Northlines Vivek Gumaste ‘What this incident must do is provide a renewed impetus to urgently bring in police reforms; changes that will ensure that political patronage and extraneous pressure are reduced to a minimum and allow the police to function independently and honestly,’ argues Vivek Gumaste. Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s shocking and sensational allegations against then Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh has set the cat among the pigeons and brings to the fore the complex, precarious and sometimes Faustian nature of the interplay between the political class and the police; a relationship that can swing either way depending on the personalities involved.