There is a saying in India that, “If a dog goes mad it can be chained; but what can be done if the chain goes mad?” Applied to law enforcement, criminals are the dog, the police are the chain. So applied, the question is very appropriate for India today, and not least of all, West Bengal, where the police are completely out of control.
The Bantra police are indicative. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and its Howrah-based partner organisation, Masum, have together documented and reported on how these officers are operating as little more than a mercenary gang. Take two cases issued on September 5. In one a woman who had been sexually and physically molested by her in-laws tried to lodge a complaint at the Bantra station. Not only was she refused, but the police made a joke out of her plea for attention; she was subsequently killed. In the other, police with officers of the local housing trust went on September 2 to evict and arrest residents of three flats illegally, during which they allegedly robbed and destroyed property and harassed female residents. The housing trust is said to have “hired” the police to serve as its muscle. It seems that for the right amount of money these men will do anything to anyone: the victims in this instance were all themselves the families of police officers. Apparently the Bantra police enjoy such impunity that they can even fearlessly raid the homes and assault the close relatives of their peers.
There are many earlier reports that speak to how the chain has gone mad in Bantra. In August, the AHRC and Masum appealed for action on a case in which personnel of the same station are alleged to have illegally arrested and tortured a father and son as a favour to a senior police officer, who reportedly had a personal conflict with the victims. The order had come down the chain from the state intelligence chief, to the district superintendent, who in turn called on the Bantra station inspector to do the job. No doubt by doing brutal favours to more senior officers the police of Bantra can expect good rewards. And the recent looting and destruction of private valuables recalls how officers from the same station carted off the meagre possessions of over 7000 Bellilious Park residents in February 2003, forcing the affected persons–who were almost all Dalits, or so-called ‘untouchables’–to go live next to the town rubbish dump, where some died of illness and starvation.
All of these cases are widely known in West Bengal. They have been reported through the newspapers and other media, and public interventions have been made by Masum and the AHRC, among others. So why is nothing done? How is it that not even the minimum internal disciplinary action–transfer or demotion–has been carried out against these men? How can a police station run amok year in and year out with no fear of consequences? Is the government of West Bengal too afraid or incapable of doing anything to its own police? Or is it asking the same question as everyone else: what can be done when the chain goes mad?
Policing in India is these days characterised by violence and impunity on behalf of the rich and powerful: against the people of India and against the rule of law that had once existed there to some small extent. These same people then appear as diplomats and VIPs in international gatherings, speaking on behalf of those whom they presume to represent, to tell that ‘our constitution and laws protect human rights; we have no need of more international treaties’, such as the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The institutions they refer to include the policing system: that is, in Bantra and beyond. The laws they refer to include the 146-year-old provisions of the country’s Penal Code, which attribute no greater weight to police torture than to pick pocketing. Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the police feel free to commit whatever crime they wish without any expectation of further consequences: there are in fact no laws or institutions at present capable of stopping or punishing their wanton abuses. And under these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that this impunity is killing the rule of law in India, in the absence of which the country’s formal democracy is a fraud.
The Asian Human Rights Commission demands that the central and state governments of India address the intolerable conditions under which millions of citizens are made subservient to their police force. To being with, the government of West Bengal must take immediate steps to address the rampant abuse within its police force. A clear message must be sent to these criminals in uniform that their misbehaviour will no longer go unpunished. In this, it could start with investigations of all allegations pending against the Bantra police, including those made by the families of police officers themselves. The national government for its part must follow the lead of the government in the southern state of Kerala, and begin by acknowledging–rather than persistently denying–the scale of the problem. It must immediately ratify the Convention against Torture, and introduce appropriate domestic legislation to deal with torturers among its police. If they can be rooted out, so too can the impunity that police across India today enjoy for whatever crime that they commit. And if that can be rooted out, some hope may exist for the country’s rule of law and nominal democracy.
