No... They are not political appointees. For High Court & Supreme Court
They are supposed to be appointed by the President. Although Article 50
of the constitution stipulates the separation of the judiciary from the
executive, the executive controls judicial appointments and many of the
conditions of work.
http://www.tehelka.com/home/20041009/new/march/7/ca030703judicial.htm
http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Law/2003/njc.htm
http://www.samarthbharat.com/basepaper.htm
http://www.peoplefirstindia.org/free_bharat/part9.htm
Srinivas, I was supposed to meet him at Mr.Singh's place but couldn't...
I got a few answers for some of my questions though.. Apparently he told
Mr.Singh that, "In his view corruption in India cannot be controlled"
we'll talk about it later.
Loksatta, They are basically a Think tank made up of ex-bureaucrats. I
haven't seen any youngsters in them. Singh says they are funded by the
same people whom they should oppose (present bureaucrats). I think they
are a little "Elitist"... No hands-on (get to the people) approach I
think. But I guess everybody agrres that they are better than us or
anybody else for that matter....
BTW, 2 new posts in the blog...
1) Law & Order Issues - II
2) Criminal Justice System & Indian Police Org.
-keshav
-----Original Message-----
From: Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 11:00 PM
To:
Subject: RE: gut-wrenching interview....
Are the judicial personnel in India political appointees? Am ignorant
here.
Who wields influence over them?
-----Original Message-----
From: Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 11:47 PM
To:
Subject: Re: gut-wrenching interview....
keshav,
what do you think about loksatta? is it working? did you say you ment
JayaPrakash Narayan?
I found this quite interesting (still reading..)
http://www.loksatta.org/corruption%20chris%20report.pdf
Keshav Pitani wrote:
>There are thousands of such examples... (check the blog - for some) we
loose
>more than 31,500 crores in bureaucratic corruption (alone) each
year....
>
>coming to IPS .... do you guys remember the shooting of an IPS officer
in
>Hyd in broad daylight by naxalites...
>The actual story is that he was very upright (like the one mentioned in
the
>interview... not letting the seniors get any money) and gave hell to
>naxalites in one of his postings... and was way too popular with the
>cadres.... so the seniors transferred him to a post with out any
security...
>and "some how" the naxals got info on him and shot him down... right
outside
>the police HQ in Hyd.... He was so popular.....In the entire Indian
Police
>history... this was the first time all the police stations coordinated
>(through out the country) in all the districts he served and every
police
>station (including all PSs in AP) sent one person for his funeral
that's
>how much popular he was from constables to DSPs. He was not as
>flamboyant/hypocrite like DT Naik or many others but quietly
implemented
>many schemes for the welfare of the lower cadre in police and did his
job
>very well.... and of course paid for it with his life....
>
>coming to the hit squads... Vigilante justice never solved any problem
in
>the world.. (atleast none that I know of)...
>
>I think.... if you can't do it with in the frame work of the
>law-of-the-land.... don't eliminate the law itself.. change the law or
>constitution or do what ever it takes.. but let's not cozy up to the
idea of
>jungle law.....(just my opinion)... we've already seen through out the
>world... armed struggle against the system will never work... The
system
>will always win... you might want to read up on the south American
armed
>struggles.. which are very close to Indian struggles.. but have
acheived
>some of the goals....
>
>And the questions is.... Who are you going to save by forming a hit
squad?
>Who does corruption effect? you might want to think it's the poor..
(its the
>money that should build the infrastructure and jobs etc.. ) but they
don't
>care... they are poor already... its actually the middle class whose
(tax)
>money is going into corruption... but the middle class is not a class
>that'll support in your armed struggle... they'll be first ones to
distance
>themselves from you... So who are you going to save? its only the
people who
>are directly affected who will support you actively.... like if their
loved
>ones get assaulted or raped or die because they didn't grease the
doctor or
>the cop or judge....there may be some more who'll support passively....
but
>you need active support to do this.. otherwise it won't work..
>
>I agree there are a lot of success stories with armed rebellions...
from
>Lenin and Mao to Napoleon & George Washington.... They were fighting
>against a system which was feudal and bourgeois... they were fighting
>against a system that was equally bad for everyone... In our case its
not
>so.. there are nearly 60% of the people who sincerely "vote" in every
>election and leave the rest to "Karma" that gives us less than 40% of
the
>people who may not be interested in the system.... But the most
important
>point to remember is that majority of our voters are from villages
which
>means the very people who you are said to be fighting for are actually
with
>the system even if they are illiterate and poor. We know what happened
to
>our own Maoists.... from Charu Mazumdar to Kondapalli Seetaramaiah...
