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HomeOpinionIPS Abhinav Kumar’s allegations baseless. CAPF cadre officers fighting an existential battle

IPS Abhinav Kumar’s allegations baseless. CAPF cadre officers fighting an existential battle

The unyielding stubbornness of the IPS officers leading CAPFs towards addressing genuine grievances of cadre officers has forced them to approach the courts.

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The Central Armed Police Forces have an important role to play in the security matrix of India. The angry piece published in ThePrint titled ‘Ex-BSF ADG Sood and his band of disgruntled brothers spreading lies against IGP Kashmir’ by IPS Abhinav Kumar, therefore, needs to be analysed in this light to put things in perspective.

Although Kumar is entitled to his views, he has chosen to exercise it by heaping criticism on “Sood (me) and other CAF cadre officers”, which is a sad reflection of what has become of the once elite IPS. His piece can become a case study to explain the concept of a ‘straw man argument’

It is beyond doubt that the comments made by IGP Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, even though at a closed-door meeting, were derogatory to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a CAPF, according to Abhinav himself, which has won several laurels during operations in Kashmir. CRPF commandant Vinay Kumar Tiwari who is commanding the 53 battalion was rightly aggrieved at slandering of his organisation and displayed moral courage in immediately bringing it on record. So, the veracity of the comments made by Vijay Kumar is not disputed. Abhinav Kumar in his column, misinterprets my point regarding return of medals (earned by IGP Kashmir). I had said that Kumar should return only those medals which he may have been awarded while in CRPF.


Also read: If CAPF cadre wants to be treated as civil servants, it must develop citizen-centric values


Trivialising important issues

Attempts to reduce the issue to a mere ‘a fight for promotion by a few thousand officers of the CAPF’ amounts to obfuscation of the larger issues of national security and denial of fundamental rights. The CAPF officers are fighting for their rights for two decades now, and it is not a case of some of them having suddenly developed spine after retirement. It must be pointed out that the promotional avenues of the 10,000-strong CAPF cadre will not improve with just over 200 of them promoted to the top posts, presently occupied by IPS officers. However, occupation of those posts by the CAPF officers will have a positive effect on improving national security because of their domain expertise.

The concern shown by Abhinav Kumar for enhancing avenues for subordinate and lower-ranked staff in the CAPFs is appreciable. This indeed is the cause of high attrition rate among the lower ranks. But the question is: what has stopped these IPS officers all these years from ensuring this? Fluctuating intake over the years, removal of the ranks of Lance Naik and Naik after the 1995 Pay Commission, introduction of the rank of Assistant Sub Inspector in General Duty Cadre, etc are some of the major blunders of personnel policies that have impeded the avenues of lower ranks. Immediate steps are required to ensure improvement and the CAPF cadre officers are wholeheartedly supporting it.


Also read: Delhi, UP show IPS officers can’t even manage states but want to control CAPFs: Ex-BSF ADG


Problematic decision-making

Several doubtful decisions taken by the IPS officers while serving in the CAPFs emanate from their inability to come to terms with the culture of these specialised forces. The sheer temporariness of their engagement with the CAPFs, which they join on deputation and the agenda of personal comfort and a soft posting, also prevents them from developing any connect with the organisation and the troops, who look up to their leaders to lead them, and not manage them.

One need not look far to verify these claims. Transfer of eight senior officers within a short period of time in CRPF and retention of large number of vehicles and manpower, even by long-retired IPS officers are some recent examples. The practice of posting IPS officers to Delhi or at a place of their choice with minimal exposure to operational areas, besides deputing them to head a specialised directorate, like Medical etc. are not just professionally wrong, but blatant misuse of government finances as each such act has a cost to the exchequer.

The unyielding obduracy of the IPS officers leading these forces, towards addressing genuine grievances of CAPF cadre officers has forced them to approach the courts. They resorted to this step after exhausting all avenues within the organisation and the Government of India. Similar obduracy displayed in even honouring the orders of the Supreme Court is what further rankled the CAPF officers.

Taking legal recourse to have their grievances addressed is a fundamental right, and this is what the cadre officers have done. Implied threat of legal action for exercising one’s fundamental right, therefore, betrays lack of knowledge of law as enunciated in numorous judgments of the Supreme Court since the landmark 1962 verdict in Kedar Nath Singh vs the State Of Bihar, which held that barring the call to overthrow a constitutionally elected government by violent means, no other criticism of government policies, however severe, qualify as sedition.

Abhinav Kumar’s claim that a section of the CAPF cadre has built a large corpus and is using it via NGOs to fund litigation against the IPS officers can be easily verified by the latter as they have at their disposal the entire police and investigative machinery.


