Choosing wrong men to lead
Of all the questions I was forced to answer after Sharad Pawar proposed my name as the person to investigate the truth of the allegations made by the disgraced Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Param Bir Singh, against Anil Deshmukh, the state Home Minister, the easiest was whether I would accept the offer. The answer was ‘No’. Serious accusations were made by Param Bir involving corruption on a scale not envisaged before.
According to Param Bir, the minister summoned the Inspector of the Social Service Branch of the Crime Division and also called Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze, head of the Crime Intelligence Branch, to his residence and told them that he required Rs 100 crore a month, obviously to run the NCP, headed by its founder, Sharad Pawar.
I put myself in Param Bir’s shoes. When I am told by Patil, the Social Service Branch Chief, and Vaze, my blue-eyed special assistant, that the minister had made such a preposterous demand, my first thought would be to drive to the minister’s bungalow and confront him! I had to protect my subordinate staff, and, more than that, protect the good name and integrity of the Mumbai City Police. If it came to a denouement, I would offer to step down if the minister was bent on his Croesus mission.
Param Bir waited to tattle till he was shifted out from a perch he had his sights on for many years. In 2015, he was appointed Commissioner of Police of Thane, considered to rival Pune and Nagpur in importance due to its proximity to Mumbai. Param Bir was relatively junior for Thane, but the then CM, Devendra Fadnavis, appointed him in preference to senior and more respected officers, known for their integrity and competence! In Thane, too, Param Bir utilised the services of an ‘encounter specialist’, Pradip Sharma, who was dismissed in 2008 by the discerning DGP, Anami Roy. In 2017, Sharma was reinstated and allotted to the Thane Commissionerate, Param Bir’s charge!
After his stint in Thane, Param Bir’s eyes turned to the big prize of Mumbai. His Herculean efforts might have succeeded had someone senior in the Central government not stepped in and ensured that tested, top-class men like Datta Padsalgikar, followed by Subodh Jaiswal, were repatriated to the state to ensure smooth administration of the police machinery. Fadnavis gave him the charge of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, where he absolved Ajit Pawar of guilt in the irrigation scam, clearing the way for Ajit to join Fadnavis in his six-hour-long government sworn in by the Governor at the crack of dawn.
Much, in fact all, depends on leadership of the force, like it does in other spheres of endeavour. An honest, responsible leader who is a real ‘servant’ of the people, who takes the ‘service’ component of the ‘IPS’ seriously, and who is determined to ensure justice in all his dealings with his own men and with the people he serves, can truly succeed in the job. If, on the other extreme, his focus is on flamboyance, he would be exposed sooner or later.
It is the bounden duty of the political leadership to make the right choice. In my state of Maharashtra, there is no dearth of officers who are both, honest and capable, available for selection. Their identity is known to the police rank and file. The political leadership needs to keep the public in mind when making choices. The tragedy is that it only looks to its own needs and not to the people’s need for safety and security.
It now appears to a perceptive observer that the MVA government’s need for funding the activities of one of its constituent parties and the interest of another of the constituents to reinstate a suspended API coincided to instal the wrong people in office, leading to the present debacle.
The Mumbai City Police will need a tremendous shove to regain its lost confidence and élan. Sharad Pawar is a smooth and shrewd operator. He knows when to bring in the right person and he knows who the right person is. At present, the force needs an honest and straightforward officer of proven worth. We have had a succession of Commissioners of that calibre in the past and many more are in line, from KK Venkatesham, Vivek Phansalkar to Sadanand Date. Those junior to Sadanand will also bloom as long as they concentrate on ‘service’ and dispensing justice.
Political parties require to be funded. They have to pay salaries to their regular staff, field workers and casual cheerleaders. They require funding for myriad other political activities. The BJP has no such problem because NRIs and the corporate world have attended to its needs, mainly through the clever introduction of electoral bonds. Those parties not in power find it more difficult, but if municipal bodies are under their control, contracts are a big source of income. The newly disclosed plan of targeting the police and dance bars and other social offenders will only lead to more criminality than what now exists. This is extremely dangerous. It must be opposed by the police leadership, if necessary with the help of public opinion.
If those in charge of the Home Department insist on milking crime and criminals in order to sustain political activities, the end result will be runaway corruption and out of control criminality of the worst type. NN Vohra, the former Union Home Secretary, can validate my conclusions. His report, compiled nearly three decades ago, makes compelling reading.
Let me make it clear that the Mumbai police had never before been asked to collect funds for political parties. Illicit requests by politicians are made very, very often, most usually for transfers of subordinates. Corrupt officers have been known to pay for postings even at senior levels. Corrupt juniors have entertained politicians in five-star hotels. But I have not heard of demands for crores, which can only mean funding for political parties to function! That is something new!
