Forced to the wall

The police in Maharashtra, once respected by the people, is in turmoil. The imbroglio concerning the state’s Home Minister and the Police Commissioner of Mumbai has not been sorted out yet. Now, Sanjay Pandey, the acting DGP of Maharashtra, since Subodh Jaiswal opted to gravitate to the Centre, has been literally ousted because of the Prakash Singh judgment and replaced by Rajneesh Seth, an officer two years his junior. Naturally, Sanjay is upset and has not made any bones about it.

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It is essential to analyse the reasons for the degeneration of the police and assign blame where it is due.

Like Sanjay, Rajneesh is a man of integrity. I have known him since his birth, since his father was my ASP when I led Pune’s city police in 1964. Despite all good intentions of my dear friend, Prakash Singh, and his efforts to ensure that the police reforms mandated by the National Police Commission of 1977, chaired by retired ICS officer Dharma Vira, were implemented, the exact opposite has happened! The commission was hell-bent on depoliticising the police. The process of politicisation has been now completed.

Recently, the Mumbai City Police faced the ignominy of its chief, the Police Commissioner, being first shunted out of his post in shame, then charged with some cases of extortion, declared an ‘absconder’ by the courts, and finally being suspended. Never in the history of the Mumbai Police has this happened earlier.

Deepak Rao, who has delved into the history of the Mumbai Police through the years, was recently asked what he thought of the trauma the city police was experiencing after the appointment and removal of Param Bir Singh. He said such depths of degradation had not been reached earlier. My quarrel with Rao’s evaluation is that he has not attempted to analyse the reasons for the degeneration and assign blame where it was due.

Why could some of the Police Commissioners who presided over the destiny of the force in the past decades not command the respect of its men and the public, both of which are needed to provide security of life and property to people? The answer is simple. In the early eighties, when I occupied the high chair, I was in charge of Mumbai’s police. If anything went wrong, I was solely responsible. There was none but me to be blamed.

IPS officers who made up 75% of the posts of Deputy Commissioner and all positions above that level were chosen by the political establishment on the advice of the state’s IGP (later elevated to DGP). The advice of the IGP/DGP was invariably accepted. Alas, no longer! Wholesale changes are made by the Home Minister and the Chief Minister on the basis of patronage or even worse (and this has been the trend of late) of money changing hands. Such a shameful arrangement has deprived the head of the force of any moral or institutional influence that he used to wield over the rank and file.

Even before the last century ended, the political establishment, assisted by bureaucrats of petty disposition, had amended the Police Act to define the term ‘Superintendence of the force’ to include the state’s Home Secretary (now upgraded to Additional Chief Secretary, Home). This enabled the Home Minister to dictate to the police establishment boards, which had replaced the sole authority of the DGP/CP to appoint his own choices in cutting-edge jobs. Even Inspectors in charge of police stations were now chosen by the politicians for extraneous considerations rather than competence, integrity and merit.

It is not rocket science to grasp the truth that one’s own superiors in service can best evaluate an officer’s competence, integrity and overall suitability to occupy a cutting-edge position, especially one like the Commissioner of Police of a metropolitan city like Mumbai or even second-tier Commissionerates like Thane, Pune and Nagpur. When the DGP’s professional expertise is overruled by politicians, the head of the force is reduced to a figurehead. The rank and file does not respect him as they used to earlier. Individual officers, like Sachin Vaze, the Assistant Inspector who has achieved notoriety, become prominent for the wrong reasons.

This is the real tragedy that has befallen the police in Mumbai, once heralded as a model to be emulated by other police units of comparable importance in the country. Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte, who as ACS (Home), had presided over meetings of the establishment boards and added his rubber stamp to his minister’s desires, was embarrassed when questioned by the Justice Chandiwal Judicial Commission inquiring into allegations of corruption hurled by the disgraced Police Commissioner against the disgraced Home Minister.

Param Bir decided that if he had to go, he would drag Home Minister Anil Deshmukh with him. The Centre, keen on ousting the Shiv Sena-led MVA government, has shown signs of assisting Param Bir to exculpate himself, in return for the scalp of the minister who belongs to the NCP.

Sanjay Pandey and Rajneesh Seth are secondary players in the games being played on the political chessboard. Both are men of integrity. The problem with Sanjay was his inability to get on with anyone senior to him, especially if he felt that the person was not honest. Consequently, his ACRs, which decide the fate of IPS officers, were not the best. He was excluded from the list of officers fit to hold the highest position. So, in a way, Sanjay was responsible for his own discomfiture. He heeded not the sage advice of many well-wishers not to bang his head on walls because the wall would not break but his poor head would! And it did!