When the police wage war

When the police wage war
Ajay K. Mehra

Unfortunately, neither the recent strike by Manipur Rifles, nor the three-day strike in July by the 18,000 strong Bihar Police association created the kind of popular concern they should have. The two strikes may have had different causative factors, but they highlight an ominous trend.

The Bihar Police Association struck work after the Bihar government refused to concede their demands regarding a pay scale at par with the Delhi Police, better service conditions, checking political interference in their functioning, compensation to families of policemen who lost their lives on duty, and so on, fell on deaf years. The cash strapped Bihar government displayed the usual knee-jerk reaction by dismissing the Association's general secretary and suspending 250 agitating policemen.

The story of Manipur Rifles stir, however, is even more bizarre. A couple of battalions went on arms-down stir on December 8, which were later joined by all the 12 battalions, when they discovered that their allowances, for which money was drawn between 1996 and 1998, was not paid to them. The money, it was discovered, was siphoned off and misused by some persons in authority. The issues involved in these two agitations are three interlinked questions of grievances of the policepersons, their right to form associations and their right to agitate. It is natural for members in any organisation to have grievances and if not redressed, associations and trade unions organise agitations. However, in an uniformed organisation like the police, where discipline is of paramount importance, associations could be permitted, but agitations must be avoided. Clearly, therefore, machinery to receive, filter and sift police persons' grievances is of paramount importance.

Unfortunately, the incident when an Akali Dal MLA's slapping of an policeman in Jalandhar in 1979 fuelled a flash strike by the Punjab police, eventually spiralling into first-ever-all India police stir, has been erased from public memory. Rudely jolted out of slumber, the Indian state, then governed by many of the actors who are in power today, was in a quandary.

The National Police Commission (NPC), appointed after the internal emergency in 1978, considered this question in detail, looking both into statutory restrictions and practical viability of police associations. Recommending a network of staff councils, from the district up to the state level, for periodically reviewing grievances of the policepersons, it clearly rejected the prevailing practice of monthly sammelan, durbars as being defective and inadequate. It felt that the mechanism for grievance redressal `besides being inherently satisfactory, should also appear satisfactory and carry credibility and conviction to the personnel'.

Following the 1979 countrywide police agitation, I had suggested the creation of a body patterned on the Whitley Council, where the representatives of the employer and the staff sit together periodically to resolve disputes and grievances through the process of collective bargaining. The Statutory Police Council created in Britain in 1919 on similar lines has been immense success. Consisting of representatives at every level, it was accorded statutory status in 1964 following a review of its functions and powers in 1953 and 1956.

Modelled on Whitley Councils, this police council consist of an official side representing the various police organisations. The members are appointed by and represent those bodies which makeup the Police Council. One of the Council's main functions is to negotiate and determine the appropriate level on the principle of collective bargaining. The distance of such a negotiating and grievance redressal machinery will also obviate the possibility of knee-jerk reactions from the authorities.

Politicisation of the police has reached alarming levels. Surprisingly, though among the most politicised, the Bihar Police complained and agitatedagainst politicisation. This indicates the abysmal depths to which political interference in the functioning of the police must have fallen. No serious thought has yet been given to the issue either by the governments -- at the Centre or the states -- or by the police leadership. It is most unlikely that the disaffection in the Bihar police or the Manipur rifles, which is only a section of police force in the state, would be able to do what the nationwide stir in 1979 could not do. The two stirs, however, underscore the importance of considering this question on a priority basis.