(we
>still have many today) basically they planned to create a system
parallel to
>the existing system... in our society (which is a reasonably OK
democracy)
>its hard to convince the people who are doing OK in the present
situation to
>leave all that and take up arms...
>These days Naxalites are hanging onto people's ignorance to run their
>system... its not the same when majority of the educated used to join
their
>ranks like... Kondapalli Seetaramaiah, SriSri, Gaddar etc... The most
>important thing to remember here is that all these people were fighting
the
>system with another system.. none of them were vigilantes...
>
>What can be done... its not a simple solution..... but we need....
>Police reforms, Election reforms, Transparent governance, Judicial
reforms,
>Educational reforms, Land Reforms, Constitutional changes to name a
few...
>most of these are already well documented... Its true... I'm not
>exaggerating... try reading the National Police commission report
(1981),
>Shah commission report (1978), Law commission report etc.. there are
several
>of those... None (not one) of the suggestions were ever implemented...
>
>How do we do it? Its not possible unless there's a movement.. we need
>leaders like Mahatma who are clean and focused on only one thing
"country
>first".... Tall order I guess......
>
>-keshav
>PS: I was going to write about the police org & and why its in such a
>pathetic state in my next post in the blog... Hopefully I'll get some
time
>during Christmas...
>
>----- Original Message -----
>>Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 6:38 AM
>Subject: RE: gut-wrenching interview....
>
>
>Sad.
>
>Was it "bharateeyudu", the Kamal Hasan movie. Sometimes, I feel, we
need
>like a good guys hit squad or something just like that. No questions
>asked. If justice cant be served by the courts, then it shall be served
>in this way.
>
>Deepu
>-----Original Message-----
>From: >Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 8:02 PM
>To:>Subject: gut-wrenching interview....
>
>guys,
>
>this interview below is of a police officer who
>retired from the IPS after enduring years of
>harrasment for his upright ways.
>
>http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/dec/13inter.htm
>
>http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/dec/14inter.htm
>
>While I am under no illusions that this guy might have
>some axe to grind, even if a small percentage of his allegations are
>true it makes a gut-wrenching assesment of the beaurcracy in India.
>
>Keshav, this probably is in the blog. But what in your
>view can be done to reduce corruption in India?
>
>Sumant
>
>
>
>=====
>> >
>
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Monday, December 20, 2004
Criminal Justice System & Indian Police
Criminal Law
The Administrative law is no better. here's a quote from the report by "The Comission on Review of Administrative law" (Submitted in 1998)
INDIAN POLICE:
Singh writes, After the Shah commision there was another report by BPRD (Bureau of Police R&D) in 1979 which warned that "execcsive control of the political exeutives and principal advisers over the police has the inherent danger of making the police a tool for subverting the process of law and promoting a growth of authoritarianism and shaking the very foundations of democracy.
successive governments to this ignored the recommendations by the NPC, Shah commission, BPRD and other state level comissoions... mostly because it doesn't suit their purpose..
David Bayley, Dean and Professor of the school of Criminal justice, State Univ of NY says, "The rule of law in modern India, The frame upon which justice hangs, has been undermined by the rule of politics"
What is more disturbing is that most of the police officers are identified with one political group or another which results in mass transfers with a regime change.
In 1993 (under P.V.Narsimha Rao) the Vohra committee, constituted to unearth the politician-bureaucrat-mafia(criminals)-police nexus came up with a damning report saying that this nexus "is virtually running a parallel govt. pushing the state apparatus to irrelevance."
http://www.indiapolicy.org/clearinghouse/notes/vohra-rep.doc
In 1984, 3000 sikhs were killed in Delhi alone... similar pogroms happened in a number of places before and since then. If the police is not subservient to their political masters I'm sure it would not be possible to commit such large scale crimes... It continues to this day.... as we have seen it in 2002 in Gujarat.
What should bother all of us is the fact that people who should be jailed for their crimes are put behind some of our highly trained elite commandos... in the event of an attempt on these criminals due to intra-criminal rivalry or any such incident our commandos might have to loose life or limb... trying to protect a known criminal... what a shame.....
The decision to give special protection group (SPG) security cover to the former prime ministers and their families is scandalous. Except Rajiv Gandhi’s family members, none of the others have any security risk whatsoever, but the country spends over Rs 200 crore each year on the SPG.
We have borrowed so many institutions from many countries in the world and even though most of our laws and statutes are originally written by the British, ironically we did not learn from their system of policing. In UK every policeman has original power vested in him. Once a law is passed by the parliament, no one can tell him how he/she should act upon it. In Japan, the public safety comission, NPSC (The apex body) is insulated from political pressures and even the prime minister is not empowered to give it any direction. In America as we know (since 1970s) political machines cannot control the police and public scrutiny is allowed on the police organizations. All the developed nations have a police force that is free from political interference. One can conclude that the independence of police from political interference can be used as a criteria for the level of development of a nation.
