Find common ground for police reforms

For the second time in two months, the police forces of two states clashed on Tuesday over the arrest of a person in a high-profile case. In the first case in May, Punjab Police sought to arrest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga for alleged threats issued to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, but was thwarted by its counterparts from Haryana and Delhi. In the second case, Chhattisgarh Police travelled to Noida to arrest Hindi TV journalist Rohit Ranjan for misattributing a statement by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Mr Ranjan tweeted to Uttar Pradesh Police, which arrested the anchor and, thereby, blocked the efforts of Chhattisgarh Police.

It is worth noting that the forces of the five states involved in the two incidents appeared to act at the behest of the political parties. The two incidents offered a sobering view of the state of police reforms, 16 years after the Supreme Court issued directions to divorce law enforcement from political considerations. In short circuiting due process, the police forces acted as mere proxies of their political masters, and cemented the disturbing trend of the State using the powers of arrest as an intimidation tactic on people. Without getting into the merits of the cases against Mr Bagga and Mr Ranjan, it is clear that administrations don’t hesitate to use the police forces under their control to settle political scores. It also underlines the urgent need for political parties and governments to find common ground for police reforms, and for the civil society and public to put pressure on elected representatives to form clear guidelines for inter-state police action and end the cycle of one-upmanship.