POLICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS—

DOES END JUSTIFY MEANS?

A basic tool man devised to preserve his common rights is the police. It is
an irony that most incidents of human rights violations have their roots in the
police. This is an example of the fence grazing the crop.
The reasons are many. The most important lies in the police culture itself-its
inability to look beyond certain barriers it raises around itself; its failure to see a
human being as he; its incapacity to see its relevance to the common man outside
the power structure; its inveterate indulgence with power play; its deviant
interpretations of its role in the rule of law and, above all, its scant respect for
means (in achieving the end) The result is the police siding with the wrong-doers
in the clashes between individual and national or other social interests, leading to
popular condemnation of the police.
Right thinking people are aware of the predicament and sufferings of their
fellow men. Thanks to the revolution in the communication sphere, human rights
violations have become a highly sensitive issue, with the human rights
commissions at the regional, national and international levels on their toes to
detect, investigate, report and protest. The factual reports have embarrassed
Governments and their police outfits. It is distressing to note that developing
countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America prominently figure in these reports;
and the record of the countries in the Indian sub-continent, including India,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is not inspiring either. India, in particular, must reread its
recent human rights record.
The basic question is whether human rights violation is sine qua non with
safeguarding national and the larger social interests. The second is whether such
violations are justified in the cause of such interests. The third is what are the limits
within which violations are confined, and who imposes these limits and by what
mechanism. What would be the situation if the police who indulge in human
rights violations to protect national and social interests are thoroughly corrupt,
immoral and unworthy of any trust? Answers are desperately needed.

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India’s human rights record is particularly bad in Punjab and Kashmir. Its
record has never been satisfactory in the North-East or with the naxalites.
Where does one draw the line between the larger interests of the country and
the violation of human rights? Blame is shifted from one level to another
whenever the police are pulled up for human rights violation during action. The
top brass blames the field officers for excess while the latter blame the bosses
for exerting pressures to show results without any guidelines to protect human
rights.
The truth is that the police, at all levels, and its administrators are to be blamed,
that none among the police and their administrators really bother about human
rights and their violations, least of all during actions which expose them to
tremendous risks. It is a do-or-die situation. Once on a dangerous course of
action, the sole aim of the police is to succeed in the operation by whatever
means. Moral questions such as human rights violations and the public agitation
likely to follow do not matter, considering the dangers they face in carrying out
the task. It is a crisis and the tendency is to somehow overcome the situation
irrespective of what the future might hold. The administrators know that
excessive checks and moral fears blunt the killer instinct in the policeman and
affect the chance of his success in the field. The authorities up the hierarchy also
believe in succeeding somehow rather than play by the rules. This is the crux of
the matter regarding human rights.
Human rights take precedence over national and social interests and
transcend religious and moral issues. Human rights become a sensitive issue only
when they clash inter se and invite a decision on basic issues. The question is who
is to judge such basic issues. Certainly the decisions cannot be left to the whims
and convenience of the police.
The human rights are the spine of policing must be made an integral part of
the police culture. This is absolutely necessary. Only such emphasis restrains the
police from indulging in violations.
NATURAL AND BASIC
Human rights are the natural rights of the human race as well as the laws that
help make social life possible. This gives a legal slant to the issue. The legislature,
in a democracy, decides how much of such rights could be surrendered in
common interest. The legislature by promulgating laws and the courts by
interpreting them delineate what natural rights constitute inviolable human rights
violations are an issue between the legislature and the judiciary on the one hand
and the executive, which is the police, on the other. For the fear-struck citizens,
it is an issue between the helpless them and the arm-twisting Government. In

