Modi govt’s decision to deploy central forces in Bengal without Mamata’s consent “unprecedented”: fmr DGPs

The Narendra Modi government’s decision to post personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at various central government’s offices in Kolkata represents an overstepping of its constitutional mandate and is “unprecedented” in Indian polity, former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) SR Darapuri has said.

The retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer said that the state government should have been the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) first point of contact when they set about questioning Kolkata’s Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar. “How could they not keep the state government in the loop at the time of dispatching CBI officers to Kolkata?” questioned Darapuri.

After the standoff between CBI and Kolkata Police on Sunday, Centre deployed CRPF troopers at various central government offices in Kolkata on Monday, reportedly leaving government officials working at these buildings shocked.

Darapuri, the cop-turned-social activist, recounts that even at the time of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992, the central forces were kept on stand-by by the then Narsimha Rao government and didn’t get involved directly.

Pinpointing the law and order crisis precipitated by the sectarian riots in Gujarat in 2002, Darapuri said that, while, Indian security forces had been air-lifted to Gujarat, they were still kept on stand-by till orders from then Narendra Modi-BJP state government.

“The Gujarat government had requested for deployment of the Army through the Union Home Ministry and the Ministry of Defence on February 28, 2002, as had been revealed by Lt General Zameer Uddin in his book,” notes Darapuri.

As per Entry 2A in the Union List, in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, the Centre could deploy “any armed force of the Union or any other force” in “aid of the civil power.”

“There wasn’t any law and order emergency as such, which necessitated sending CRPF to West Bengal,” says Darapuri.

Another former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, Prakash Singh, admitted that Centre could only deploy central forces in the state after getting the sanction of the state government.

He, however, is of the view that the Kolkata Police Commissioner should have allowed the CBI officers to question him in the Saradha chit fund case.

The CBI also moved the Supreme Court on Monday, citing “non-cooperation” on part of the West Bengal government. Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for CBI, alleged in court on Tuesday that there is a serious breakdown in “law and order” in West Bengal, a charge refused by West Bengal government’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who also argued that there has been “no non-cooperation” on part of the state government.

While the apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, has asked the Kolkata Police Commissioner to appear before the CBI in Shillong, it has also advised the CBI to not take any “coercive” steps like Kumar’s arrest.

The top court also issued contempt of court notices to the state’s Chief Secretary, the DGP, and Rajeev Kumar in the wake of the plea filed by the CBI. All three have been asked to respond to the notices by Feb 18.