When will we move on?

Amitabh Srivastava, Sr. Journalist
Book release programs are usually a photo up affair with a glamorous host or anchor garnering more coverage than the author who has put all his/her experiences, the trials and tribulations, in words.
In that sense the book release program of ‘Khaki on Broken Wings’ penned by Amod K Kanth one of the best Police Officers of the country and Founder of Prayas JAC Society held at the India International Centre recently was pleasantly different.
The host,for a change, was Pavan Varma eminent writer,former diplomat and columnist while among those seated on the dias were former Police Commissioners Mukund Kaushal, VN Singh, Shyam Sharan head of India international Centre and Salman Khurshid one of the best lawyers of the country and a former Minister for Law and External Affairs.
The discussion among the panelists centred around the complications and limitations of our judicial system where criminals manage to get the best of lawyers and quick hearing while the real victims spend their entire life in jails as under trials because there is a huge shortage of judges in the country.
Among the prominent cases in this Second Volume of his autobiographical Police Diaries
are the cases of Jessica Lal, notorious bikini killer Charles Sobhraj, Romesh Sharma the corporate political honcho who used his clout to cheat the highest of the land and the BMW case involving one of the richest families of the country.
Says Kanth,”We called this book Khaki on Broken Wings because our judicial system on which the entire justice delivery is based is dependent, has cracked either due to over work or lack of intent to clean up their act.”
Pavan Varma, as the anchor posed hard hitting questions to the panelists asking them what solutions they had to provide justice to numerous under trials languishing in jails without a hearing.
Most of the retired police officers present on stage and among the audience blamed the system of counting numbers of FIRs to demote or promote the police officers for this rot.
However there were exceptions like former Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi who said that he did not care about numbers and ensured maximum FIRs wherever he worked.
“And frankly let me tell you that neither Amit Shah nor any senior officer from the Home Ministry used this against me,” he said.
Salman Khurshid, in his inimitable style told the gathering that as former Law Minister and a practising lawyer he had to admit that “the judicial system of India was in ICU and remains in ICU.”
The first book of Mr.Kanth Khaki in Dust Storm released two years ago dealt with the disturbing period of the 80s when terrorism was at its peak and as the man responsible for investigating the assassinations of Indira Gandhi,Rajiv Gandhi, the 1984 riots and the transistor bombs that followed he came to the conclusion that policing in India needed to be updated to take it up to international standards.
He claimed by his own example that investigation of even the most hardened criminals and terrorists could be done without using third degree methods. But in country where promotions are given to encounter specialists he keeps a low profile.
But at every forum he has pleaded for police reforms because the Indian Police Act 1860 was introduced by the British to suppress the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and was not suitable for a democratic welfare country like India. Sadly nothing has changed.
Earlier it was the Delhi High Court that slammed the Delhi Police for its shoddy investigations in the North East riots of 2020. Today the Supreme Court is forced to release three convicts of a gang rape victim of Nazafgarh exactly 13 years ago because the Delhi police investigation was shoddy.
Compared to this, the other democracy of the world United States of America which has been lauding India’s growth story,has changed its police system drastically in keeping with the changing times.
During the regime of Donald Trump the death of George Flyod a Black youth at police hands led to a “I can’t breathe movement” because the police officer who had pinned him on the ground put his knee on his neck till he collapsed.
The entire sequence was filmed by a 13 year old on his mobile and within one year of the incident this footage was used in the courts to award life imprisonment to his White perpetrators. The police also gave up the choke hold system that was the standard practice of holding the accused since that day.
This was the first time that this had happened in America which is more racist than we can imagine.
But in the same America today, the death of Tyre Nichols another Black victim at the hands of the police has led to disbanding of the entire unit of the police at Memphis, that caused the death.This was done after a video footage of the entire sequence was released by the police itself.
Incidentally, this time the whole gang of five police officers who killed him were Black.
The point is there has to be political will and sensitivity towards innocent victims of police high handedness to bring about a change.
We can only hope that one day in the near future the US will also laud India for its stand on police reforms,civil liberties and media freedom if, I dare add.

‘Khaki on Broken Wings’ published by Bloomsbury Publications is available on Amazon.