Terror attacks and our police

The recent terrorist attacks in Bangalore and Ahmedabad are two more in a
series that has been going on for some time now. I am not a professional
journalist, so I will probably miss out one one or two, but I still can
list the following right away.

1. Blasts in court premises in UP in November 2007.
2. Blasts in Jaipur in May 2008.
3. Blasts in Bangalore
4. Blasts in Ahmedabad
The last two, of course, happening this month. This does not include numerous
such blasts occurring over more than a decade all over the country.

Every blast is followed by usuall politicking, which is nauseating to say
the least. Take for example Sushma Swaraj's statements after the Ahmedabad
blasts. Now I can go on whining about our politicians, but there is no novelty
in that. Also, that is not what I sat down to write in the first place. I
wanted to raise a few question, and to make a few observation, for whatever
they are worth.


1. Is there anyone in the political establishment who seriously wants to stop
these terror attacks? Doesn't seem to be the case from the reactions we get.
They seem to be happy touring the affected areas and posing for photographs
that may help them garnering votes. The PM says these designed to destroy our
social fabric, but is not clear what he can do to preserve that fabric. Any
new ideas Dr. Singh?

2. Can our Police do their job professionally? `Well, what's professionalism?'
might very well be the answer from a lower rung policeman in India. Throughout
their lives and career, our policemen learn to please their bosses, political
bosses to be more precise, rather than doing their job well. After all, how
many of our policemen have the basic orientation that they are there to enforce
the law. How many of them know the law anyway? So, when crises like these
arise, all they can provide us with are knee-jerk reactions. And after a few
days things go back to where they were.

Solution?

Well, the very first step, I believe, should be a thorough reform of our
police force. They should be set up as an independent constitutional body
not directly under the political establishment. This is the only way we can
ever hope to have a police force that works professionally to enforce the
law. Will that solve all the problems overnight? No... surely not. But at
least there is a hope. Will than happen easily? No way. Who wants to
give up power so easily? The police reforms bill is stuck because the
state governments do not want it. But the civil society and the activists
must take this up in a big way, just like the took to the issues of RTI
and NREGS. Police reforms can be a big step in realizing some of the goals
that we wish to achieve as a democratic society.