Police Reforms: India
Police Reforms: Too Important to Neglect, Too Urgent to Delay

Letter of the Union Home Minister

There has been very strong resistance to the idea of police reforms whenever it has been mooted. The most forceful indication of this resistance has been the non-implementation of the major recommendations of the National Police Commission. In fact, the government's continued inaction in police reform is highlighted in the case of a letter written by a former Union Home Minister to all of the state chief ministers on the subject of police reforms.

This letter dated April 3, 1997 was sent by the former Union Home Minister, Mr Indrajit Gupta, to all the Chief Ministers, exhorting them to "rise above any narrow and partisan considerations to insulate the police from the growing tendency of partisan or political interference in the discharge of its lawful functions…" He also warned them that if they failed to initiate action to introduce police reforms, the day was not far off "when the judiciary would intervene decisively to force such socially desirable changes down the throat of the political executives". Mr. Gupta never received any response to his letter, not even from the Government of West Bengal, which was being ruled by a party to which he belonged. Later, during a workshop on Police Reforms, he informed the participants that he never received even an acknowledgment from any state government concerning his letter.

To see a verbatim copy of the letter of Mr. Gupta, click below:

Letter dated April 3, 1997 from the former Union Home Minister's to the Chief Ministers.