-The Indian Express
Torture is an endemic characteristic of Indian policing. A commitment to eradicating it requires the police force as a whole to have zero tolerance for the practice besides a specific anti-torture law
The home minister’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.
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