Law enforcers - keep it up

The news that there is a marked decline since June 18 in the complaints lodged with the law enforcers in the current wave of abductions, killings and other acts of lawlessness, is heartening and encouraging.

Reports that 16 suspects have been arrested in connection with these incidents are also welcome. We hope the law enforcers would keep-up the good work and bring into being more peaceful and stable times.

As we have time and again commented, strengthening the Rule of Law is crucial to the establishment of peace and stability.

Accordingly, observing the due process of law is an inescapable necessity in the current situation and it falls to the lot of the law - enforcement agencies to carry out this profoundly important undertaking.

We could be satisfied that they have got down to this task with some earnestness, if the arrests made so far are anything to go by. The police dragnet has netted even some suspect law enforcers and this proves that a degree of even-handedness has been brought into the exercise of nabbing suspects.

Even - handedness is at the core of the Rule of Law and its enforcement. Put simply, the law has to be enforced without fear or favour for the true realisation of the Rule of Law and the public could be glad those implicated in abductions and other criminal acts are finally being rounded-up.

What must follow are trials, convictions and relevant punishments, administered expeditiously. These processes too are at the heart of the Rule of Law and need to be implemented very scrupulously if respect and adherence to the law is to be induced over the length and breadth of the polity.

We particularly emphasize that "big or small," all offenders must be brought to book and that too with the least delay. Let not these cases and their files be relegated to the Limbo of forgotten things, as has been the fate of numerous former criminal cases - too numerous to keep track of.

Therefore, earnestness and seriousness of purpose should be the watchwords of the authorities from now on. We need hardly say that lack of such qualities has been our bane over the decades.

If the State acts with determination and courage to stem the rot which is visible in our polity, a degree of wholesomeness could be introduced into our public life.

We have paid a prohibitive price for the folly of allowing things to drift in the law-and-order sphere. Consequently we have been defamed by sections of the world community too, besides allowing the country to experience certain declining trends, including those in morality and collective well-being.

Respect for law and order is all important. Without such deference and respect for the law, the country would go to rack and ruin. We need to keep this in mind constantly.