AAP vs Delhi Police: Kejriwal defends the indefensible and stoops to 'politics'

No one expected AAP to have a smooth ride, but no one quite expected its ministers to turn out to be its worst enemies. Faced with growing internal spats, with MLA Vinod Kumar Binny accusing the government of moving away from the party’s goals and members like Captain Gopinath and Mallika Sarabhai questioning the government’s actions, it now has added problems. Last week, Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, along with a few volunteers, demanded that the police raid a house in South Delhi saying that he had information that the foreign nationals — from ‘Nigeria or Uganda’ according to Mr Bharti — living there were pushing drugs and running a prostitution racket. According to media reports, two women were forced to undergo medical examination in the night. It seemed to have slipped Bharti’s mind that it is illegal for the police to raid a place without a search warrant and as per the Code of Criminal Procedure the police cannot take action against women after sunset. On the same day, women and child welfare minister Rakhi Birla accused the police of shielding suspects in a dowry harassment case.
The Delhi Police ‘refusing’ to co-operate with the state government, as pointed out by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a press conference on Thursday, points to a larger issue of who controls the police control and police reforms that needs to be addressed on a policy level, and not on the streets of Delhi in the night by people who are not authorized to do so. The irony in Kejriwal’s statement “We warn the Delhi Police to mend their ways….the police are only shying away from their duty” cannot be missed as it was the same AAP, under Kejriwal’s leadership, which attacked then CM Sheila Dikshit when, after the December 16 gang rape, she said that her government had no control over the Delhi Police which comes under the Union home ministry. Kejriwal holding dharnas till the cops who did not comply by the ministers’ orders are suspended will not improve the security situation in the capital.
 Many of the government’s actions seem to show that AAP is yet to move from an activism mode to understanding the intricacies of running a government. The people have reposed great faith and hope in AAP and are ready to give it a very long rope. This is all the more a reason for AAP to be extra cautious before resorting to insensitive statements and acts of vigilantism.

The premium bad boys pay in the league

Cricket lost its innocence in the summer of 2000 when Saleem Malik and later Hansie Cronje were found guilty of match fixing. Ever since then when any team or player in form suddenly underperformed it was thought to be a ‘fixed’ performance. So when S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were picked up by the police for their alleged involvement in spot-fixing of matches in which the Rajasthan franchise of the T20 tournament was part, it did not surprise many. The spot-fixing allegation levelled against the trio points to a greater malice in the handling of the tournament and certainly robs billions of its fans the enjoyment with which it is savoured. The Dubai-Karachi-Mumbai betting nexus that is suspected to be involved in fixing many matches in the tournament points to a larger network behind this illegal activity. The presence of such betting rackets have not only turned the game into a farce but has also led to consequences outside the stadium like when a 13-year-old boy was kidnapped by his cousin after he lost money betting on the game. The Delhi Police, which has been at the receiving end of the flak recently, and rightly so, should be appreciated for bringing to the fore the dark underbelly of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

That the three players have been named a day after a one-year ban was lifted on three other players — Mohnish Misra, Amit Yadav and Abhinav Bali — shows that it is not the first time betting and cricket have found mention together. One of the problems is that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has not done enough to ensure that such events are prevented. This is not the first time the taint of match-fixing, and the various forms of it, is being alleged with the game. The IPL, right from its inception in 2008, has been under the scanner for different financial irregularities. The income tax department has been investigating cases of tax evasion by certain team franchises, the CBI had taped conversation between bookies and IPL officials in 2010, teams have been accused of money laundering by sending funds through tax havens, etc. 
The BCCI has been quick to suspend the three players. The question is: Will more names come out in the open or will the trio be the fall guys while the actual rot in the system remains unmasked only to later appear at a convenient time and place? Will the ongoing domestic T20 tournament, or even cricket for that matter, be ever seen just as a game and continue to enjoy popular support? A lot of it depends on the fate of the current investigation. A thorough probe with proper action is essential to ensure that there is still love and respect for the ‘gentleman’s game’.

Intelligence and a lack of it

What should have been a feather in the cap of the police force has now become a crown of thorns. On the face of it the Delhi police seemed to have nabbed a terrorist and with this averted a possible attack. But the jubilation of preventing a fidayeen attack on the Capital with the arrest of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Liaquat Shah alias Kaka Khan in Gorakhpur, near the India-Nepal border, by the Delhi police was short-lived when it was reported that the Jammu and Kashmir police were informed about Shah's arrival and were waiting for him. Shah, according to the J&K police, was on his way to surrender before the Kupwara district police under J&K's 2010 surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy. The policy is a major effort by the state to woo Kashmiris who crossed over to Pakistan but now want to return and lead a normal life.
While it is positive news that the Centre has, following a request from J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah to Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe the matter, the claims and counter-claims by the Delhi police and the J&K police raise a lot of questions, none of which reflect well on our 'preparedness' to counter a terrorist attack. The 26/11 attacks exposed the pitiable state of our intelligence-sharing mechanisms. Since then, a lot has been said about coordination and sharing of information among various intelligence and investigative agencies. The Shah arrest reveals that while the J&K police and the ministry of home affairs were informed about his return, and thus on the same page, the Delhi police, which was acting on information from its 'sources', was not in the loop. 'Let not the right hand know what the left is doing' is an ideal which may work in some fields but it is fatal as a dictum for intelligence and security agencies entrusted with the protection of the nation from threats, both from inside and out.
However, all is not lost. The Centre is considering reviewing its existing policy towards militants who surrender, to work on a 'larger policy framework' and to fill in the gaps. Shah's arrest and the publicity it has gathered are definitely not what scores of such militants, who return to Kashmir after abandoning their past ways, want. After being a militant for years the crossing-over is not easy: it's a daunting task to gain the confidence of the government. The greater threat comes from their earlier masters who generally do not take kindly to such changes of mind. Given that our government has a less than foolproof record of protecting ex-militants, the most prominent being the killing of Mohammad Yosuf, better known as Kuka Parrey, who was heading the counter-insurgency movement in Kashmir, it can hardly afford any more goof-ups like the one it seems to have made with Shah.
(This appeared as an edit in the Hindustan Times)