A Democracy Great in Size but Not Yet in Justice : India: Internationally and, above all, in torture, detentions and staged killings at home, the nation fails to be law-abiding.

Whoever wins the ninth post-independence election in India this week will be hailed as having vindicated democracy-in-action in the world’s largest voting booth. No one can deny the achievement. But unless the winner moves quickly to remedy the deep fault lines in India’s system of law and justice, India will continue to lose its credibility as a free nation.

A subcontinent with half a billion voters, mainly illiterate, India shows every five years or less that it has a mind of its own and that mind resides in the adult population and not in the hands of a ruling clique. Nevertheless, being democratic is only one measure of freedom. Governments must also be law-abiding.

India has not been honest in fulfilling the promises it gave to Sri Lanka about how long its peacekeeping army would stay. It has not been just to tiny Nepal, squeezing it economically because the Nepalese wanted a better deal on trade and because they were flirting with China. And although both sides are equally at fault, it has never been just with Pakistan, often inventing or exaggerating accusations to divert attention away from domestic problems.

Above all, India is not just at home. Thousands of foes of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s government have been held without charge or trial. There is widespread torture and extrajudicial killings carried out by the police.

India has used its Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act with scant regard for evidence or review. The grounds it allows for detention are ludicrously broad, and bail is granted only if a detainee can prove himself innocent.

In Assam, members of the Students Union, which has been campaigning nonviolently for a separate tribal homeland, have been rounded up in droves. The same has happened before in Kashmir and Nagaland.

Torture appears to be widespread--in the Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and the Northeast. Deaths in police custody are common--at least 100 cases a year.

Staged killings--popularly known as “encounter killings”--of political activists are regularly reported from Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh and, most of all, from the Punjab. The police call them “violent encounters with terrorists.” In reality most of them are the police on the hunt and the captured are summarily executed.

The judiciary intervenes too rarely, and the government has steadfastly refused to admit that anything is awry. Before the election, Amnesty International wrote to all the political parties about human rights abuses. Judging from the replies and, in the case of the government party, non-reply, illegal detention, torture and brutality are not considered serious problems.

In a democracy, justice has to be done and seen to be done. Without this, as V. S. Naipaul once wrote, India is a “wounded civilization.”