Thinking Allowed: Policing democracy

The Queen B is enraged. The cops have turned! The Election Commission seems to have alienated the affections of her police force — right in the middle of the elections. Now they refuse to bow to Queen Banerjee’s wishes in spite of five years of rigorous training. This is unforgivable. Especially since she is supposed to be the minister in charge of home affairs — the police, in short. The cops now seem particularly keen on stopping Trinamul Congress workers from dominating the polling process, from guiding voters in their own special way, from keeping the polling booths buzzing with their youthful energy. Unbelievable.

Naturally, Mamata Banerjee would not take this lying down. She promises retribution. She remembers everything, she snarls, and is keeping a record of all this. We are coming back to power, she thunders, and there will be consequences. “If anybody tries to take me on, they get demolished,” she warns. “Please remember!” The warning is directed at her own police force, temporarily under the control of the Election Commission. She also calls the police “cowards” and “lowly brokers of Delhi” and blames the Opposition parties and the EC for all this.

How dare the EC listen to complaints by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party and transfer her handpicked officers? Apparently, 67 police officers were shunted out in mid-April to make at least the later phases of the West Bengal Assembly elections free and fair. Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, known to be friendly to the chief minister and her party, was replaced too. And the new commissioner, Soumen Mitra, is determined to play boldly by the book. As the police and the paramilitary forces plan and strategise together, poll violence has come down.

And the method is simple. Keep an eye on known goons of all parties. If necessary, pick them up right before polling day and keep them safely away till the voting is over. Slap on a curfew in sensitive areas, prevent people from forming a mob. Temporarily shut down local clubs where party workers plan their moves, often with the aid of bombs and guns. Check out all likely places for arms, ammunition and bombs. And then the regular stuff — keep the streets safe, follow-up on complaints and help voters in a party-neutral way. From the third phase of the polls, the police have ensured proper and peaceful voting in some districts and in parts of Kolkata.

All this has suddenly earned the police what they never got earlier — respect. The EC’s order has come like a breath of fresh air — they feel free, they are allowed to be just the police. “There is a limit to subservience,” a top cop was quoted as saying, “we have stooped very low, but can’t any more.” The police have been known to not only bow and pray to the TMC leaders, they are also known to serve tea and refreshments to the chief minister and her colleagues in public meetings, like they did in January in West Midnapore where SP Bharati Ghosh read paeans to the chief minister and called her the “Mother of Jangalmahal”.

But the threats of the chief minister have found their target in the lower rungs of the police force. Apparently, shortly after her very dramatic and very public threats, cops looked on as TMC bike gangs went on a rampage, instilling terror in the hearts of voters in some parts of Kolkata. The police headquarters had to step in to control the situation. Ms Banerjee’s threats have made most cops bristle. “From the chief minister’s threats it would seem that we are not public servants but employed by a private company, and can be sacked at whim!” said an angry cop. Besides, there is a problem with their pay. Apparently their daily allowance has not been coming for a while. Apart from not getting their rightful money, they also have to kowtow to leaders who they believe hoard huge sums illegally. Being free of political masters, even for a short while like now, is liberating.

Only when the police is free of political control can we reclaim our democracy. Violence has been a part of our electoral process for too long. Our democracy stands on wobbly legs of money and muscle. Though the situation is changing slowly, state governments still use the police as their private army. Unless the police are free, we can’t be free. The common Indian cannot have the democratic freedoms and rights that she is supposed to have. And justice will remain the privilege of the powerful.

Police reforms have been on the cards for ages. For decades there have been efforts to remould the police from what was crafted by the British — as a tool to control an empire — into something that suits a free democracy. In a landmark judgment in 2006, the Supreme Court ordered detailed instructions for police reforms that would make it more professional and free. These were supposed to be implemented by 2007. Amazingly, after a lot of dilly-dallying, some states have implemented some parts of the Supreme Court’s order, but not in totality, and certainly not in spirit.

As the Queen B’s rants in West Bengal reveal, the democratic process is hugely dependant on the police. Unless the common person is safe to exercise his democratic rights, unless our democratic freedoms as guaranteed by the Constitution are protected, we cannot claim to be a true democracy. The less privileged in general get less rights, less freedoms and less justice. The poor, dalits, Muslims, other minorities, women and the underprivileged will never have equal rights or a level-playing field unless we have a neutral police force that can freely enforce the law of the land. We will never have a true democracy unless we free the police from their political masters.

Happily, the process that started years ago, is slowly gaining ground. Election violence has piped down in many states, including in West Bengal this time. But democracy is not only about casting your vote once in five years, it is about the way you live every day, what you are allowed to do, what you are not allowed to do. And we need a free and professional police force to protect our everyday democracy as well.