Lack of political will to carry out police reforms: SHRC Chief

"There is no political will to implement police reforms because of corruption on part of the ruling elite (political executive), which is the breeding ground for violence of each and every conceivable human right", the former judge said in his introductory remarks on a panel discussion on police reforms organised by Human Rights Watch here on Wednesday.

"A corrupt political executive himself is a criminal and understandably he requires protection for crimes committed by him.....though not sanctioned by laws, the police is being used to protect illegal interests of politicians in power, making them disregard public accountability", Nayak said.

Thus, the ruling elite lack "moral authority" to question the police for violation of human rights, on the other hand they tend to protect them, he charged.

This is the reason, Nayak said, for India for not ratifying the UN Convention Against Torture (1984) while it has been ratified by 144 countries.

Police reforms are the need of the hour and must be implemented in three stages; insist on accountability of the police, improvement in conditions of services, ramping up the police force and improvement in training and equipment, he said.