What’s the point getting worked up and passing new laws if police and society do not step in to check this malady which demeans us as a people
Public outrage over the December gangrape in Delhi, which shocked the country and forced a change in the criminal law, has not yet exhausted itself and we have another similar incident in the nation’s capital — only this time it is a five-year-old girl child.
This is beyond condemnation. In an instance such as this we have to be ready to interrogate ourselves as a society. It is not enough to take the authorities and the police to task, although it is clear as day that in this case Delhi police conducted itself in a manner that shames the very idea of policing.
On both counts — the fact that we are dealing with the brutal sexual assault of a child, and the total absence of any sense of duty exhibited by the police — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the way in anguished public remarks on Friday. This is probably calculated atonement, and also possibly a measure of compensation for the government’s — and the Congress party’s — indifferent silence when news first broke of the horror that played out in December. But this is hardly enough. As matters stand, Dr Singh’s comments were necessary. But they will also be seen as pro forma.
The Delhi police is the bailiwick of the Union home ministry, not the UT government of Delhi. As such, it is imperative that the PM order the home ministry to facilitate a comprehensive audit of police functioning — at least since the landmark crime of last December — in the matter of crime against females in the nation’s capital. This has to be time-bound and informed by robust independence. It must not be a departmental probe. That will kill the very purpose, for the police are impressive at making excuses and covering up for one another.
Local police-station-level minor officials, and an ACP, which is the bottom rung of gazetted ranks in the police set-up, have been suspended. But if the Delhi police as a body (it does have conscientious individuals at all levels) is seen to suffer from lethargy, indifference, and proneness to colourable exercise of authority, then it lacks work ethic and commitment to be the solid foundation of the justice system which it is meant to be. Viewed in this light, the police chief of the national capital cannot avoid taking constructive responsibility for a failure of this kind so soon after he was able to do just that last December.
Sexual assault of women has probably risen in Delhi since December (it may not be just a matter of enhanced reporting). What’s the point getting worked up and passing new laws if police and society do not step in to check this malady which demeans us as a people.
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