The Hindu : U.P. Opposition sees casteist slant in police transfers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 17, 2002

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U.P. Opposition sees casteist slant in police transfers

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW AUG. 16. The Uttar Pradesh Government was today severely criticised by Opposition members in the State Assembly for its "blatant caste bias'' exhibited in en masse transfer of police officers from Bulandshahr district following an incident last week when some officers had failed to recognise the father of the Chief Minister, Mayawati. Such transfers were never heard of in the history of the State and the action of the State Government would inject an uncontrollable virus in police administration, the members argued.

Raising the issue as a question of propriety, the leader of the Congress group, Pramod Tiwari, Jagdambika Pal and others pointed out that the Government had given an undue caste angle to the incident in which a police sub-inspector was injured in an accident involving the vehicle of the Chief Minister's father, Prabhu Dayal. The police at first could not recognise him and the driver of the vehicle was taken to task. However, Mr. Prabhu Dayal and his vehicle were released immediately after his identity became known.

The Government, however, giving a casteist slant to the whole incident, ordered transfer of all Thakur and Jat Sub-Inspectors and Circle Officers to far-off places. Mr. Pal, reading out a list of the transferred officers, said the caste of every officer had been mentioned against his name in the transfer order. There were as many as 26 Sub-Inspectors alone belonging to the two castes who had been punished by the Government.

The Opposition also had a pleasant surprise in the shape of support for its criticism of the Government from the Rashtriya Lok Dal members who are a part of the ruling alliance. Kiran Pal Singh of the RLD disapproving of the incident said if such action continued to be taken against officers on caste lines, the police administration would be ruined.

Another RLD member, Samar Pal Singh, pleaded that it was violation of the officers' fundamental rights to discriminate them on caste basis. He demanded action against the executive officer, who had ordered these casteist transfers and demanded that the transfers be immediately cancelled.

In his reply to the point raised, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Sukhdeo Rajbhar, denied that there was any caste consideration behind the transfers of the police officers. This further infuriated the Opposition members who stormed the well of the House to register a vociferous protest necessitating an adjournment of the proceedings for 15 minutes.

As the House reassembled, the Minister said that the transfer orders had been amended and all those sent to far-off places had been re-transferred to the nearby Bareilly zone.

His reply, however, failed to satisfy the Opposition members who staged a walk-out in protest.

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U.P. Opposition sees casteist slant in police transfers