Police Training:
Rreport by C.Paramasivam of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/
The criminal law consists of the substantive law contained in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as the special and local laws enacted by the central and state legislatures from time to time and the procedural law laid down mainly in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr.P.C) and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. These three major Acts, i.e. the IPC, Cr.P.C and the Indian Evidence Act were enacted by the British during the second half of the 19th century. Of these, the only major law that has been revised since Independence is the Cr.P.C, which was revised in 1973 on the recommendations made by the Law Commission of India. The other two laws, except for some minor amendments, have remained unchanged.
Substantive Law
The IPC defines different types of crimes and prescribes appropriate punishment for offences. Offences are classified under different categories- offences against state, armed forces, public order, public justice, public health, safety, morals, human body, property and offences relating to elections, coins, government stamps, weights and measures, religion, documents and property marks, marriage and defamation. The IPC has 511 Sections, of which 330 are about punishments. Besides IPC, the local and special laws (SLL) also contain penal provisions. These laws have been enacted from time to time mainly to deal with new emerging forms of crime and to protect the interests of the weaker sections of society. A large number of criminal offences are registered under these laws, some of which relate to possession and manufacture of arms, ammunition and explosives; drugs; gambling; immoral trafficking in women; atrocities against scheduled castes and tribes; excise and prohibition; smuggling; hoarding and profiteering in essential commodities; food adulteration; traffic offences etc.
Procedural Law
Procedural law describes the procedure to be followed in a criminal case from registration, investigation and to its final disposal after a proper trial by a court of law. The police are not empowered to take cognizance of all penal offences. Criminal law makes a distinction between two categories
of offences- cognizable and non-cognizable.
Milestones in Legislation Making: (1850- 1900)
Indian Penal Code, 1860
The Police Act, 1861
Indian Evidence Act, 1872
Criminal Procedure Code, 1898
The Process of Criminal Justice
The process of criminal justice has the following main steps:
Step- 1: Registration of the First Information Report ( FIR) The process of criminal justice is initiated with the registration of the First Information Report. The FIR is a written document prepared by the police when they receive information about the commission of a cognizable offence.
Step- 2: The police officer proceeds to the scene of crime and investigates the facts of the case. Police investigation mainly includes:
- Examination of the scene of crime
- Examination of witnesses and suspects
- Recording of statements
- Conducting searches
- Seizing property
- Collecting fingerprint, footprint and other scientific evidence
- Consulting records and making entries in the prescribed records, like case diary, daily diary, station diary etc.
- Making arrests and detentions
- Interrogation of the accused
Step-3: After completion of investigation, the officer in charge of the police station sends a report to the area magistrate. The report sent by the investigating officer is in the form of a charge sheet, if there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the accused. If sufficient evidence is not available, such a report is called the final report.
Step-4: On receiving the charge sheet, the court takes cognizance and initiates the trial of the case.
Step- 5: The charges are framed. The procedure requires the prosecution to prove the charges against the accused beyond a shadow of doubt. The accused is given a full opportunity to defend himself.
Step- 6: If the trial ends in conviction, the court may award any of the following punishments:
- Fine
- Forfeiture of property
- Simple imprisonment
- Rigorous imprisonment
- Imprisonment for life
- Death Sentence
When Jayalalitha was convicted in a case in TN, the punishment was to pay a fine of Rs13,000. I'm sure that was a big punishment for her.
Courts:
The Judiciary has the Supreme Court (S.C) at the apex having three-fold jurisdiction namely, original , appellate and advisory . Below the S.C are the High Courts at state level, followed by subordinate courts in the districts. The judiciary in the state functions under the supervision of the High Court. The Constitution empowers the High Courts to issue directions, orders or writs for the enforcement of fundamental rights and for any other
purpose.
Order of Courts in India:
- Supreme Court of India (The apex court)
- High Court (Highest court at the state level)
- Sessions/District Court
- Judicial Magistrates of the First Class/Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court
- Court of the Judicial Magistrates of the Second Class
- Executive Magistrates
As per a 2002 report: Judges per million population in different countries:
India - 10.5
Australia - 41.6
Canada - 75.2
England - 50.9
USA - 107.0
A major failure of the judicial system in the country has been its ineffectiveness in ensuring speedy disposal of cases under trial. Though the right to speedy justice has been declared a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, the courts have failed to effectively dispose off cases and the arrears of pending cases keep on accumulating. As of 2004 more than 20 million cases are pending with various courts in India of these 3.2Million are pending at High Court Level. Our PM ManMohan Singh (In a recent adddress) attributed this to the long vacations in courts.
