IMPACT OF CRIMINALISED POLITICS ON POLICING
A ruling party MLC's son allegedly shoots dead a young student in Gaya for overtaking his SUV. A senior journalist is shot dead in Siwan district by unknown assailants allegedly having connections with Lalu Prasad party’s general secretary. According to BJP, these incidents indicate the existence of ‘Jungle Raj’ in Bihar. Such incidents have occurred in other states too. What they definitely very emphatically highlight is to prove how badly politics in this country has been criminalised.
Though signs of criminal activities of politicians were seen in earlier years too, but the process of criminalisation of politics really started in the seventies. The first major event in this context was the proclamation of Emergency and the subsequent unbridled misuse of authority by persons in power for self-aggrandisement. Since then, the process has grown uninterruptedly. The Election Commission, the Supreme Court and some expert committees drew our attention to this problem, but we kept on neglecting it. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution appointed by the Government of India in 2001 rightly commented:“…the criminalisation of politics and the persons known to have criminal past becoming legislators and ministers has not only become very common but is being openly defended by the party leaders. A stage has now reached when the politicians openly boast of their criminal connections.”
Increasing criminalisation of politics is both a cause and an effect of poor and politicised policing. There are three ways in which it has impacted the image of police and quality of policing. One, it has led to promoting organised crime and corruption in the country and reduced the police capability to control it. Many years ago, the Vohra Committee on Corruption had observed:“All over India, crime syndicates have become a law unto themselves.. ..….The nexus between the criminal gangs, police, bureaucracy and politicians has come out clearly in various parts of the country.” The Vohra Committee report mentioned that the network of mafia was “virtually running a parallel government, pushing the state apparatus into irrelevance.”
Two, criminalisation of politics has led to gradually undermining the authority of the police to take action against those who indulge in criminal activities. By being in politics, the criminals have succeeded frequently in influencing police work. It has created an environment within the organisation in which the authority of the police leadership to exercise command and control has got eroded and bred indiscipline in the force. It has promoted a climate in which impunity has flourished. In short, it has obstructed the growth of professional policing in the country. As an eminent police officer has rightly said: “The administration and the police are the first casualties of criminalisation of politics, resulting in a system of law that is neither fair nor impartial.” In such an environment, crime becomes a “low risk, high profit business,” where price is paid by citizens, not only in terms of increase in victimisation, but also in terms of overall deterioration in the quality of life resulting from overpowering fear of crime.
Three, since criminalisation of politics is the cause as well as the result of bad policing, it has led to diminution of public confidence in the system, thereby depriving the police of public support and cooperation in the fight against crime and criminals. It is a truism to say that the police cannot succeed in their work unless they get voluntary support and cooperation from the public. The police should have realised long ago that winning public cooperation is essential not only to win the war against crime and criminals but also to weaken the vice like grip of the politicians over the organisation. The police have failed to do so. An important factor responsible for this failure is the public perception that the police always side with people in positions of power even when these people are on the wrong side of law which they often are. The process of criminalisation of politics that has occurred in this country on such a big scale has already shaken the faith of the public in politics and politicians. The loss of public faith gets accentuated when the process of criminalisation engulfs the law enforcement officers too.
The citizens expected the Modi government to take action to deal with the problem of criminalisation of politics. After all, Modi had promised that he would put all MPs and MLAs facing criminal charges in jail once he came to power. He was not willing to spare even the candidates from his own party. This is one of the most important promises that he completely disregarded after coming to power. Narendra Modi is often criticised by his rivals for his failure to implement the promises made by him in 2014. Some of the failed promises often cited by Rahul Gandhi and company include bringing back black money and depositing Rs 15 lakh in every Indian's bank account, providing 2 crore jobs every year, hiking minimum support prices for the farmer's produce etc. One expected the Congress leader, who had deprecated in public the controversial ordinance passed by his government to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers, to denounce Modi’s failure on this account too. However, no political leader in the country has made an issue of Modi’s failure to implement this important promise. It appears this is a subject where all political parties are on an equal footing and cannot adopt a holier than thou attitude.
