Aditya Vikram Singh/New Delhi:
The Union home minister Amit Shah’s recent pronouncement that the days of third-degree torture are gone is extraordinarily welcome.
His announcement is as much a signal to the security forces to lay off this practice as it is an acknowledgment about something that everyone from the Supreme Court to the subaltern knows — that torture is an endemic characteristic of Indian policing.
Its presence is known, tolerated and even appreciated. Common Cause’s recent large national-level survey on the Status of Policing in India affirms the force’s easy camaraderie with violent means:
Three out of five personnel believe there is nothing wrong with beating up criminals and four out of five think it’s okay to bash them up to extract a confession.
One in five even believes that killing dangerous criminals is better than a legal trial. These widely held attitudes show up how flimsy the orientation to working within the law is at training; how deep is the sub-culture of ferocious machismo; and how high the tolerance for illegality within the supervisory cadre is.
Most of all, these results show up how confident torturers are that no consequences will flow from even extreme acts of cruelty.
For too long, supervisory officers within the security establishment have turned a blind eye to this everyday criminality within.
It is hard to understand what esprit de corps or institutional interest is served by siding with criminality within, but all too often when instances of torture become known, a pocketful of ready excuses is pulled out to defend the indefensible — necessity, poor working conditions, no other means, mental tension, and pressure from within and without which the moral fiber of the police seems unable to resist.
In fairness, there are voices from within that have spoken out against these practices, but they are voices in the wind.
(Author Aditya Vikram Singh is a senior journalist currently associated with Democratic Accent. The author has extensive experience in International Relations & Human Rights. Aditya had previously worked with reputed groups such as Indian Express and Hindustan Times.)