Until 2000 The government didn't think that it is essential to reform the criminal justice system. In April 2003 The Committee on Reforms of the Criminal Justice System, submitted its report. we are yet to see some implementations.
Kuldip Nayar writes:
The problem facing the nation today is not merely how to clear the arrears of cases but also how to restore the judiciary to its pristine glory. When a retired chief justice of India says that 20 per cent of the higher judiciary is corrupt, there is reason to worry. But I have not seen any follow-up by the government or any outcry by the public.
One immediate step that may immediately lessen the arrears of cases is to curb central and state governments from filing cases to show their ‘‘alacrity and independence.’’ A survey in Karnataka shows that in 65 per cent of civil cases, the government is the litigant, sometimes on both sides. Most cases are in the form of appeals and the survey points out that 95 per cent of them have failed. Adjournments waste precious time. A case, once begun, should be heard in entirety; some other lawyer could take over if the one who initiated it gets busy elsewhere
One immediate step that may immediately lessen the arrears of cases is to curb central and state governments from filing cases to show their ‘‘alacrity and independence.’’ A survey in Karnataka shows that in 65 per cent of civil cases, the government is the litigant, sometimes on both sides. Most cases are in the form of appeals and the survey points out that 95 per cent of them have failed. Adjournments waste precious time. A case, once begun, should be heard in entirety; some other lawyer could take over if the one who initiated it gets busy elsewhere
The Administrative law is no better. here's a quote from the report by "The Comission on Review of Administrative law" (Submitted in 1998)
"The comission was seriously constrained by the fact that it did not have access to a complete set of subordinate legislation in the form of rules, regulations and administrative instructions issued under central Acts, by individual Ministries and departments. It appears that the legislative Department itself did not have such a complete compilation of rules, regulations and procedures issued by the Ministries.... Another handicap was that the Central Ministries did not have full information about the rules and regulations issued by the state governments."
Apparently the last time all the adminsitrative law was collated was in 1963 (Under Shastri). It is estimated that there are 3000 Central Statutes (laws) and about 30,000 state statutes. Apparently all these statutes are not even available with the lawyers and Judges One of the reasons : According to Copyright act 1957 all these statutes are considered work of the government hence the government has copyright over it and no one else can publish these. Section 52R of the same act it seems does offer some leeway but the Govt. still has monopoly over the publishing.
Of the nearly 3000 central statutes nearly 300 statutes were enacted before 1947 of these 139 statutes were enacted in the 1800s.
The same is the situation with Criminal law.
Articles on Criminal Justice reform
INDIAN POLICE:
The police act of 1861, which forms the basis for today's police force was designed essentially to serve the British raj. Prakash Singh, former DGP of UP writes, "This was enacted in the context of the 1857 revolt and was therefore structured so as to put down any opposition to the colonial masters. The police was made subservient to the executive."
Even after independence we didn't change the act. In the late 60s (Indira regime) police was heavily misused by the executive..(party in power) in every which way... and it climaxed during emergency (1975 to 1977).
The National Police commission (NPC) set up after the emergency, in Nov 1977 says:
The relationship that existed between the police and the foreign power before independence was allowed to continue with the only change being that the "Foreign power" was substituted by political party in power.
The Shah comission which was setup specifically to look into the excesses of police during emergency wrote (in 1978): "If a recurrence of this type (of execesses and) of subversion is to be prevented, the system must be overhauled with a view to strengthen it in a manner that the functionaries working with in the system do so in an atmosphere free from the fear of the consequences of their lawful actions and in a spirit calculated to promote the integrity and welfare of the nation and the rule of the law."
when Indira Gandhi came back to power, the copies of the Shah Commission report, which recorded the excesses committed during Emergency, were confiscated. She also witch hunted each and every one of the officers involved with the commission, some of them had to resign in the middle of their careersThe CBI chief who headed the NPC was shunted out and the NPC functioned without a head of commision till 1981 when it was closed. The NPC produced eight reports between February 1979 and May 1981. None of which were implemented.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/july092004/top.asp
Even after independence we didn't change the act. In the late 60s (Indira regime) police was heavily misused by the executive..(party in power) in every which way... and it climaxed during emergency (1975 to 1977).
The National Police commission (NPC) set up after the emergency, in Nov 1977 says:
The relationship that existed between the police and the foreign power before independence was allowed to continue with the only change being that the "Foreign power" was substituted by political party in power.
