Leadership Vacuum

S.K. Sood

Justice A.N. Mulla of Allahabad High Court in a judgment said, “I say with all sense of responsibility, there is not a single lawless group in the whole of the country whose record of crime comes anywhere near that of the organised gang of criminals known as the Indian Police Force.” The above was tweeted by Justice (retd) Markandey Katju of Supreme Court on 6 December 2019.

The statement appears to have been based on the conduct of Delhi police in the recent riots in Delhi. The CCTV footage circulated widely on social media showed them mercilessly beating students in the library at Jamia Milia Islamia University and breaking CCTVs with their sticks.

The same police passively facilitated masked goons to go on rampage at Jawaharlal Nehru University. None of these goons have been caught so far and brought before law even though many of them have been identified through the videos.

Conduct of police during the riots in the last week of February was the proverbial last nail in the coffin. The police actively joined rioters in throwing stones and egging them on to attack people belonging to the minority community.

Delhi police’s handling of these incidents, which have had a serious negative impact on the social fabric of the country, is a sad reflection on the lack of professionalism and leadership qualities in the IPS. Besides being unprofessional, the IPS leadership is severely compromised as was amply clear from the fact that a rogue minister like Kapil Mishra could get away by brazenly making an inflammatory statement with a DCP rank officer standing beside him. But for the total lack of action and abdication of responsibility on part of IPS leadership, the riots could have been controlled much earlier and wanton destruction of life and p