India, Oct. 26 -- Protest peacefully, and we may be shot. Demand accountability, and we may be asked to wait for years. Lose a life, and the family may have to navigate a system that seems to have an extraordinary capacity for delay.

Protestors continue to be brutalised. A system that has witnessed custodial rape, torture, deaths in custody and the shooting of unarmed citizens repeatedly fails to deliver timely and meaningful accountability. Perpetrators escape punishment, investigations drag on, and public outrage fades with time. Impunity does not merely deny justice to past victims; it places future victims at risk. Until accountability is swift, independent, and consequential, the uniform will continue to command fear where it shoul...