The Shah comission which was setup specifically to look into the excesses of police during emergency wrote (in 1978): "If a recurrence of this type (of execesses and) of subversion is to be prevented, the system must be overhauled with a view to strengthen it in a manner that the functionaries working with in the system do so in an atmosphere free from the fear of the consequences of their lawful actions and in a spirit calculated to promote the integrity and welfare of the nation and the rule of the law."
when Indira Gandhi came back to power, the copies of the Shah Commission report, which recorded the excesses committed during Emergency, were confiscated. She also witch hunted each and every one of the officers involved with the commission, some of them had to resign in the middle of their careersThe CBI chief who headed the NPC was shunted out and the NPC functioned without a head of commision till 1981 when it was closed. The NPC produced eight reports between February 1979 and May 1981. None of which were implemented.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/july092004/top.asp
http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/aj/police/india/initiatives/npc.htm
on the relevance of commissions today..
http://www.pucl.org/reports/National/2001/comission-1.htm
on the relevance of commissions today..
http://www.pucl.org/reports/National/2001/comission-1.htm
Singh writes, After the Shah commision there was another report by BPRD (Bureau of Police R&D) in 1979 which warned that "execcsive control of the political exeutives and principal advisers over the police has the inherent danger of making the police a tool for subverting the process of law and promoting a growth of authoritarianism and shaking the very foundations of democracy.
successive governments to this ignored the recommendations by the NPC, Shah commission, BPRD and other state level comissoions... mostly because it doesn't suit their purpose..
David Bayley, Dean and Professor of the school of Criminal justice, State Univ of NY says, "The rule of law in modern India, The frame upon which justice hangs, has been undermined by the rule of politics"
What is more disturbing is that most of the police officers are identified with one political group or another which results in mass transfers with a regime change.
In 1993 (under P.V.Narsimha Rao) the Vohra committee, constituted to unearth the politician-bureaucrat-mafia(criminals)-police nexus came up with a damning report saying that this nexus "is virtually running a parallel govt. pushing the state apparatus to irrelevance."
http://www.indiapolicy.org/clearinghouse/notes/vohra-rep.doc
In 1984, 3000 sikhs were killed in Delhi alone... similar pogroms happened in a number of places before and since then. If the police is not subservient to their political masters I'm sure it would not be possible to commit such large scale crimes... It continues to this day.... as we have seen it in 2002 in Gujarat.
What should bother all of us is the fact that people who should be jailed for their crimes are put behind some of our highly trained elite commandos... in the event of an attempt on these criminals due to intra-criminal rivalry or any such incident our commandos might have to loose life or limb... trying to protect a known criminal... what a shame.....
The decision to give special protection group (SPG) security cover to the former prime ministers and their families is scandalous. Except Rajiv Gandhi’s family members, none of the others have any security risk whatsoever, but the country spends over Rs 200 crore each year on the SPG.
We have borrowed so many institutions from many countries in the world and even though most of our laws and statutes are originally written by the British, ironically we did not learn from their system of policing. In UK every policeman has original power vested in him. Once a law is passed by the parliament, no one can tell him how he/she should act upon it. In Japan, the public safety comission, NPSC (The apex body) is insulated from political pressures and even the prime minister is not empowered to give it any direction. In America as we know (since 1970s) political machines cannot control the police and public scrutiny is allowed on the police organizations. All the developed nations have a police force that is free from political interference. One can conclude that the independence of police from political interference can be used as a criteria for the level of development of a nation.
While we cannot discuss all the issues involved with the Indian Police, I want to point out some important statistics and highlights regarding Indian Police:
Police Training:
Only one per cent of the police budget is spent on training. As a result, a policeman who is in theory to go for retraining every five years, gets to look in on such a programme once every 20 years or so.
A survey of 100 out of 145 police training institutions in the country done by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) revealed the following: Methodology of outdoor training is largely modeled on the regimented military style with emphasis on timing, uniformity and adherence to the set ritualistic and ceremonial procedures. In case of indoor subjects, training is imparted through the chalk and talk method. Very few training
institutions have published training material for use by the trainees. The quality of the trainers is generally poor. Out of 100 police training institutions 23 were functioning without class rooms, 18 without black boards, 16 without over head projectors, 57 without conference rooms, 76 without seminar or assembly halls, 20 without library, 70 without auditorium, 93 without simulation facilities, 95 without forensic units, 72 without computers and 4 did not have even lavatory facilities. There is invariably a shortage of funds.
Police Fatalities:
A large number of police personnel have been killed in line of duty. As many as 21, 428 police personnel lost their lives during the four decades (1961-62 to 1999-2000).
