IN the last year of its tenure, one of the key issues the government must be attentive to is the deteriorating law and order situation….

According to rights organisation Odhikar’s Human Rights Report 2012, the picture is far from positive. Rates of violation of women and children and the number of people killed following rape [were] … high, as was the number of dowry-related incidents. A record number of attacks on minority and indigenous communities, women and journalists were reported; 132 people were killed in mob beatings and 38 by Indian Border Security Force. Also, 169 people, according to Odhikar, and 84 people, according to another … organisation … were killed in political confrontations last year.

Perhaps the most alarming trend, however, was in the rise of crimes allegedly committed by the state’s law-enforcing agencies … — enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings — followed by an apparent lack of accountability…. The fact that these trends have not only continued but even increased over the years demonstrates a culture of impunity for those in positions of power, reinforced by … denial … of a government which has failed to recognise … the issue.

We strongly urge the government to take up the law and order situation — particularly where its own agents may be the culprits — without further delay, carry out thorough and impartial investigations and provide credible results whereby those responsible are appropriately punished. If the government is to gain the confidence of its people, providing them with a sense of security is crucial. Some … [watchdogs] and [the] … media have been laying emphasis on the acute need for improving upon [the] human rights situation in the country but ... the government appears to be unmoved….— (Jan 15)