Miachael James Nowicki, Research Associate,Nishan and Mr.Aridaman Jit Singh,Director, Nishan had intercation with Mr.Prakash Singh,Ex-IPS officer on his Top Down approach to Police Reforms in India with the intervention of apex court and way forward.
Prakash Singh’s-Police Reforms;Top Down to State High Courts
Mr.Prakash Singh,Ex-IPS with Mr.Michael Nowicki, Research Associate, Nishan
On 21st May 2008, Team Nishan got an opportunity to interact with Mr. Prakash Singh Ex- DG of BSF. Mr. Prakas Singh’s name has become synonymous to police reforms in India due to the landmark judgement of apex court on the 22 September 2006. Mr. Singh was kind enough to receive us at his residence on the outskirts of Delhi and spared his valuable time for us. Mr. Singh was very straightforward in mentioning that throughout his career, he felt the stranglehold of political leadership that was acting as a very big impediment in the good policing, he feels that police needs to be insulated from political interference and that only is the biggest impediment in the police performance. When we questioned him on the issue of training and the local accountability of the police, he felt that adequate training is their but some police personal do not take it seriously and on the issue of local accountability of the police officers, he emphatically said that you cannot do anything about accountability. On the issue of proliferation in the top echelon of the police, he was found comparing it with Indian administrative service and its pay bands where only six police officers from IPS will be reaching the pay band that will have approximately 400 IAS officers into it, it made us feel, that he is more concerned about reforms from the perspective of an IPS officer.
He feels that if top police leadership is insulated from political interference and if all the seven directions that have been issued by the Supreme Court of India are implemented it will bring improvement in police performance and accountability. In his strategy on the way forward to implement the police reforms that his writ petition has propagated, he is looking forward to file contempt petition in the High Court of each defaulting state and at the same time he wanted non-governmental organisations in the field to come forward and support his cause to make it a mass movement and generate pressure on the government to implement police reforms that have been propagated on his behalf.
Take of Team Nishan on Prakash singh and Supreme court’s Police reforms: As long as we have BABU mentality in place to suggest any reforms that emanate from whims and superfluous informations, babus that remain far from practicality of real life situations and gain all their experience only in papers, all these reforming policies will keep failing because baus can’t visualize implementation startegies and its pitfalls and will keep failing with their impractical policies and Prakash Singh’s Police Reforms, emanate from the similar state of mind, unable to visualize practicality of implemntation strategies to its own policies and will practically prove a set back to democratic reforms of police in India and a big burden on public exchequer. These theories are going to fail to be translated into actions for being superfluous and will not make police responsive or accountable to public in anyway.
All posting transfers are done by organizational police leadership and same is applicable on accountability mechanisms too, in this paramilitary structure of police, there is no scope of political interference but through Top police leadership and it is organized corruption at this top level that proves biggest impediment in police performance.
Until this power formation is decimated and stringent performance measurement and accountability mesaurements introduced, nothing will change.
Police in Indian states need to be immediately demilitarised, decentralised, restructured, retrained and retested to make it relevant to the needs of democratic society, lest it remain a big burden on public exchequer