UP govt saves BJP leaders’ ‘pride’, transfers lady cop

“Do one thing: Go to the Chief Minister and get it in writing that police don’t have the right to intercept and check vehicles. We will stop standing on the roads…Don’t level false allegations….I won’t feel bogged down by a gathering of 50 or even hundred (people). We don’t stand on the road for pleasure. We leave our families back home to do our duty and then we’ve to face these demonstrations. You people are maligning the image of BJP. Slowly and gradually, people will start calling you BJP goons,” Syana Circle Officer Shreshtha Thakur told a group of unruly BJP workers, who were shouting slogans against the police in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr last week.

Several videos of her conversation with the bullying BJP workers—shot by the police as well as BJP workers—have been making rounds on the social media since then. And the reactions from the netizens have been on expected lines.

Refusing to succumb to the bullying, she sent five of the local BJP leaders, who were part of the crowd, to jail for “obstructing a government officer from discharging duties.” Reacting to the news of her transfer to Bahraich, she took to Facebook and expressed herself by making small alteration in the verses by Professor Waseem Barelvi: “Jahan bhi jaaye ga, roshani lutayega, Kisi charaag ka apna makan nahi hota (Wherever it’ll go, it spreads light. A lamp doesn’t have a house of its own). Got transfer(red) to Bahraich, it’s Nepal border, don’t worry my friends I am happy ..I accept it as a reward for my good work. .u all are invited to Bahraich (sic).” Her transfer though is not an isolated incident. She is just one of the 244 police officers who were transferred en masse by the UP government.

A delegation of 11 BJP MLAs and one MP, according to reports, called on Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath following the incident and urged him to take action against Thakur to restore the pride of party workers and leaders.

“We had complained to the high command about this. We told our senior leaders that the officer does not know how to deal with the public,” Himanshu Mittal, the Bulandshahr district president of the BJP, told NDTV. “I think the differences between the officer and the public were beyond any compromise and so it is good for everyone that she has been transferred, including the officer (the one who fined the BJP worker ₹200)...,” he further added.

Reports said that a police team slapped a fine of ₹200 on a BJP worker for violating traffic norms. The protesting BJP leaders can be heard accusing a policeman of demanding a bribe of ₹2000 in the videos.

After the videos and her subsequent Facebook post went viral on the social media, the brave woman officer has received applause for standing up to the bullies and performing her duty.

Bollywood music composer Vishal Dadlani wrote on his Twitter account: “Wish some men in India had the courage of Shreshtha Thakur, the lady Police Officer in this clip.”

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, in a tweet, said that Thakur’s transfer shows the “hollowness of good governance in UP.”

A Twitter user, Seema Yadav, wrote: “Yogi ji you have gone down in our esteem. Instead of honouring Shreshtha Thakur, you’ve transferred her?”