Assam Rifles:
It was set up as a small unit of 750 men in 1835, mainly to guard the British settlements and tea estates in Assam and other neighbouring areas. It was named in 1917 as Assam Rifles, mainly for its contribution to the First World War effort. The Assam Rifles Act, 1941, presently governs the Force.
BSF:
Prior to the Indo-Pak war of 1965, maintaining security on the Indo-Pak border was the responsibility of the Armed Police Forces of the concerned States. The 1965 war led the government of India to recognize the need to setup a specialised force to maintain security on the Indo-Pak international border.This led to the establishment of the BSF on December 1, 1965.
CRPF:
This Force was formed in 1939 and was known at that time as the Crown Representative Police and utilised to maintain law and order in the then princely states of central India.
NSG:
The National Security Guards (NSG) was established in the aftermath of the ‘Blue Star’ operation in 1984 to deal with the problem of terrorism in its various forms, like hostage taking, hijacking of aircraft, kidnapping etc. It has two main components- Special Action Group (SAG) and Special Rangers Group (SRG). The NSG has no cadre of its own. It is manned by officers and men on deputation mainly from the army and the Central Para-Military forces (CPMF).
CBI:
Even though the CBI has been in existence for so long, it is still governed by the old Delhi Special Police Establishment Act of 1946. Section 4 (1) of this Act vests the superintendence over the organisation in the Central Government. An important development in this regard occurred in December, 1997 when the Supreme Court delivered its judgement in Writ Petitions (Criminal) Nos. 340-343 of 1993, commonly known as the Havala Case. The Court directed that the responsibility of exercising superintendence over the CBI should be entrusted to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and that the CVC should be given a statutory status.24 The judgement of the apex court is yet to be implemented in the form the apex court wanted it. Our politicians & bureaucrats intelligently put the CBI under both CVC and government control making the CVC toothless.
Intelligence Bureau:
Amongst the existing intelligence agencies, the IB is probably the oldest in the world. It was established as the Central Special Branch by an order of the Secretary of State for India in London on December 23, 1887. Following the recommendations of the 1902-03 Indian Police Commission, the organisation was renamed as the Central Criminal Intelligence Department. Gradually, the security tasks of the organisation started overshadowing its responsibilities in respect of criminal work. The word ‘criminal’ was therefore dropped from its name in 1918 and its present nomenclature (IB) was adopted in 1920.
Books, References:
Kohima to Kashmir: on the Terrorist Trail - P.Singh
Bullet for Bullet - Julio Ribeiro
The Lost Rebellion - Manoj Joshi
Kashmir: A Tragedy of Errors - Tavleen Singh
Faultline Kashmir - Christopher Thomas
Everybody Loves a Good Drought - P.Sainath
In the Dock: Absurdities of Indian Law - Bibek Debroy
Various Articles from India Today Magazine.
Rreport by C.Paramasivam of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/
Indian Constitution and Amendments
Law and Order Issues - II
Continuing with "why we are still under developed"... The point here is that the security situation in the country has been and still is grim... not just because of the issues we have right now but mainly because there's no long term plan that's being implemented by the leadership to make India more secure.
So, The 50s were a decade of North East and Kashmir problems, The 60s and 70s could be defined as a decades of naxalsim. The 70s also saw a resurgence of turmoil in the NE with insurgency in Assam along sudden upsurge of corruption in public life and police misuse starting with the emergency. 80s were a decade of violence in Punjab while the 90s were Kashmir years continuing to this day. All this While we continue to see the crime rate going up except in few tiny pockets in the country and the prevasiveness of corruption increasing to unprecedented levels. We also see more and more criminals as law makers. I wanted to expand on each of these but I figured the goal is not to understand these problems but to focus on the main issue of "under-developed-ness" which is partially because of these problems where we spend a majority of our resources these days.
Apart from those discussed earlier we have the following security issues which hamper our development:
Periodic Religious riots:
After Ayodya episode it almost became an annual event. But religious riots have been a aprt of our histor for centuries now.
We can talk about this seperately if we want, but the fact remains we have lot to acheive in terms of religious harmony.
Regular Caste Related Violence:
Over 100,000 cases of rape, murder, arson, and other atrocities against Dalits are reported in India each year.
