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The police, with their links with politicians on the one hand and
Interests with no more commitment and passion for law and justice.
People are more and more disillusioned with the extant political
election to election.
In a blinkered system like ours, where power and wealth are the ultimate virtues
and where power and wealth in themselves stimulate mutual growth, to the exclusion of
all other dimensions of life it is no wonder that the people of this poor country succumb
to the trappings of power and wealth at the cost of all virtues, values, pride, dignity and
human decency.
In an increasingly competitive and complex world, where every day, more mouths
are added to share limited resources, where the principle of the survival-of-the fittest
operates to its logical end and where the basic needs of survival and decency can be
assured only with power and wealth, people naturally go all out to ramp the ladder of
In the process, justice and morality become casualties. Criminality too raises its
politics and crime knit together in the fabric of Indian public life.
nation’s administration, the police enjoy tremendous power over vast fields of human
activities with responsibilities towards the life and death of the hoi polloi as well as
dignitaries. In this sense, the police are the cutting edge of the State power and its
ultimate bearer.
No power can be its own law without the police on its side as an executioner and
loyal watch dog. This is why politicians in their activities feel the need for wooing the
The police of independent India have become, by reason of their failing strength
of character and talent, easy prey to the power baits of smart politicians.
Their greed, unsound social background, lack of commitment to good values and
failure to comprehend police virtues in the right perspective, make them willing
partners in whatever politicians do, or intend to do. They refuse to look beyond their
dignity, the common good of people, national interests and even conscience-otherwise
The police, sans sound character and personal integrity, are no more than country
dogs. This is what the Indian police have become in free India. The politicians,
inebriated with new power, smartly brought these weaklings to absolute submission and
held them on a tight-leash to be their personal watch dogs and personal gendarmes-in-
requital for favourable job placements, undue promotions and other largesse from time
to time.
Nothing is valued higher than this largesse and its dispensers by the new police
of India. It is how the police were involuted in the conspiracy against decent public life
of India.
It was a hop and skip for the police from the ugly world of politics to the
mysterious world of crime and the underworld. The police have become a weapon of
politicians to bring about the subjugation of the crime world to use its resources for
political ends.
FALL OF CHARACTER
Politicians, thus, made good use of the decreasing strength of character of the
police in forging a nexus between the police and criminals in the furtherance of their
own ends.
With a weak spine and no principles in the face of odds, the police are only too
basic connecting link of the police hierarchy, have lost all meaning, and are interpreted as
And politicians easily led the police to the despicable cul-de-sac of the nexus with
criminals-the very people who are supposed to be controlled and brought to book for
antisocial activities.
plunged lock, stock and barrel into the lucrative crime world; the resulting wealth and
comforts were in no way less sweet than the hard earned money of law-abiding society.
This is how one nexus between the police and crime world was established.
Whom should we blame for this hapless position? Certainly not the politicians or
their auxiliaries like criminals and police who are the unfortunate by-products of the
grind. They are created by the situation arising from a system which misfits the people
The blame lies either on the Indian people who are unresponsive to the
democratic system evolved for them. Because of their unenlightened and venal
conscience, which is so insensitive that virtues like honesty, service, patriotism, quality
and excellence can make no dent in it at all; or it lies with the political system devised
for them. It failed to take their psychological make-up into account, and ispo facto led to
Otherwise, how can we explain criminals and goondas winning elections with
impunity, even while rioting and murders were committed at their behest on the eve of
elections itself? The fact is that the chance of winning an election often is pro rata to the
IMMATURE ELECTORATE
It is these people who win elections and rule this country. It is these people whom
the Indian electorate prefers to vest with powers to safeguard their interests!
Obviously, the Indian electorate lacks the far sightedness and vision to
It is yet too immature to take decisions about the interests of the nation and see
how national interests are closely linked to its personal interests. It is yet to broaden its
perspective to include the life of the nation as an integral part of its own.
Long –term and rational decisions are alien to its nature. Immediate selfish
interests and parochial outlook continue to be the driving force of all its actions and
In most parts of India, it is money, arrack, sari, threat, fear of landlords or the
blazening propaganda of a candidate that influence its decision as to whom to vote for.
