Shall law and order remain a problem forever?

Given the present circumstances, we cannot expect that the situation would improve in distant, let alone near, future. All our gains so far may be lost if the tide of rising political violence is not arrested. For this, fair and neutral justice must be ensured for each and every crime so that the persons involved do not dare to indulge in criminal activities any more. But incidents of bomb blasts and grenade attacks do not seem to cease as the attackers remain unpunished reveling in the politicisation of the probes. Many of the criminals have not yet been convicted and awarded punishment prescribed by law for their committed offences and the political blame game over these occurrences continue unabated between the government and the opposition.

With the introduction of a number of elite crime-busting forces a slight improvement has been witnessed for a while but a series of grenade attacks has brought a new dimension in crime creating a deeper sense of insecurity among the people. Grenade attacks on political rallies, shrines and theatres, brutal killing of political leaders and journalists in broad daylight, increased activities of outlaws, extremists and fanatics, abduction of businessmen and retrieval of their shredded bodies are some grisly examples of crime that have overshadowed the anticrime steps. People's distrust of law enforcers triggered several incidents of killing of suspected criminals in mob beating. Situation has got so worse that all law enforcement agencies of the state combinedly cannot (intentionally or unintentionally!) still trace out one Bangla Bhai, despite Prime Minister's reported instruction to nab the said person at any cost. This is supposedly a glaring example of criminalisation and politisation of a society where the order of an all powerful Prime Minister remains dysfunctional for a long time.

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Surprisingly, keeping the vicious cycle of criminalisation and politisation of society intact, competition has already begun for how to win the next general elections. Major parties are putting forward prescriptions for electoral reforms suited to their interests, as if election is the only panacea for combating all evils that have plagued the entire society. Do the parties concerned really believe that without solving the longstanding law and order problem they would be able to run the country peacefully after coming to power? Ironically the reason for which the parties have so far failed to administer the state successfully is mainly the law and order situation. Given the prevailing scenario of crimes and criminals it does not seem that the next polls would be a turning point to purge the society of the epidemic of violence and anarchy. To face the problem a complete honest approach is urgently needed.

Unfortunately, neither there is any effective effort in sight to overcome the evil forces nor any body in authority appears to be bothered to go into the depth of the problem and review it as a whole taking cognisance of opposing ideas. Rather accusations and counter accusations by the parties concerned who are supposed to take initiative in this regard tend to digress the attention from the core issues. It means either they are actually ignorant of the solutions or they intentionally feign to be ignorant as effective remedies could hamper their respective interests. Which is why whenever there is any effort for revamping the existing laws dealing with crimes and criminals those interested groups start quarrelling often with each other hindering the cause itself.

The practice in vogue is to make some new laws by the party in power that are always claimed by the opponents as black laws. For obvious reasons the idea does not yield any worthwhile results. It is apparent from the fact that none of the special laws enacted so far for dealing with crimes and criminals has been able to serve its avowed objectives to any mentionable extent.

The problem does not involve any particular group. If it were so then elimination of that particular group would solve the problem. As a matter of fact there are many visible and invisible parties and factors related to the problem. So it is no easy job for any one party to overcome the problem. The complexity of the problem can to some extent be gauged from the starling revelations of horrifying stories of making and 'unmaking' of criminals published almost every day in the mass media that attract anybody's attention in no time.

It is frightening to learn from these revelations how criminals are made, trained and used by the godfathers to serve their purposes in various ways. The more intriguing is the entire network of grooming and protecting hoodlums, which is too well devised to trace its origin. Which is why it is seen that after committing serious crime a criminal easily gets away with his ordeals.

The whole process of releasing a terrorist from justice is brought about in such a meticulous maneuvering that it is very difficult to point finger at any one of the three most important organs of the state -- legislature, judiciary and executive. Rather, by and large, it appears that all three organs are more or less responsible for failing to bring the culprits to book. Legislature is responsible for not playing its due role to enact laws suited to the need of the hour, Judiciary is responsible for lingering justice and giving almost indiscriminate bails and Executive is responsible for influencing verdict.

Without the help of people of any of these three organs supposedly a criminal shall never go scotfree. As such it is essential that there be coordinated efforts from these three organs while dealing with crimes and criminals. But the irony is that all three organs of our state have always been at loggerheads. They have been accusing each other of failure in arresting crimes and criminals in the society. Without complete restructuring of these three organs any piecemeal effort shall prove futile.

It is easier said than done, as the whole matter is very old and complex. Our existing laws relating to crimes and criminals date back to British colonial era. It is sheer nonsense to expect to run an independent country by those laws in modern age. It is high time all concerned came forward to bell the cat. Else time is perhaps not too far when there will be more godfathers than fathers in our society.

Saiful Alam is a businessman