Our agencies have reported that these cases are typically related to attempts by Dalits to defy the social order, or demand minimum wages and their basic human rights. Many of the atrocities are committed by the police. Even perpetrators of large-scale massacres have escaped prosecution. e.g. Bhagalpur (Bihar), Tsundur(AP), Karamchedu(AP), Ramanathapuram(TN) all of these cases are still under trial/investigation)
An estimated forty million people in India, among them fifteen million children, are bonded laborers, working in slave-like conditions in order to pay off a debt. A majority of them are Dalits.
http://hrw.org/reports/2003/india/
Insurgency in Assam
Assam is one of the states that has problems since independence. Majority of the problems were addressed by carving out different states to diiferent ethnic groups. So Nagaland was carved out in 1963, Meghalaya in 1970, Mizoram in 1972 and Arunachal Pradesh in 1987. The Major problem that is still a serious issue was the influx of Bangladeshi's. This led to one of the most successful student agitations in India leading to the most youthful party ever voted to office in any state in India. The students union that started as a vigilante group ended up being governing party in the state with a lot of promises in 1985. I remember when Mahanta took oath of office in Assam for the first time. Now PK Mahanta faces several corruption charges in Assam but still continues in active politics. in 1993 an Autonomous council of BodoLand was created within Assam. Today Assam is burning more than ever thanks to Politicians, Senior Bureaucrats and other interested parties. Assam continues to be a major security issue infact it is said that it is more serious issue than Kashmir..
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/assam.htm
http://members.tripod.com/israindia/isr/week1/neindia.html
Insurgency in Manipur
Ethnic violence:
http://us.rediff.com/news/2004/aug/09raman.htm
http://www.manipuronline.com/Features/December%202002/insurgencyinstitutionalization13_3.htm
Insurgency in Tripura
Tripura's insurgency has killed more people than in Kashmir in any given period. I think that sums up the seriousness of the issue.
The cause for insurgency again is ethnic & immigrant population & Independence from India like in the case of Assam
FYI: Tripura and Manipur were princely states during British raj.
http://www.himalmag.com/december2001/essay.htm
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/thirteen_years_of_killings_in_tripura.htm
Basically entire N.E. is a time bomb ticking to explode. The real reason is prolonged state of underdevelopment and serious neglect by authorities. The people of N.E since the days of MahaBharata are know to take up arms for the right cause and won't remain passive like the rest of the country.
The Special Task Forces on Internal Security and Border Management (2000) came out with several recommedations but not one is implemented.
There are lot of strategic advisors to many governments around the world who predict that India's Break up will start with the N.E.
Insurgency in Kashmir
Since 1989, more than 13,500 civilians and 5,250 security personnel have been killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. By contrast, over the same period, 29 persons have been indicted for terrorism in the state — 13 between 1989 and December 2002; since then, 16.
This is probably the most widely covered security issue So, I'll just leave it at that. (Check references in the next post)
http://homepages.uc.edu/thro/dilemma/print-rao.html#sec5
Apart from these there are several other important and equally serious issues such as Law and order in UP, Bihar, Religious tensions in Gujarat, Underworld in Mumbai etc.
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/in/Crime
Not that our police never solved any problems, Militancy in Punjab, Gorkha problem etc. were solved only because of the efficiency of the police. But KPS Gill writes (After winning peace in Punjab), "Freedom from fear was won at great cost. but it is not self sustaining and will have to be defended constantly if it is to survive."
Here's what ArunShourie has to say about Indian Security issues in a series of articles:
Shourie I
Islamic fundamentalism and its ally Left-wing extremism are responsible for grave threats to India. The State remains in denial
Shourie II
Over a hundred ISI modules have been unearthed and smashed in India. Yet drug money flows in and so do a stream of unwelcome visitors
Shourie III
A range of authorities have pointed to the urgent danger brewing in Muslim ‘religious’ centres, the porosity of our borders and demographic threats. Yet to voice them invites the charge, ‘communal’
Shourie IV
Well-trained commando units are not used to fight terrorists, instead they are used to guard VIPs. The police lack the equipment, strategy or the morale to effectively combat criminal mafias
Inorder for us to understand why we haven't been able to solve many of the problems and why some of the problems re-start right after we solve them I think we need to understand the way we structured our Police and Criminal Justice system. I think understanding this is important to understand the reason behind why we are so backward. ... In the Next Post
So, The 50s were a decade of North East and Kashmir problems, The 60s and 70s could be defined as a decades of naxalsim. The 70s also saw a resurgence of turmoil in the NE with insurgency in Assam along sudden upsurge of corruption in public life and police misuse starting with the emergency. 80s were a decade of violence in Punjab while the 90s were Kashmir years continuing to this day. All this While we continue to see the crime rate going up except in few tiny pockets in the country and the prevasiveness of corruption increasing to unprecedented levels. We also see more and more criminals as law makers. I wanted to expand on each of these but I figured the goal is not to understand these problems but to focus on the main issue of "under-developed-ness" which is partially because of these problems where we spend a majority of our resources these days.
Apart from those discussed earlier we have the following security issues which hamper our development:
Periodic Religious riots:
After Ayodya episode it almost became an annual event. But religious riots have been a aprt of our histor for centuries now.
