Weed out communal elements from police, civil service: Liberhan report

The Liberhan Commission has strongly recommended an extensive revamp of the recruitment process for civil and police services, holding that citizens have lost confidence in the current system of governance.

Observing that police and bureaucracy were facing a “crisis of confidence”, the Commission also suggested urgent measures to break the “nexus” between politicians and bureaucrats and create a “responsive” police force and bureaucracy.

The voluminous report prepared by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan also recommended periodic exercise to weed out communal elements from police and civil services and suggested that bureaucrats be barred from holding any office of profit after their retirement.

The report said an exhaustive analysis of the events leading to demolition of the Babri mosque would make it clear that failure to take the law enforcement system into 21st century has “contributed and continues to contribute to a state of lawlessness“.

It is inherently dangerous and unsatisfactory to allow civil servants to seek patronage of political or religious leaders, it said.

“The civil servant or police officer who professes or practices closeness to a political or religious leader and who thereby allows it to colour his objective discharge of duties is an anathema to good governance,” the report, tabled in Parliament today, said.