Say no to PCOCA

Failing in their efforts to curb gangster violence, the Punjab Police are apparently feeling helpless enough to ask for laws that fundamentally undermine the constitutionally established criminal justice system. They want the government to bring in a Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act (PCOCA), a proposal that the Chief Minister seems inclined to agree with. The idea had been kept on the back burner for years essentially because of its potential to facilitate rogue policing; by way of abundant precaution it is now suggested that there should be “sufficient safeguards”. There is a contradiction: The law will either give the police a “free hand” or not; if it safeguards all constitutional rights, the police will not want it. The government must understand, it is an extreme measure; and the question to ask is whether the situation is really so bad as to warrant the draconian law?

The police have a genuine challenge in securing convictions for gangsters as no one is prepared to depose against them. But that stage comes only after investigation and arrest. The police have been unable to even trace the dreaded criminals in many cases; or they have simply escaped from prisons. These are failures that the new law will not help. It is natural for the police to seek greater leeway, but it is for the government to take the call. And the Congress government may like to revisit its approach to handling the police. For all the condemnation of the “halqa” system of the SAD-BJP government, repeated reports of current ruling party leaders’ intervention in matters of policing should be a matter of alarm. Both the government and police need to remember, crime prevention begins with checking a young man when he first jumps a traffic light.

Punjab has been through the experience of using laws fit for a police state, such as TADA and POTA. Their utility, or menace, will be debated endlessly, but by no measure the state deserves to be subjected to the experiment all over again. The Chief Minister has offered the police “all help” in tackling crime. That is encouraging, if only he could qualify the offer slightly — “all legitimate help”.