New Delhi: The Delhi assembly Thursday adopted a resolution against the Ministry of Home Affairs’ decision to appoint Rakesh Asthana as the Delhi Police Commissioner, saying it is “in violation” of the Supreme Court guidelines. The resolution called for a reversal of the move.
The MHA named Asthana as the new Delhi CP Tuesday, three days before his retirement as the Director General of the Border Security Force. Asthana replaced Balaji Srivastava.
As the two-day monsoon session of the Delhi assembly kicked off, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sanjeev Jha moved the resolution in the House, saying the Narendra Modi government’s decision was not only illegal but also in contempt of the Supreme Court.
Jha pointed to a March 2019 ruling, in which the SC had said that no officer with less than six months of residual tenure should be considered for the post of Director General of Police (DGP). While the DGP is the chief of police in states, the Delhi Police is led by the Commissioner.
Asthana, who was the frontrunner for the post of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director in May 2019, was dropped from the race after the top court ruling.
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What AAP MLAs said
Speaking in the assembly Thursday, Jha said: “It appears as though he has been sent to Delhi on a special mission… Is there no other officer senior enough in the whole AGMUT cadre who deserved this post because they know the city and its problem with crime?”
He also questioned the “integrity of an officer who tried to sabotage the very institution of which they are part to be trusted”, referring to the 2018 internal tussle in the CBI when Asthana was fighting with Director Alok Verma.
AAP MLA Gulab Singh alleged, “Asthana has been brought to Delhi to muzzle and harass the AAP. The officer has done everything from collecting funds for the BJP to covering up the ‘black deeds of Modi and Shah’ in Gujarat.”
After reading out a paragraph from a 2006 SC judgment (Prakash Singh and ors. Vs Union of India), AAP MLA Somnath Bharati told the Speaker: “Sanjay Beniwal and Satinder Garg are senior IPS who were in line to be commissioner of police… instead of bringing in Asthana from nowhere (sic).”
AAP has been vocal about its criticism against the Delhi Police on multiple occasions.
What the leader of opposition said
However, leader of opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, in response to all these allegations, defended Asthana and said: “Rakesh Asthana was conferred the Police Medal for meritorious service when Mr Manmohan Singh was PM… in 1996-97, he was instrumental in the fodder scam against the Bihar chief minister.”
He added that Asthana is behind many important anti-terror plot operations, which he effectively dealt with.
Bidhuri added: “If anything, the House should be grateful to the Ministry of Home Affairs for his appointment as commissioner. It is a jolt to crime and corruption in the national capital.”
Bidhuri also claimed that Asthana had one year of tenure left. Delhi Home Minister Satyender Jain in response asked Bidhuri about why Asthana wasn’t appointed as the CBI director if he had a year’s tenure left.
(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)
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