Political feathers will certainly be ruffled ~ particularly after the West Bengal government’s mini-victory in the Calcutta High Court ~ yet from a larger perspective the union home ministry does make a valid point when asking the state governments to upgrade their police forces and not remain overly-dependent on the Central Armed Police Forces.
The circular issued by North Block is correct when asserting that the Central paramilitary is “no substitute” for local forces. The issue, however, is more political than professional: state governments have consistently diverted funds earmarked for police improvement because they are aware of the back-up available from the CRPF and other agencies.
It is no less true that many state governments are reluctant to deploy their own forces in complex situations lest there be a political backlash, and plead helplessness, staff shortages etc only to pass the buck on to the Centre. Without entering into any value judgment on the situation in Darjeeling, it is a moot point if Mamata Banerjee would have taken such a tough stand had the CRPF not been available to curb the Gorkhaland agitators.
In a more general sense, after abdicating their responsibilities and demanding huge numbers of paramilitary, state governments then allege political discrimination ~ not that the charge is always entirely invalid. Politicking apart, it is often overlooked that that CAPF are terribly overworked, moving from one assignment to another ~ or permanently deployed tackling militancy in J&K, the Maoist insurgency in Central India and the restive frontier areas in the North-east.
The men and women do show signs of strain, more so because they are often perceived as “outsiders”, operate with limited intelligence inputs, and often do not get full support from the local cops. To one day be asked to quell a riot, and help conduct a peaceful election another is a tall order. Hence there is need to appreciate the stance taken in the circular that “CAPFs can’t substitute the state police as their deployment is related to emergency crises”.
No doubt state governments will deem every difficult situation an “emergency crisis”: perhaps a detailed account of the number of CAPF personnel deployed on their various tasks will put things in meaningful perspective.
It might help the courts when directing such deployment, a holistic view is preferable. While the ministry has advocated setting up committees to assess situations before seeking Central forces, a re-look at the way states pay for Central forces is also overdue. It would also help if North Block acted in a less politically partisan manner.
The prevailing climate of confrontation between “ruling” and “opposition” parties militates against objective functioning. The nation has been in “election mode” since 2014, and is likely to remain so till 2019 ~ and maybe thereafter too. Governance is the obvious casualty