A ruling party MLC's son allegedly shoots dead a young student in Gaya for overtaking his SUV. A senior journalist is shot dead in Siwan district by unknown assailants allegedly having connections with Lalu Prasad party’s general secretary. According to BJP, these incidents indicate the existence of ‘Jungle Raj’ in Bihar. Such incidents have occurred in other states too. What they definitely very emphatically highlight is to prove how badly politics in this country has been criminalised.
Though signs of criminal activities of politicians were seen in earlier years too, but the process of criminalisation of politics really started in the seventies. The first major event in this context was the proclamation of Emergency and the subsequent unbridled misuse of authority by persons in power for self-aggrandisement. Since then, the process has grown uninterruptedly. The Election Commission, the Supreme Court and some expert committees drew our attention to this problem, but we kept on neglecting it. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution appointed by the Government of India in 2001 rightly commented:“…the criminalisation of politics and the persons known to have criminal past becoming legislators and ministers has not only become very common but is being openly defended by the party leaders. A stage has now reached when the politicians openly boast of their criminal connections.”
Increasing criminalisation of politics is both a cause and an effect of poor and politicised policing. There are three ways in which it has impacted the image of police and quality of policing. One, it has led to promoting organised crime and corruption in the country and reduced the police capability to control it. Many years ago, the Vohra Committee on Corruption had observed:“All over India, crime syndicates have become a law unto themselves.. ..….The nexus between the criminal gangs, police, bureaucracy and politicians has come out clearly in various parts of the country.” The Vohra Committee report mentioned that the network of mafia was “virtually running a parallel government, pushing the state apparatus into irrelevance.”
Two, criminalisation of politics has led to gradually undermining the authority of the police to take action against those who indulge in criminal activities. By being in politics, the criminals have succeeded frequently in influencing police work. It has created an environment within the organisation in which the authority of the police leadership to exercise command and control has got eroded and bred indiscipline in the force. It has promoted a climate in which impunity has flourished. In short, it has obstructed the growth of professional policing in the country. As an eminent police officer has rightly said: “The administration and the police are the first casualties of criminalisation of politics, resulting in a system of law that is neither fair nor impartial.” In such an environment, crime becomes a “low risk, high profit business,” where price is paid by citizens, not only in terms of increase in victimisation, but also in terms of overall deterioration in the quality of life resulting from overpowering fear of crime.
Three, since criminalisation of politics is the cause as well as the result of bad policing, it has led to diminution of public confidence in the system, thereby depriving the police of public support and cooperation in the fight against crime and criminals. It is a truism to say that the police cannot succeed in their work unless they get voluntary support and cooperation from the public. The police should have realised long ago that winning public cooperation is essential not only to win the war against crime and criminals but also to weaken the vice like grip of the politicians over the organisation. The police have failed to do so. An important factor responsible for this failure is the public perception that the police always side with people in positions of power even when these people are on the wrong side of law which they often are. The process of criminalisation of politics that has occurred in this country on such a big scale has already shaken the faith of the public in politics and politicians. The loss of public faith gets accentuated when the process of criminalisation engulfs the law enforcement officers too.
The citizens expected the Modi government to take action to deal with the problem of criminalisation of politics. After all, Modi had promised that he would put all MPs and MLAs facing criminal charges in jail once he came to power. He was not willing to spare even the candidates from his own party. This is one of the most important promises that he completely disregarded after coming to power. Narendra Modi is often criticised by his rivals for his failure to implement the promises made by him in 2014. Some of the failed promises often cited by Rahul Gandhi and company include bringing back black money and depositing Rs 15 lakh in every Indian's bank account, providing 2 crore jobs every year, hiking minimum support prices for the farmer's produce etc. One expected the Congress leader, who had deprecated in public the controversial ordinance passed by his government to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers, to denounce Modi’s failure on this account too. However, no political leader in the country has made an issue of Modi’s failure to implement this important promise. It appears this is a subject where all political parties are on an equal footing and cannot adopt a holier than thou attitude.