Also read: New twist in tussle as CRPF withdraws cooks, drivers posted with retired IPS officers


Courts have attested CAPFs concerns

Kumar has been repeating arguments in all his pieces to advance the case of IPS with regard to the CAPFs by drawing up an imaginary constitutional principle, superior selection process, historical legacy etc. Many of these arguments have already been debunked by the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court.

The claims of the CAPF cadre officers are not only supported by the highest court of law in India, but also by several expert bodies, appointed by the government itself. The most recent being the Chidambaram-led committee, which expressly states that the field of selection of Director Generals of CAPFs should be expanded to include the CAPF officers. The 2006 Pay Commission had also recommended that all posts up to DIG should be held by the CAPF cadre officers. Besides, 50 per cent of all posts of IG and above, should also be held by CAPF cadre officers. An IIM-Calcutta report in the mid-nineties had recommended doing away with deputation. However, most of these recommendations have been given a quiet burial.

The allegations levelled by IPS officers, therefore, are baseless as the CAPF cadre officers are fighting an existential battle and the Government of India would do well to address these grievances.

In Latin, it is said: fiat justitia ne pereat mundus that is ‘Justice must be done, lest the world perish for want of that’.

The author is a retired additional director general of Border Security Force. Views are personal.

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66 COMMENTS

  1. Everyone who knows CAPFs from inside knows how corrupt cadre officers are! How they exploit constabulary and Lower ranks. There is not one Commandant level officer in CAPF, who is not Mr 10% or Mr 20% in commissiongiri! The government should check, how the financial assets of these officers grow exponentially, when they just get promoted to Commandants. Not only them, their whole family including their wives and family exploit the whole system. They blatantly use official vehicles, cooks, drivers and security Aids! I don’t intend to say that all IPS officers are honest Gods! But they bring order and neutrality to these Forces. They ensure that cadre officers don’t make it a den of corruption and ensure neutrality and sanity. Perhaps, that is because of their broad scope of training and having been already exposed to much higher *Stakes* in state already at SP level. I don’t know, how corrupt are IPS in their states. They might be! But if you have to safe CAPFs from anarchy of cadre officers and government has to ensure that constables and lower ranks get their salaries and good mess food and professionalism in transfers and posting is maintained, please do not disturb the IPS induction at at least IG levels and above. Ask any Constable or lower rank, of CAPFs who would tell you how CO sahebs extort money from suppliers, use all possible resources to generate wealth for themselves and their families. Remember, if IPS go away from CAPFs, even DG of CAPF cadre officers will have his hissa from Messes, from selling off petrol and diesel of MT and will even demand a hissa from salaries of Constables. Abhi to ek DIG ne ek Constable ke upar garam Pani hi fenka tha; if IPS go; they will burn constables alive on slightest of being annoyed in messes and no one will come to know! Everyone, I repeat every one knows all the above things in CAPF, just that no one speaks about it! These same cadre officers who make such Hue and cry about Forces morale and all, behave with their own constabulary in worst possible way! Even, IPS know about it, don’t know why do they maintain silence about it

    • Respected Commentator @dev,
      In the interest of the country, kindly go ahead and expose the name of those who have involved themselves in financial irregularities. All such individuals, no matter which rank/service/force they belong to, are a disgrace to this nation.

      Institutional checks and balances are available to deal with such cases. But to base your argument in favour of IPS deputation to keep a check on corruption by cadre officer in CAPFs is way to narrow minded and utterly flawed. State Police have a poor track record of corruption/collusion with mafias and IPS are the ones at the helm of affairs. So, should we arrive at a conclusion that IPS is only responsible for that corruption? There are numerous IPS/IAS officers languishing in jail for multiple counts of criminal charges. Shall we deem that each and every officer of these services become ineligible to hold office?

      Sorry to state this, but your arguments are hollow and devoid of logic. Oversimplified generalization has been a scourge and all policies based on such pretexts are bound to fail.

      I must also warn you to stop spreading propaganda of the enemy countries who intend to spread lies about officer – men schisms in Indian Armed Forces. Please don’t be a tool in ISI’s psychological operations. Officer-men camaraderie is epitomized in the Indian Armed Forces.

      I hope you will realise that in order to profess career goals of IPS you are complicit in directly harming the security and intersts of our country. Shame on you!!

