It was in the mid-1950s that Justice AN Mullah castigated the police, calling it the "biggest organised goonda (goon) force" in India. Many events have occurred since then to reinforce that perception, and the sentiment expressed by Justice Mullah is probably shared by a broad cross-section of the people. News about the atrocities committed by the police, supposedly in the course of maintaining law and order is regular fare. And the worst manifestation of organised police misbehaviour is on display when they are left to deal with communal conflagrations.
Successive commissions of enquiry into communal riots have reprimanding the police in no uncertain terms for the weak First Information Reports (FIRs) it lodges or for the dereliction of duty on its part in not assisting the aggrieved parties. Over time, from merely being standoffish during communal tensions the police has graduated to playing an active role in vitiating the social atmosphere during riots.
Just a few instances will illustrate the degeneration of the force. Soon after the first major communal disturbance in Madhya Pradesh in 1961 the Justice Shrivastava Commission found that during the riots in Jabalpur, Sagar, Damoh and Narasinghapur, "the intelligence department… [was] entirely inefficient and the law and order authorities were responsible for a laxity in investigation and prosecution which resulted in large [numbers of] acquittals". Thirty years later the situation had deteriorated. The police was no longer just inefficient and lax, it had begun to participate enthusiastically in the violence. The Justice Sri Krishna Commission, which looked into the Bombay riots of 1992-93, found specific police officers to be "utterly trigger happy", "guilty of unnecessary and excessive firing resulting in the deaths of innocent Muslims", "extremely communal" and "guilty of inhuman and brutal behaviour".
Another 10 years on from the Bombay of 1993, the reputation of the police as protectors of the law has plumbed new depths. During the pogrom of Gujarat last year, police brutality surpassed all previous limits. It was the first riot in the country where the state promoted 'retribution' as a matter of policy. Many victims of the riot reported categorically that the police, instead of protecting them, had handed them over to the rioters. And now there is a news report of the ultimate travesty of justice—Gujarati Muslims it is who are being targeted under extraordinarily harsh legal provisions.