing an enquiry and then only proceeding against the named people is the right step. If one considers the law to be a just tool, then this is the right step.
However, there needs to be careful attention paid to the actual implementation of the law, since now proceeding on the basis of a complaint would be subject to the individual police officer of the region, and rural and semi-urban regions are known for police officers bucking under pressure, especially when the families and people involved are known / powerful.
What do people think ? Making sure that the provision is subject checks and balances is a good thing, but do people think that this could lead to a much watered down enforcement of the provisions meant to protect women ?

Labels: Court, Dowry, Family, Investigation, Judicial, Law, Morality, Police, Punishment, Security, Welfare, Women

The Indian police works under manuals and guides written during British times where the main aim was to protect the rulers from the ruled. Further, in urban and rural areas both, the police is also used as an extension of the power of the local political leaders; a side effect of these factors is that there is no accountability or responsibility built into the bodywork of the police force. Hence, despite having some dedicated men committed to the welfare of the country, we also have men in khakhi who pretend that the law does not apply to them. And when the Supreme Court tries to change the rules to reform the police force and apply more accountability, states believe that their freedom will be lost and oppose such measures.
It is this enhanced sense of power and no accountability that makes the police believe that it can act like these policemen did in Ahmedabad:

AHMEDABAD: Three drunk cops beat up a youth in the wee hours of Sunday because he failed to comply to the extortion demands of the policemen. Bipin Thakor, 27, a resident of Thakorvaas, Shahibaug, was whipped with the police's belt and thrashed with batons. Bipin is now in the Civil Hospital. Medicos said he has got 375 stitches in his left hand that had severe, multiple injuries in the flesh and skin. He had also suffered multiple injuries in his hand, chest, ear and neck.
When Bipin said he did not have any money, the cops body searched him and found Rs 9,200. This enraged the drunk cops. They first called him a liar and then started beating him up on the main road. The constables beaten him up with lathis and the belt that accompanies their police uniform. After a while, they left Bipin on the main road unconscious. He was later sent to the Civil Hospital by a local tea vendor.

And apparently the local police post cannot detect who these policemen were; but that is understandable; why would the police force support a citizen when it comes to one of their own. And why should policemen feel that they are entitled to extort money from citizens ? It is these kind of atrocities that will eventually force much greater accountability on the police force.

Labels: Corruption, Investigation, Law, Police, Punishment, Reform

Indian rivers are extremely polluted, and have been so for a long time now. It is all the more horrible since we consider many of these rivers as holy and worship them; the waters of the river Ganga find a very holy spot in Hindu culture. And yet, the waters of most of these rivers look hideous (unable to support marine life, unfit for human consumption, and so on). Various Governments claim to spend a lot of time and effort to clean up these rivers and have drawn up plans over the past 2 decades with big sounding names (all ending with the words of 'Action Plan') and the rivers remain dirty.
Over a period of time, even the courts of India have been unable to push the Governments to make an effective plan that is also executed well. All you get in the end is a lot of discussion about which method is the best for river cleaning (for those familiar with the discussions, the endless discussion in Delhi around where the sewage treatment plants should be, and how to stop the big drains from throwing their filth directly into the river would be funny if it was not so critical to public health). Otherwise, you would not get cases whereby drinking water to a city became critical when the filth content of the water available for drinking became too high.
What is required is for Governments to set up dedicated action plans that will ensure proper treatment of sewage (whether industrial or residential) so that no untreated sewage flows into the various water bodies that we have. Industries that violate this dictum need to be severely fined and punished (and that means that corruption levels in the environmental inspection area need to come down). Else we will end up with more cases such as the one in Punjab where millions of fish in a canal suddenly died due to release of untreated industrial waste. What we don't really need is for this kind of publicity generating measures such as this one:

With the state police coming to the fore to free the Gomti of pollution, now those caught red handed throwing garbage in the river will be severely dealt with. This announcement was made on Saturday by the director general of police (DGP) Vikram Singh, even as along with other senior officials of the department he took it upon himself to clean the city's lifeline.
In the morning the officials arrived at the banks of the Gomti for the cleanliness drive that is on to clean the river for the past few days. During the drive, the DGP made an official announcement that one company of river police will be deployed on all the banks of the river.

How will they prevent people from throwing trash into the river ? And will it stop if they patrol a few kilometers ? Would it not be more effective to have a proper education drive along with ensuring that people get a proper garbage collection facility ? Or am I hoping for an ideal world ?

Labels: Community, Development, Environment, Health, Police, Responsibility, River, Welfare