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The Rule of Law is indeed backsliding in India, says Justice Madan B Lokur

-Press release by Common Cause dated 19th April, 2021

New Delhi: There are silences and gaps in the law that the questionable elements in the police take advantage of and undermine the rule of law, said Justice Madan B Lokur, former Justice of the Supreme Court of India.

Delivering the Keynote Address on ‘Is the Rule of Law Backsliding in India?’ at the launch of the Status of Policing in India Report 2020-21—third in a row ground report on policing in India with data from around the country—Justice Lokur said the rule of law is undermined each time a metro station is closed to stop protesters from gathering or students from attending classes. He was referring to the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. “What for? Is it not possible to manage the protests or maintain law and order without inconveniencing people?” he asked?

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The Status of Policing in India Reports (SPIR) are brought out every year by the civil society watchdog Common Cause in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). The first volume of the report was unveiled today at a virtual event attended by a large number of former and working police personnel, academics and policy makers. The first part of the report which was unveiled today was the first volume on ‘Policing in Conflict-Affected Regions’, covering 27 districts in 11 states of India affected by some form of conflict, extremism, or insurgency. The report and its key findings can be downloaded from the Common Cause website.

As part of a panel discussion at the same event on ‘Can Extrajudicial Killings be the State Policy?’ former DGP of UP Police and BSF, Mr Prakash Singh said “When groups of people express their endorsement of extra judicial killings, they are indirectly conveying their zero faith in the criminal justice system of the country.”

Dr. Meeran Borwankar, former DG and Police Commissioner pointed out that: “If we want extrajudicial killings to stop, there is a need to strengthen the police, prosecution, forensic labs, judiciary and prisons.” She also stressed on the combined training of all actors of the criminal justice system to put an end to extrajudicial killings.

The report is an investigation into the nature and practice of policing in areas that are embroiled in conflicts of different natures, be it extremism, insurgency or militancy. It analyses how policing in these violence-ridden regions are visualised by both the common people and the police personnel. It brings to light several concealed narratives, different voices and complexities of policing in these turbulent areas. Along the way, it shares telling insights. For instance, 46 percent common people and 43 percent police personnel in conflict-affected regions believe that the demands of Naxalites/insurgents are genuine but their methods are wrong, with nearly half of the scheduled tribes more likely to believe so.

The study also shines the spotlight on the severity of the reasons triggering the conflicts. According to common people, inequality, injustice, exploitation, discrimination are the biggest reasons behind Naxalite/ insurgent activities, followed by poverty and unemployment. Simultaneously, it is also true that violent activities find no sympathisers, despite the reasons being perceived as genuine. One out of five common persons as well as police personnel also feel that killing a dangerous Naxalite/ insurgent is better than a legal trial.

The report narrates the grim story of people haunted by the spectre of insurgency, militancy and other forms of violence, while underscoring their seriously disadvantaged status. Nearly one-fourth of the people knew someone who was a victim of physical torture either by the police or paramilitary/ armed forces. The same proportion of people spoke of knowing about an innocent person being held by either the police or the paramilitary/ Army for Naxalism/ insurgency-related charges. Yet, common people perceive the state police as more efficient to guarantee their safety. A significant majority of the common people (60 percent) believe that for their safety and security, they need the state police more than the paramilitary/ Army. In fact, common people who feel unsafe living in the region are more likely to believe so.

Police personnel, working in an ecosystem of violence, predictably, want a strict legal framework backing the special powers conferred on them. Thus, a big majority of the police personnel surveyed (60 percent) believe that strict laws like UAPA, NSA etc. are important for controlling Naxalite/ insurgent activities. Significantly, however, only 30 percent of the common people believe so.

Also, structural biases and class prejudices of the society are mirrored in police forces working in conflict-affected regions as well. This has come out sharply in the interviews of common people. Thirty-six percent common people believe that the police discriminate against the poor in their drive against Naxalites/ insurgents. Amongst the common people from the Left Wing Extremism-affected regions, 40 percent believe that during criminal investigation the police would favour a rich person against a poor person, 32 percent feel that they would favour an upper caste against a Dalit; 22 percent feel that they would favour a non-Adivasi against an Adivasi; and 20 percent feel they would favour a Hindu against a Muslim.

Despite both stakeholders in conflict-affected regions sharing largely divergent views on issues affecting them directly, an overwhelming majority of police personnel (75 percent) and common people (63 percent) feel that addressing development and providing better facilities in the area would be very useful for reducing the conflict. Police personnel are also eager to find solutions for their inadequacies. More than one out of three police personnel (35 percent) feel that the government should improve the working conditions of the police. Almost a quarter also said that the government should ensure that they receive adequate training and facilities to be able to handle conflict situations.

SPIR 2020-21 is a first of its kind study in India and South Asia, also exploring the attitudes of police personnel, their working conditions, training and preparedness as also their relationships with various stakeholders of the conflict. The study covers 27 districts in 11 states and Union Territories, including face-to-face surveys of both the police personnel and the civilians in the four Northeastern states, and large parts of central India affected by left-wing extremism. (A list of districts surveyed has been given in Appendix 1 of the report). The study also analyses official data released by government agencies. The surveys were coordinated by a network of academics at the universities and research institutions across India who are part of the Lokniti Programme of the CSDS.

As expected, navigating the Covid tsunami has not been easy for our team. The present study was particularly challenging as the surveys were completed during the world’s strictest lockdown in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, a total of 4,784 interviews of civilians and 2,600 interviews of police personnel were conducted.

Also, official data has been analysed to offer a nuanced understanding on policing in conflict regions. It has been dissected for concealed meanings while face to face interviews add to the layered inferences. Additional efforts were made to adequately represent both the genders, as well as members of both the Constabulary and High-ranks in the survey of police personnel. Similarly, the report goes an extra mile to make the civilian sampling representative, with equal male-female ratios and proportions of respondents from all age categories, starting from 18 years.
Common Cause, in collaboration with Lokniti-CSDS, has been preparing a series of baseline documents titled the ‘Status of Policing in India Report’ (SPIR). The idea of the SPIR reports is to improve policing through study of the official data, ground-based surveys and wide-ranging research conducted in collaboration or cooperation with the academia, civil society and government agencies. Two editions of the report have already been published. The first, SPIR 2018, was based on the common man’s perception of policing gauged through a citizens’ survey and a performance evaluation of policing using official data. The second report in the series, SPIR 2019, was a study of the working conditions and experiences of police personnel captured through a nation-wide survey, as well as a measure of the adequacy levels of the police using official data.

The third episode, SPIR 2020-2021, is a study divided into two volumes. While the first one focuses on ‘policing in conflict-affected regions,’ the yet-to-be released second, tries to understand the various aspects of ‘policing during Covid-19 pandemic.’

SPIR 2020-2021, Volume I is part of our objective to create a comprehensive database on policing in India and is an invaluable tool for policymakers and serious researchers to effect change.

The report launch event can be accessed at https://youtu.be/BFu40ADPhmw

 

Image Courtesy: Common Cause, www.commoncause.in