DailyPost 2735
WILL ANY GOVERNMENT DEAL WITH AGENCIES DIFFERENTLY?
Police is the strong arm of the state and so are the investigative agencies. 2006’s Prakash Singh judgement wanted to set right the Police once and for all, by large number of reformative measures. The aim was providing an objective, fair and impartial police administration. All state governments found ways and means to obfuscate the landmark judgement and we are where we were per 2006 or worse. Governments feel if cannot misuse the police and investigative agencies. The feel of raw power and the power to play around with anyone the government wishes to or its head feels like, makes you feel heady.
The central government have played ball with the agencies for decades now and they remained a handmaid of the successive governments. The level of influence, intervention and misuse have been different in different regimes. One of agencies was called the “caged parrot” by the court itself and today some loose talk call them hounds. That the government will use its agencies have become the accepted norm and nobody raises his eyebrows about the officers in these agencies for not going the objective, professional and purely legal way. Today, there is so much of talk about the agencies foul play, but will the next government behave differently.
Officers in the investigative agencies are confident of the fact that every government will play around with them in their own way and they have internalized it. What can the next Union Government do differently? Get the cases being investigated by these agencies reviewed by an expert panel and get an objective report on how have the agencies, a specific officer or their head behaved unprofessionally or in a partisan manner and at times “created cases,” which should not have been there in the first place. All aberrations, commissions and omissions with evidence to conclusively support the misdeeds should be operational part of the report. If there is slightest bit of doubt, the finding can be revalidated by a different expert panel too.
Once the deliberate mala fide action/s are proven against an officer, investigative team or the head of the agency, disciplinary action as deemed fit should be taken. This would send the right signals in the agencies and also set the right expectation of the government. Free and fair investigation as per the rule of law. Over a period of time, this would become the tradition and the norm. Besides this, legislative oversight is also a must. A Legislative Oversight Committee should be constituted to have oversight over the functioning of these agencies. Our democratic and government practice has made it abundantly clear that this important task cannot be left only to the government. Instead of supervising, it is being weaponized by governments to differential levels.
THE NATURE OF FUNCTIONING OF INVESTIGATIVE AGENCIES NEED TO CHANGE, TWEAKING THE RIGHT WAY IS A MUST.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.