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simple terms, human rights violations involve violating the basic rights of life,
liberty and human dignity beyond the limits of the law. The violations may be
committed in the acts of execution, confinement or torture. It is basically the use
of power beyond the scope of law for certain ends and is not committed for
any noble end. Such violations are common in secret service operations; in
emergent situations, say, when separatists or terrorists are active or dangerous
operations of foreign agents are suspected.
The police indulge in human rights violations on suspected elements to bring
the situation under control either by eliminating them or by forcing them to reveal
their plans. Fake encounters were first contrived and staged by the Indian Police.
Crime investigations account for a large share of human rights violations in the
developing countries where third degree methods are employed in the
interrogation of the people detained. Death, rape and torture in custody are
common in many developing countries.
Are acts of human rights violation effective in crime investigation or in
controlling a troubled situation? The answer is no. A temporary lull may be
created, but in the world of organized crime, the illegalities of human rights
violations have either no impact or have just the opposite impact. The criminals
are mentally and physically prepared to face any threat to their basic rights.
Devising alternative plans to counter police action is only a minor diversion in
their massive operations. In fact, they enjoy fighting the Government on equal
terms with no legal or moral inhibitions. Their resolve to fight the Government
with all the resource at their disposal is only strengthened. It becomes a no-hold
barred fight then onwards, the law-enforcers losing their initial advantages and
the edge of civility and decency.
Inhuman and outrageous acts perpetrated by established Government
agencies have an electrifying impact on the common man whose sympathies are
in favour of the victims. The legal and moral relevance become immaterial to the
citizen. A well-organized outfit actually contrives to create a situation to earn the
sympathy of the public.
HARDENED CRIMINALS
Another reason why acts of human rights violation will not put an end to
crimes is the criminals get hard and wish to take revenge and embarrass the
establishment. This is how resistance grows. This is what happened in Punjab, in
Kashmir and in Vietnam in the Sixties and the Seventies.
Another impact of the violation of human rights by the state is the loss of fear
and respect for the authority of the state. Once subjected to third-degree

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methods during interrogation, a petty criminal comes out as a hardened criminal.

A government devoid of moral authority cannot rule at all.
Secret services indulge in dirty tricks involving human rights violation in
national interests, though law and morality demand that such violations in any
form and for reason are bad. Criminals have their own code of conduct. Secret
service is a world apart and its dramatis personae are inveterate in criminal games
with the official sanction to play them. The danger lies in committing excesses
that endanger the safety and the well-being of innocent people not involved in
the game in any way. It is left to each state to draw the line depending on the
sensitivity of each problem though it cannot openly declare that it is promoting
and guiding the secret acts even remotely. Yet it is a cardinal duty it must perform.
Another dimension of human rights violations is its commission for personal
ends in the garb of fighting a social cause. In the atmosphere of violence,
individuals from enforcement agencies as well as terrorist outfits may take
advantage of the situation and indulge in killings, extortions and rape. India saw
it happen in Punjab and Kashmir and even in the North-East where personal
scores wee settled.
The tragedy about Indian law-enforcers is that they are keen on the immediate
show of results to earn the appreciation of the higher-ups, in the process
relegating to the oblivion the need to find lasting solutions. That is why the
violation of human rights is on the rise as efficient and ingenious policing is less
preferred. This is true about managing law and order issues as well as
investigation of crimes.
Laws are formulated and promulgated by the government keeping in sight
the needs of the country and the responsibilities of its enforcing machinery. The
need to go lawless in order to enforce laws arises only when the law-enforcers
perceive that the laws are inadequate or their abilities are inadequate to meet the
challenges in the field. The laws being what they are, framed from time to time,
to suit the needs of the field, the only conclusion one can draw from rampant
human rights violations is that the enforcers are utterly devoid of professional
skill and the instinct to do effective policing and hence resort to lawlessness as
a short-cut-method.
The heart of police responsibilities is protection of rights, be it individual,
corporate, organizational or social, or the rights of the nation for survival.
Protection, prevention and investigation are the tools available for achieving
these ends. Human rights make up the essence of the privileges man enjoys in the
social setup. The police, entrusted with the responsibility of protecting rights, are

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doing a disservice to the profession and humanity in violating human rights in the
discharge of peripheral duties.
But this is not unique to Indian police. The police and the governments of
almost all the developing countries suffer from the syndrome, the problem being
acute in non-democratic countries.
The problem is laying the emphasis on results irrespective of the means.
Committing an injustice in the name of justice cannot be called a service in the
cause of justice. In policing, each means is an end by itself. Policing by its very
nature, involves extreme measures such as detention, arrest, search, seizure,
impounding, forced entry, taking possession, controlling movements and the use
of weapons. These methods when not employed discreetly and moderately do
great harm to individuals and society. Perhaps in no other organisation is means
as vital as in the police.

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