How can the future of this country be safe in the hands of such an electorate and
How can an indifferent and irresponsible electorate provide honest and efficient
This weakness of the electorate has ultimately left Indian politics in the hearth of
violence and manipulative extortions, with the instruments meant to protect them
mowing the field. Saner elements in politics, who found survival difficult, have left the
field, giving way to elements which are more suited to the field.
It is how politics, from a class of dedicated and virtuous leaders, has become a pit
of junk. The credibility, which is the pith of any political life, is the biggest casualty in
Indian politics.
People are more and more disillusioned with the extant political institutions. The
percentage of the electorate that takes the trouble of going to polling booths so cast
to reap wealth, comfort and power for the next 5 years. And how he reaps the wealth,
comfort and power is again not a mystery at all. It is corruption and misuse of public
money.
If he is ambitious and intends to promote his career interests, there is no way out
in the existing system but to resort to pulling strings and pursuing other more deadly
methods. Often with the active collusion of the officious criminals and police.
The unhealthy nexus often leads to and facilitates other forms of crime. Cases of
rioting, assault, kidnapping, rape and blackmail, involving the supporters or relatives of
politicians, criminals and police in futherance of a political cabal are other usual forms of
sensational crimes in furtherance of political goals. The losses of life and property
involved in the wily schemes seldom touch the conscience of either the politicians, the
criminals or the police who are responsible for these dastardly acts.
The political patronage and the nexus with police desensitise criminals to the
process of law and justice. They are emboldened to commit more daring and ruthless
The police, in their links with politicians on the one hand and with criminals on
the other, are in their new avatar-the protectors of vested interests with no more
the ruthless and violent cabal of power-games with no heart for the common man and
common cause.
This is the requital the Indian electorate gets for letting by its nonchalance and
What we see today is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more things hidden in
This is soon realised by the opportunist Indian politicians who seize the first
available instance to enlist the support of criminals and underground operators for their
nefarious designs.
credibility and social standing with the help of their association with the custodians of
power, apart from the security and protection from the police that ensure from the
association.
They promptly grab the opportunity to their advantage and show how useful they
vendettas.
execute their nasty operations without attracting the stigma attached to them.
The vast army of criminals has become ready resource for them to use whenever
need arises. This has given a sense of confidence and security to politicians, who are
Often, politicians have so much relied on criminals that the latter have become
their most trusted lieutenants, even getting elected to legislature with their help and
blessings.
There have been instances in India, where prominent politicians have refused to
disown their notorious criminal friends in public even after reaching the vortex of their
political career. This shows the sway held by criminals over politicians in the Indian
situation.
It is a fact that no syndicate of organised crime in small and big cities anywhere
in the world can survive even for a day without political patronage. Ergo, all syndicates
of organised crime and their menace are the direct outcome of the nexus between
No criminal can take lightly the need for political patronage in running his crime
hoodlums, the only way to survive is to have comfortable political protection at the right
levels.
MUTUAL ADVANTAGE
The crime syndicate, in return, pay a good percentage of their criminal gain to the
tasks during the election campaigns of their political patrons, apart from liberally
How can a politician, after gaining power with the help of a criminal, ever let
down the criminal? This symbiosis of politicians and criminals which has emerged from
the extant Indian political system. Is the root cause of all the complications discussed
until now.
The very fact that politicians are prepared to risk their reputation rather than
distance themselves from the crime world, shows how highly the world of crime is
Politics and crime have become the 2 faces of the same coin in the present state of
affairs and a saying goes that there cannot be politics without crime and no crime without
politics.
In the present Indian situation, it is true that the lotus of politics can blossom only
In an atmosphere where placements and transfers are decided by the needs and
wishes of self-seeking politicians, no police can efficiently function nor can they be free
It is not surprising that hungry politicians grab more and more powers that are
legally and traditionally invested with the police department when the top brass lack
which politicians move their pieces to checkmate their adversaries and win the political
game.
In other words, the police sans effective leadership is becoming more a handmaid
of politicians by moving away from its sacred role as the guardian of law and justice and
The credit of bringing the police from their height of power to the present level of
who have bent the police on their own terms with the selective use of stick and carrot.
The police is not the real police and what is does is not policing in the proud sense
of the term.
CHANGED ROLE
With the increasing involvement of the police with crass politicians, the
conception of the police about their own role has undergone a large-scale change. No
more do the police look at crime control and maintenance of order as their first duty.
