How does Police, Courts and public institutions function in Oppressive States?

Why our Police & Courts are underfunded & understaffed?
Why Govt does not strengthen law enforcement institutions to effectively serve the people?
Why Govt has clogged up our legal & justice system?
Why institutions of accountability and Transparency (like CIC etc) are all clogged up & in very poor condition?
Why Police & law enforcement agencies have massive corruption? Why these agencies are full of some of the most corrupt people?


Answers to all these questions are connected. Some observations before we get to answers to these questions.

In article about Indian economy, i mentioned how Police departments in India have acute shortage of personnel, how Courts & legal system has acute shortage of Judicial officers & Courthouses, basically all critical law enforcement & Judicial bodies are understaffed, underfunded & clogged with huge workload. Similarly institutions like Central Information commission CIC have been working in dire conditions with shortage of information commissioners & huge backlog of pending complaints & appeals. These days CIC doesn't even have a full time Chief information commissioner.

Lets also look at some other facts. The law & order situation is very bad in India & specially rural India. Crime is rampant everywhere - thefts, robberies, murders, rapes, extortion, kidnappings, snatching, auto theft etc etc. We have rampant white collar crimes  - bank frauds, financial frauds, money laundering, ponzi schemes, cyber crimes, bribery etc etc . And also some more brazen crimes - Mob lynching, hate crimes, organized riots, extrajudicial killings, fake encounters etc etc. Also issues like Crime against Women are critical in India specially in Rural areas.

Since last couple of months, i am seeing thousands of Policemen across Delhi to deal with anti-CAA protests. There are check points & barricades at all critical roads & junctions. Police is also arresting activists & ordinary people after imposition of article 144 etc. This picture is not limited to Delhi, but also happening in other states & cities of India. The Police crackdown of protests is most severe in state of Uttar Pradesh where police is shooting to kill protesters. I wondered, why our Police is misused and wasted on these situations? And why Govt created this situation in first place by passing nonsensical foolish & illegal laws?

So we have a breakdown of law & order in our country. Yet, the institutions that are needed to safeguard & protect the society are in very weak condition. Also, the police & institutions are employed & wasted on issues that are created by foolish & nonsensical policies of Govt. On a broader scale, the whole Kashmir region is converted into an open prison where 800,000 Army, Police & CRPF are guarding prison population of 8 million Kashmir people from inside as well as outside. On issues of CAA NRC, the Police in all major Indian cities is heavily engaged in dealing with protesters and managing riot situations. Similarly during Demonetization, the Police was tasked to safeguard all Banks in country as people were depositing & exchanging currency notes.

The answer to the questions i mentioned in the beginning is this - our country is moving towards a direction where safeguard & protection of society is not the main goal of our Police, law enforcement and judicial system.

1. Our Political leaders like to keep all the power to themselves. So an independent Judiciary, independent law enforcement agencies & institutions are NOT in the best interest of our Politicians. Also our Politicians (and their oligarch friends) themselves break all kind of laws while in power, so they do not want independent & efficient law enforcement agencies & courts interfering with their operations.
2. Judiciary & Courts are not really the institutions for giving justice. They now just delay & deny justice to ordinary people. At the same time Judiciary is now full of "executive minded" Judges supporting all illegal, unconstitutional, foolhardy & nonsensical policies of our Political leaders. So we have a "committed judiciary" whose purpose is to bend to the needs of our Politicians in power.
3. Our Politicians view investigating & law enforcement agencies (CBI, NIA, ED, Income Tax etc) as just another instrument for accomplishing their Political goals. These agencies are just reduced to a tool to be used by Politicians in power to target rival politicians, activists, media houses critical of Govt or big businessmen unfavorable to Govt. Presently Modi Shah Govt is doing this very brazenly.
4. Police & other law enforcement agencies are not effectively employed for crime prevention & solving crimes. Instead Police is a tool to control anti-Govt protesters (on issues like CAA NRC, Kashmir policy, Farmer movements, student movements, Dalit & minority movements, pro Democracy marches etc etc). Also as economy is going downhill, the Govt is becoming more & more unpopular. So people will come out on streets to protest joblessness, privatization, inflation, Farmer suicides, Bank runs (like PMC), Austerity measures etc etc. So Police is used to deal with this public anger & protests.
5. Institutions of accountability & transparency like CIC have no use in eyes of our Politicians. So these institutions are completely undermined & neglected by Politicians. If Politicians have their way, they would very much like to shut down these institutions permanently.

So the bottom line is this - India is now a failing, dysfunctional & oppressive state. Police, Judiciary & other agencies are just an instrument in hands of our politicians. Why some of the most corrupt people are in Police, Courts & other agencies?

1. As explained above, Judiciary, Police & investigating agencies are not there to serve the public, but only to serve the interest of our Politicians & oligarchs. So Govt is filling these institutions with corrupt, compromised, bent, incompetent & amoral people. People who will take all illegal orders from Govt. Judges who will support all illegal policies of Govt. Officers who will do all illegal things in service of Govt. The officers in Police & Courts are thus free to do corruption & illegal things as long as they fulfill their main duty, that is obediently following their masters.
2. Honest, intellectual, intelligent, hard working & persons with integrity have no role & no use in our Police, Judiciary & other agencies. These people are filtered out, sidelined & removed from all important positions so that they don't interfere with working of the corrupt system.
3. Institutions, Police, Judges, Officers etc are reflection of our society. After all, the people who govern our institutions don't fall from the sky. They come from the society itself. And a broad segment of our society is uneducated/backward/communal/narrow minded. Since our society is dysfunctional & unhealthy, this is also reflected in our institutions.

In an oppressive & failing state, the job of Police & other agencies is not about crime prevention & solving crimes to maintain law & order in society. The Police & institutions are like a STICK in the hands of oppressive rulers to be used against subjects of states to keep them in check. That's the reason you will see Police launching sedition cases against Activists & ordinary people for protesting against Govt policies. Police acting against people who try to expose Govt corruption & illegalities. Putting people in prisons & creating fake charges against them. Also national security is used as a BLANKET to punish protesters & activists & locking up people. In the name of national security, the human rights & civil rights of people are extinguished. Its now being done on a grand scale in state like Kashmir.

India is progressing from a failing, dysfunctional & oppressive state towards full fledged authoritarian state.