The Mumbai police used to be very efficient. When we joined the force it was reasonably compared to Scotland Yard. In the 1970s, there was very less corruption. I joined the IPS in the mid-1980s when corruption had set in, but it had not reached alarming proportions. At that time the entire police establishment was controlled by the chief minister, who along with the home department, used to hold several other departments.

Things started changing after the system of two-party alliances came into being (ruling the state). There was an unwritten protocol that the government is now partitioned, the subjects that are with one partner would be controlled by that partner and the chief minister would not have a substantial administrative say on that.

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This was an administrative malfunction because the entire government should operate as a cohesive unit, the schemes in the Constitution as well as the laws are made accordingly. But when there is an unofficial partition, it seriously undermines the performance of the departments.

So the deputy chief minister only had the home department under him. Earlier, the chief minister would have 40 departments under him, the police being one of them. Hence, the magnitude of interference was not as formidable as when the home department came under just one person. The chief minister's authority over the police force became very substantially diluted.

At that time things started deteriorating. An alliance should have been better because one person could devote his entire mind to one department for its betterment, but it worked the other way. This paradox has assailed the system badly.

Image: November 27, policemen outside the Taj Mahal hotel where inside National Security Guard commandos battled terrorists. Photograph: Ritam Banerjee/Getty Images

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