People like Delhi Police Commissioner, BS Bassi and Romesh Bhandari belong to the same clan. The Facebook and WhatsApp generation may not know Romesh Bhandari, but for my generation, he was a Foreign Secretary who went on to become the Governor of UP. He was a fine mind with a crooked brain. He was so hungry for power that he had no regard for the constitution and democratic traditions. He was willing to dance to the tunes of his masters in Delhi to further his career. He sacked a duly-elected majority government of Kalyan Singh in the late 90s on flimsy grounds; finally, the Supreme Court had to intervene and Kalyan Singh was reinstated as Chief Minister.
There are numerous such cases in Indian political history where people holding constitutional posts and high offices had no respect for constitution while serving their political masters. In the era of social media revolution and live television coverage, it's difficult to emulate Romesh Bhandari but other methods have been invented by power-hungry bureaucrats and careerists. Since Modi's time as Chief Minister in Gujarat, such examples abound. The same model is being applied at the Centre. The Delhi elections turned the table completely. AAP thought that it would be smooth sailing and they would not have to worry about running the government because of its massive majority, but the last eight months have proved to be anything but smooth.
Najeeb Jung, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and BS Bassi as Police Commissioner have made every effort to stall the government. The Delhi police chief has been making all kinds of statements against the duly elected Chief Minister of Delhi. I have known many Police Commissioners in Delhi, and many of them were very tough and upright, but none of them would behave the way the incumbent Police Commissioner is behaving. This week, he said that "The Chief Minister should worry more about corruption in his cabinet than talking about corruption in the police department." The context was a recent survey which reports that corruption in Delhi government has declined, but the Delhi police is the most corrupt department. Perhaps he should have felt alarmed about this, but he was busy giving interviews to TV channels in his new neta-style Modi jacket.
As Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal has every right to feel outraged with the brutal rape of two young girls, one aged two and the other aged five. He was moved, as any citizen should be, and asked the Prime Minister to discipline the Delhi police force, or give him charge of the Delhi Police for a year and then evaluate the results. Mr Police Commissioner has no reason to jump into this. I can tell you from my experience that bureaucrats don't jump into political slugfests. They prefer to do their jobs. The present police chief has forgotten protocol. In fact, in one of his interviews, he went to the extent of suggesting that the police force should not be put under political leadership. Is it not an insult to the spirit of the constitution which runs on the basic premise of the will of the people? How can a serving Police Commissioner make a public statement disrespecting a democratically elected Chief Minister? If he had any issues, he should have made a complaint to the Home Minister or the Prime Minister. He forgot that bureaucrats are taught and intended to serve political leadership irrespective of the color of their ideology and strictly follow service rules.
Law and Order as a subject is not with the Delhi government, but in the event of any lawlessness, it is the government that has to answer. Sheila Dikshit suffered for the same in the past. AAP has been asking the Delhi Police to be more accountable and more professional. Delhi in the last few years has become a rape capital and most insecure for women. The AAP government has promised to install CCTV cameras across the city, light up dark spots and put marshals in buses. Six months ago, the AAP government requested the Delhi Police to provide information in this regard (improved safety measures) without any success. The Delhi Police instead turned it into a turf war. Even the Lieutenant Governor did not release the list of 6,000 home guards who were assigned VVIP duty, so that they could be placed on marshal duty to protect the public. Later, he relented.
For women's safety, the process of installing CCTVs has begun and a pilot project of marshals deployment in 200 buses has also been initiated by the AAP government. But the Delhi Police has not taken any measure. It has vacancies for 16,000 and has failed to install CCTVs despite a Delhi High Court order just days ago that warned the Modi government of the need for urgency, stating "If you don't do anything now, you are forcing us to launch contempt of court proceedings."
This is a direct indictment of the Modi government. To fill the 16,000 vacancies and install CCTVs, the Delhi Police needs nearly 900 crores. The Central Home Ministry has been told by the Finance Ministry that it has no money. Imagine, the same government that has spent thousands of crores on advertisements for the Clean India campaign, Yoga Day and the Digital India campaign does not want to allocate money for women safety for Delhi. The High Court commented, "For us the safety of common man is important. We don't believe in scolding officers, but you have to think it is a very serious matter that for the sake of money, you are not ready to recruit police personnel."
The Police Commissioner took umbrage when Kejriwal said that there is "jungle raj" in Delhi and law and order has "collapsed". But what about the Delhi High Court which said, "We can take judicial note that the law and order situation in the national capital is pretty abysmal." Please note that the court has used "abysmal" - a harsh word. May I ask if the Delhi Police Commissioner will also ask the Delhi High Court to mind its own business?
Let's not forget he is the same man who refused to take action against policemen in the custody death of Shahnawaz Chaudhary last month in broad daylight. The High Court has ordered a special investigation into this. It's people like Bassi who weaken our democratic set up and that is a matter of serious worry.
(Ashutosh joined the Aam Aadmi Party in January 2014.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.