We can talk about this seperately if we want, but the fact remains we have lot to acheive in terms of religious harmony.
Regular Caste Related Violence:
Over 100,000 cases of rape, murder, arson, and other atrocities against Dalits are reported in India each year.
Our agencies have reported that these cases are typically related to attempts by Dalits to defy the social order, or demand minimum wages and their basic human rights. Many of the atrocities are committed by the police. Even perpetrators of large-scale massacres have escaped prosecution. e.g. Bhagalpur (Bihar), Tsundur(AP), Karamchedu(AP), Ramanathapuram(TN) all of these cases are still under trial/investigation)
An estimated forty million people in India, among them fifteen million children, are bonded laborers, working in slave-like conditions in order to pay off a debt. A majority of them are Dalits.
http://hrw.org/reports/2003/india/
Insurgency in Assam
Assam is one of the states that has problems since independence. Majority of the problems were addressed by carving out different states to diiferent ethnic groups. So Nagaland was carved out in 1963, Meghalaya in 1970, Mizoram in 1972 and Arunachal Pradesh in 1987. The Major problem that is still a serious issue was the influx of Bangladeshi's. This led to one of the most successful student agitations in India leading to the most youthful party ever voted to office in any state in India. The students union that started as a vigilante group ended up being governing party in the state with a lot of promises in 1985. I remember when Mahanta took oath of office in Assam for the first time. Now PK Mahanta faces several corruption charges in Assam but still continues in active politics. in 1993 an Autonomous council of BodoLand was created within Assam. Today Assam is burning more than ever thanks to Politicians, Senior Bureaucrats and other interested parties. Assam continues to be a major security issue infact it is said that it is more serious issue than Kashmir..
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/assam.htm
http://members.tripod.com/israindia/isr/week1/neindia.html
Insurgency in Manipur
Ethnic violence:
http://us.rediff.com/news/2004/aug/09raman.htm
http://www.manipuronline.com/Features/December%202002/insurgencyinstitutionalization13_3.htm
Insurgency in Tripura
Tripura's insurgency has killed more people than in Kashmir in any given period. I think that sums up the seriousness of the issue.
The cause for insurgency again is ethnic & immigrant population & Independence from India like in the case of Assam
FYI: Tripura and Manipur were princely states during British raj.
http://www.himalmag.com/december2001/essay.htm
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/thirteen_years_of_killings_in_tripura.htm
Basically entire N.E. is a time bomb ticking to explode. The real reason is prolonged state of underdevelopment and serious neglect by authorities. The people of N.E since the days of MahaBharata are know to take up arms for the right cause and won't remain passive like the rest of the country.
The Special Task Forces on Internal Security and Border Management (2000) came out with several recommedations but not one is implemented.
There are lot of strategic advisors to many governments around the world who predict that India's Break up will start with the N.E.
Insurgency in Kashmir
Since 1989, more than 13,500 civilians and 5,250 security personnel have been killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. By contrast, over the same period, 29 persons have been indicted for terrorism in the state — 13 between 1989 and December 2002; since then, 16.
This is probably the most widely covered security issue So, I'll just leave it at that. (Check references in the next post)
http://homepages.uc.edu/thro/dilemma/print-rao.html#sec5
Apart from these there are several other important and equally serious issues such as Law and order in UP, Bihar, Religious tensions in Gujarat, Underworld in Mumbai etc.
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/in/Crime
Not that our police never solved any problems, Militancy in Punjab, Gorkha problem etc. were solved only because of the efficiency of the police. But KPS Gill writes (After winning peace in Punjab), "Freedom from fear was won at great cost. but it is not self sustaining and will have to be defended constantly if it is to survive."
Here's what ArunShourie has to say about Indian Security issues in a series of articles:
Shourie I
Islamic fundamentalism and its ally Left-wing extremism are responsible for grave threats to India. The State remains in denial
Shourie II
Over a hundred ISI modules have been unearthed and smashed in India. Yet drug money flows in and so do a stream of unwelcome visitors
Shourie III
A range of authorities have pointed to the urgent danger brewing in Muslim ‘religious’ centres, the porosity of our borders and demographic threats. Yet to voice them invites the charge, ‘communal’
Shourie IV
Well-trained commando units are not used to fight terrorists, instead they are used to guard VIPs. The police lack the equipment, strategy or the morale to effectively combat criminal mafias
Inorder for us to understand why we haven't been able to solve many of the problems and why some of the problems re-start right after we solve them I think we need to understand the way we structured our Police and Criminal Justice system. I think understanding this is important to understand the reason behind why we are so backward. ... In the Next Post
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)