Commentary/Dilip Thakore
Bad law and order could swallow
economic reforms' gains
A new and underrated danger is threatening the nation's six-year-old
economic liberalisation and deregulation programme which has survived
several governments and the astonishingly petty politics of the
Delhi durbar.
All over the country the law and order maintenance systems are
breaking down as a consequence of decades of neglect and sustained
abuse of the police and paramilitary forces by politicians in
New Delhi and the state capitals.
The extent to which the nation's police apparatus has deteriorated
and become lumpensied was dramatically highlighted by the broad
daylight shooting of three businessmen by the Delhi police in
a bizarre case of mistaken identity.
The shooting of two (of the three) wholly innocent businessmen
to death was not as unforgivable as the Delhi police chief's statement
to reporters implied. The police is "sorry but not apologetic"
about the incident, he had said.
It is hardly surprising that S C Burman, the retired police commissioner
of the Garden City of Bangalore, obliged to comment in a moment
of rare candour that "Over 95 per cent of the city's police
officers are incompetent" and have been appointed on considerations
other than merit.
Indeed, the extent to which the law and order maintenance machinery
has been run down and the rank and file of the police and paramilitary
forces have been infiltrated by ill-qualified lumpen elements
cannot but cause disquiet within the business community and well-wishers
of the hitherto moribund Indian economy.
An economy, which after a four-decade failed romance with Soviet-style
socialism, is finally beginning to experience an annual GDP growth
rate on a par with the tiger economies of Southeast Asia.
A decade after the infamous Bhagalpur blinding of suspects by
the police, similar atrocities have come to light in Gujarat recently.
And a daily diet of horror stories from the badlands of Bihar
and Uttar Pradesh tend to indicate that the law and order machinery
in the two populous cowbelt states has collapsed with private
armies and vigilante groups assuming justice administration and
tax collection functions.
More unnerving is the culture of anarchy and lawlessness which
is spreading outwards from these Hindi heartland states into the
other states of the Union.
Surprisingly few, if any, economic and media pundits have been
moved to emphasise the self-evident connection between economic
development and the maintenance of law and order.
Let alone foreign investment, even domestic investors are likely
to be wary about doing business in parts of the country where
the law, order and justice systems are in a state of disrepair.
It is hardly a coincidence that despite their large markets and
wealth of natural resources Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the most
under-developed states of the Indian Union.
Likewise even the relatively more literate states of Kerala and
West Bengal are economically underdeveloped because they are plagued
by gangsterism, thinly disguised as militant trade unionism.
It is necessary to highlight that the primary function of the
government, especially in developing nations, is to maintain law
and order and to build credible justice delivery systems.
There is a surfeit of case histories of national governments which
have neglected this primary function of government, forcing their
publics to pay bitter prices in terms of human suffering and lost
development opportunities.
Among the nations which have lost their development drive and
opportunities because of their government's chronic failure to
maintain law and order are Zaire, Sierra Leone, oil-rich Nigeria
and a host of nations in South America. Nearer home, neighbouring
Afghanistan and perhaps Pakistan seem headed that way.
Over a decade ago, a National Police Commission constituted by
the government, recommended sweeping changes in the wage structures,
administrative systems, service conditions and recruitment and
training procedures of police personnel all over the country.
Unfortunately the recommendations of the commission have remained
a dead letter with most cash-strapped state government (law and
order maintenance is a state subject under the Constitution) ignoring
its eminently sensible recommendations.
And given the poor quality of the nation's politicians who are
only too keen to convert police and parliamentary forces to their
own usually dubious uses, the prospect of the NPC recommendations
appearing on their agendas is remote.
In the circumstance, against the backdrop of independent regulatory
authorities for utilities being the flavour of the season, this
is a good time for business representative organisations such
as the national chambers of commerce to begin exerting pressure
on New Delhi to convert the NPC into an independent regulatory
authority with mandatory powers to supervise the recruitment,
training and management of police and paramilitary forces all
over the country.
As is becoming increasingly apparent, Indian industry and trade
has the most to lose when the law and order machinery breaks down.
Therefore the initiative for reform will have to emanate from
within industry and the ranks of the citizenry. Quite obviously
the nation's law, order (and justice) systems are too important
to be left to the nation's purblind politicians.
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