With this, the concern for crime control has received a setback and crime control
and investigation have receded to the last priority-except when politicians are interested
Only crimes that disturb politicians foment police to galvanic and meaningful
The very definition of the gravity of crime is adapted to suit the new conception.
The police have more and more realised that criminals, particularly those from
organised syndicates, are personal friends of their political masters and they are no
match for the criminals in terms of wealth, influence and social standing. The men of the
police see those criminals on equal footing with their political masters and learn to treat
They find it absurd to act with authority against the high-profile criminals who
It is unfortunate that the police of today have never realised their infinite stature
as law-enforcing agents vis-à-vis all others including criminals and politicians whom
they are empowered to search, arrest and take to court if they deviate from rightful path.
Sadly, the trifling wealth and the concomitant “ big-man” image of others appear
to the present police as more appealing than their own awful police authority.
healthy mind as is the moral restraint that prevents the criminal thought from being acted
upon.
External restraints brought about by the fear of law, custom and adverse reaction,
However, as the force of external restraints weakens for diverse reasons, and the
proporation of gain to be made in committing a crime outweighs the risks involved in the
balance sheet of the operation, the lure of crime increases and the deed is accomplished.
SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE
It is the social situation which controls the external restraints to make committing
Criminals are criminals because society gives them easy openings to thus meet
their needs. Politicians love to befriend criminals rather than bring them to book because
the society they live in makes their lives more comfortable with criminals as friends
rather than as adversaries. Policemen find the crime world sweeter because it is how
The remedy for the proliferation and endearment of crime lies in changing the
cross-selection of people from all fields of life who have moved beyond a commonly
Criminality may be prolific in certain civilised fields like commerce and industry
in the form of tax evasion, violation of foreign exchange regulations, hoarding etc.
Such crimes are generally not taken seriously in spite of the public awareness of
the crimes and the social standing of the criminals remains unaffected. Government
servants too come under this category of criminals because of rampant corruption in
public life.
It is a fact that Indian public life is a vast field of criminal activities and
politicians and police, though the custodians and protectors of Indian public life, from
part of the crime world. However, knowledge of the involvement of politicians and
police in this nasty world stirs the public conscience for the reason that they are
The only telos of the nexus is gain by synergy, which brings confidence and
courage to the troika in its nefarious activities, thereby inducing it to more daring and
This results in proliferation of crime is illegal gain and the incidence of crime is
directly related to increase in black money in the national economy, the proliferation of
crime invariably results in inflation and the weakening of the national economy.
More dangerously, it results in polarisation of the society into criminal rich and
The increasing incidence of easy money, material comforts and political power
of the criminal rich ultimately leads to internal strife and popular terrorism.
The indulgence of the rich and powerful in crime popularises criminal activities
by bringing an aura of status to them and negating all inhibitions in the popular mind.
Society easily accepts the example of the wealthy and powerful for making an
easy buck to lead comfortable lives in the world where life is becoming increasingly
While decent life becomes impossible by honest methods, the need of survival
forces honest citizens to accept crime as a way of life as the last resort. This would be
Easy money and easy wealth have a tendency to inflate. Criminals tend to spend
lavishly. This ends up in a spurt in prices of land, buildings and essential commodities,
Crime begets money, and money begets more money, and more money gets
power, comfort and everything. In the crush, the honest man is lost forever. The ocean
of criminal wealth around him, which is beyond even his wildest dreams, frustrates him
It turns him violently against all human values and decency, leading him to a
world of crime and violence. It is what we have seen in Punjab, Kashmir, Assam, in
bullets of the grievously hurt, self-righteous, once innocent people. It is said that even
the dacoits in Chambal are symptomatic of this social and economic malady.
It is true that crime cannot be eliminated from any society as the tendency to
appropriate restraints. What restraints and how they are to be applied are ironically
professional objectives, they can certainly save India from the present predicament.
Not that every politician and very policeman can come out to achieve this noble
task, but there certainly are noble elements yet surviving as exceptions among them,
who should take up cudgels in favour of the Indian polity and sacrifice their lives and
careers, if necessary, to make the renaissance of Indian police and Indian public life
possible.
The question yet to be posed is: Will the inveterate vested interests let these