You may ask what is the connection between the recent Mumbai terror attacks and the murder of a PWD engineer by an MLA in Uttar Pradesh (reference story)

Why is it that we have to resort to a Central enquiry for a crime that normally comes under the local police's jurisdiction?

The reason is simple - the local police in (most of) India is owned by the state politicians.

Why are terror attacks under control in the U.S? Not because of the handful of locked up suspects at Gitmo (most of whom have not even been charged with a crime) - and certainly not because of the 'Global War on Terror' (whatever that means), but because of an ongoing internal vigilance at all levels of law enforcement - from the city police to the state troopers to the FBI.

Can we say the same of Mumbai or any other city in India? Even if we allow that the cops are well trained and have the safety of the public in mind, they end up having to shelve public safety for ulterior motives. They are not able to act on their better instincts since the protection of the ruling politicians takes precedence over everything else.

While we continue to think in terms of eliminating external forces responsible for the Mumbai attacks (and Pakistan, no doubt, has a lot to answer for!), we need to think in terms of eliminating internal inefficiencies - starting with the collusion of local politicians with cops.

Here are some positive steps in this direction:

A starting point - Police Reforms

Police Reform Crusader

These are a starting point. However, with politicians in Uttar Pradesh used to throwing their weight around IPS (as true of Mulayam Singh Yadav's party as of Mayawati's), how long will it take before the effects of police reform actually make the common man's life safer?