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Two events of defined the state of police officers and political elites were unable to find a place in the great political debates of democratic India. First was the video of Haryana DSP apologising to political leader was circulated to the media by Sirsa district police through an official email from the PRO; and second was ‘Slap-gate incident’ where Additional SP of Dharwad has sought VRS after the public incident in Belagavi where the Chief Minister gestured to slap him, after severing the state for 31 years. Both of the above-mentioned police officers belong to their respective State Police Services, and their public humiliations at the hands of political power can be used as an instrument to assert the ground realities of mid-level police officers caught between the unskilled constabulary at the bottom and the highly authoritative Indian Police Service at the top.
The first batch of the Provincial Police Service cadre, formed on the recommendation of the second police commission-1902, joined the Provincial police in 1907 as Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP). In Bihar, for example, they wear the shoulder batch of Bihar Police (BP) as against the shoulder batch of Imperial Police (IP) worn by the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), to make the former salute the latter while on parade despite the Fraser Commission recommendations for “precisely the same status for them”. The invidious position can be analysed by the acknowledgement of one directly recruited DSP for the following reasons, as mentioned by 1908 batch DSP from Bihar, Alakh Kumar Singh in ‘32 years in the Police and After’ (1952):
1 The IP officers hated brown (indigenous) men trying to claim equality with them.
2 The senior Inspector of Police, who until now were the senior-most Indians in the police force, resented being subordinate to their younger compatriots.
3 The Deputy Collector felt jealous that DSPs were likely to become District Superintendent of Police at a much younger age than they could get to the post of District Magistrate. The representation of the Provincial Police Service before the ‘Islington Commission’ to be restored to class one for T. A. or Transfer Allowance was turned down due to opposition from the Provincial Civil Service. The Viscount Lee Commission of 1924 also denied the treatment of class one officers to the DSPs for TA.
- B. Chande, in his celebrated work ‘The Police in India’, proclaimed that the Indianisation of the superior police services had started with the 30% direct recruitment of DSPs in the Indian Police cadre. The National police Commission recommends only 50% direct recruitment to the IPS and the remaining 33% promotion quota to be reserved for the serving state police officers, and the remaining 17% for the direct recruitment quota for serving officers of CPOs filled by a limited competitive exam conducted by the UPSC.
The Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, during the constituent Assembly Debates expressed his sanguinity and pragmatism in favour that “The Police, which was broken, has been brought to its proper level and is functioning fair efficiently … these people [police] are the instruments. Remove them, and I see nothing but a picture of chaos all over the country. They are the men who prefer honour, dignity, prestige, and deserve the affection of the people”.
The National Police Commission (NPC) in its Fifth Report of 1980 radically advised recruiting policemen only at the two levels of constables and Indian Police Services, and to eliminate all other intermediary ranks. The intermediary ranks shall be filled by the ‘quicker and smoother promotional flow upward’ to improve the quality of police reforms. This phrase of ‘quicker and smoother promotional flow upward’ is missing out when it comes to the promotional prospects of the State Police Services (SPS) officers, creepingly crawling for decades to get inducted into the Indian Police Services (IPS). The Fifth report of the NPC categorically mentions that the post of “DY. SP will need to continue, as he has become an important function of the police hierarchy and has a distinct role to play. The retention of this rank is further necessary to provide a promotion level for a large number of ranks and files from the constables upwards”, imparting them three months of centralised training at the National Police Academy as that of an IPS probationer to reduce the gap between the IPS and DSPs to the minimum. The NPC further stated that this interaction of NPA with the DSPs from the various states will not only be in the interest of the police organization as a whole but also help the NPA to get the practical orientation of the training courses and become acquainted with the diversities of the local police practices in the various states. However, the NPC falls short of recommending the stipulated time-bound promotions for the Dy. SPs to promote them into the IPS Cadre.
The National Police Commission, in its Sixth Report- March 1981, has categorically dealt with the frustration and plight of the SPS officers. Under para no. 14.13, point 12, it has stated that the among many problems of the police services the one of the prominent ones is “Frustration and problems of the State Police officers promoted to the IPS, their sense of grievances due to their poor prospects of the promotion into the IPS and thereafter stagnation at the lower level in the IPS”. The Sixth report under para 44.27 recommends the promotion of departmental officers (DSP) to the IPSs having 8 years of service and age below 52 years as on 1st January of the selection year based on the following criteria of 1000 marks:
- A qualifying written examination- 200 marks.
- Evaluation of ACRs by the UPSC, assisted by the Police Advisers, including a serving IGP- 500 marks.
- Interview by the UPSC board- 200 marks.
- Physical fitness to be assessed by the selection Board- 100 marks.
Renowned and revered Cop R. N. Ravi asserts the need for reinvention of the Indian police as, according to him, multiple levels of recruitment, each constituting a class “emotionally incommunicado with the other- is a colonial legacy.”
The police society, constituted by different levels of the officers and auxiliary forces, is cut-copy example of caste system prevalent in Hindu society, where the whole identity of the persons is being compartmentalised based on the his/her entry levels absolutely like that of caste attached to the accident of the birth, the IPS being the modern Brahmans and the constables being the Shudras and the deprived and marginalised sections of the civil society as outcastes. Despite having the promotional provisions of ‘Sanskritization’, the systematically constructed structure makes it sure that no DSP could ever have the chance to get promoted to the top & be functionally treated based on his excellence and performance post his entry in the services; the same is the case with sub-inspectors and constables. Like the caste cannot be changed after birth, similarly, the organisation of services cannot be altered after the ‘entry levels categorisations. This is the high time that the police reforms shall take the central stage of developmental narratives of ‘decolonised and democratized governance’ in Amrit Kaal. The first prominent step forward would be to constitute a ‘State Police Service Commission’ to enquire and suggest measures to liberate these services from political apathy and personal agony.
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Great