  2. इटेलकटक्ल bankrupcy हो गयी है आईपीएस साहेब आपको, पूरा ठेका सालो से आपके पास capf का, निकम्मे capf के ऑफिसर्स हो गए, अरे ज़रा अपने चरण ac के कमरे और दिल्ली के बाहर रखेंगे तभी पता चलेगा, फ़ोर्स में क्या चल रहा है, आप अब ज़्यादा दिन capf में रह नही पाएंगे। surpemeकोर्ट के आदेश स्पष्ट1 है अपना बोरिया बिस्तर रेडी रखिये , आप अपनी निकमनपन अपने लिए और स्टेट पुलिस के रखिये ,भगवान के लिए capf को भक्ष दे। आप की capf में कोई आवशकता नही है। मेहमान जी अपने घर इज़्ज़क्त से जाइये नहीं तो धेकेल कर बाहर का रास्ता दिखा दिया जाएगा।

  3. I appreciate IG Kashmir Vijay Kumar IPS about ground reality. It may considered and realized as “Sou baathon ki ek baath” that “CRPF is not working properly”.
    Now come to the point why CRPF don’t work properly. The reason is. Ground level officers commanding troops are “nikkame nalayak” kism ke NON-IPS officers who are one time wonders entered in Force with limited qualities through less competitive selections and served in force behind fencing without dealing even a single criminal case, social issues, civil public problems, human rights touch or at least solo headed(not joint/outer cordon type CAPF ops) operation based on own intelligence etc as like hardworking IPS officers of state Police STFs, SOGs, ARs, Greyhonds/Octopus etc. are doing right now even in Covid-19 situation.
    And lives and livlihoods of CAPF jawans are endangered under “nikkame nalayak londiyabaaz” Non-IPS officers who wish to chat with unknown no. until to be trapped or require to pay cost/apologise or finally on exposed character to punish the source who exposed their dirty character on having CJM level posting in highly responsible Commandant level officer rank.

  4. I appreciate IG Kashmir Vijay Sir-IPS about ground reality. It may considered and realized as “Sou baathon ki ek baath” that “CRPF is not working properly”.
    ..
    Now come to the point why CRPF don’t work properly..
    The reason is. Ground level officers commanding troops are “nikkame nalayak” kism ke NON-IPS officers who are one time wonders entered in Force with limited qualities through less competitive selections and served in force behind fencing without dealing even a single criminal case, social issues, civil public problems, human rights touch or at least solo headed(not joint/outer cordon type CAPF ops) operation based on own intelligence etc as like hardworking IPS officers of state Police STFs, SOGs, ARs, Greyhonds/Octopus etc. are doing right now even in Covid-19 situation.
    ..
    And lives and livlihoods of CAPF jawans are endangered under “nikkame nalayak londiyabaaz” Non-IPS officers who wish to chat with unknown no. until to be trapped or require to pay cost/apologise or finally on exposed character to punish the source who exposed their dirty character on having CJM level posting in highly responsible Commandant level officer rank.
    Hence kindly take appropriate action against such characterless Commandants or be responsible to promote such filthy nature officers of your honored Police Department.

  5. A very good and interesting article sir. I always believed in the common sense. And the comments sense always indicates that-
    1.Own rule , however worse it might be ,is always better than the foreign rule. (Simple common sense by Mahatma Gandhi.)
    2. The CAPFs are struggling for very basic needs right now like security jackets, helmets, rifles, living amenities, light, drinking water, even toilets somewhere. The common sense always would be in the side of providing basic amenities rather securing praise by shallow PR and JALSAs at the FHQs. That’s where and hone born cadre officer would be focussing as he has gone through all that hell like conditions in his very young career.
    3. Being a leader from our own cadre , you know how difficult it is to order our jawans to proceed in the line of fire. The common sense knows that if you don’t lead nobody would be willing to go in harm’s way. So we lead from front and our jawans follow with full enthusiasm in the line of fire.
    4. A thorough anudit of funds at the hands of all these IPS officers imposed on CAPF would lead to serious malpractices. Common sense knows this.

    To summarise , I would like to salute you that your article is so logical and satisfy a general reader’s mind of understanding it gives. It is in support of good sense unlike the rude piece by one of the IPS in the same news agency.
    I would also like to congratulate and appreciate ‘The Print’ for providing space to both sides of thoughts. In a way , the shallowness of the counter part’s argument(mostly invalid) is heLping the cause of CAPFs.
    Regards

  6. All cadres must be commanded by its own people. These corrupt n spineless IAS/IPS are spoiling all depts wherever they go. Politicians favour them as ther lick their feet.
    No IPS should be in CAPF.
    Supreme court must direct the govt instantly..else a few gud orgs wil also get spoiled.
    Regards to Sood Sahib.

  7. Their moral obligation should be to reform policing in India. Police reforms have been lingering since ages and the IPS are busy justifying their leadership in CAPFs. State police is the primary responsibility and it is in shambles. Presence of IPS is required more in states. It would be reassuring if the level activism shown to preserve their unjustified postings in CAPFs is matched at improving the overall quality of policing in their respective cadres/states.

  8. Jai hind
    If rpf can get their due with same judgement why cant capf
    We are also sons of the this motherland

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