Amid the ballot drive in Bihar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi more likely to go to Haryana on October 17, the alleged suicide of IPS officer Y. Puran Kumar has put the ruling Bharatiya Janata Occasion and the Nayab Singh Saini authorities on the defensive within the state.
What seems to be making issues worse for the Saini authorities is the relentless calls for and actions of Mr Kumar’s spouse, IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, for ‘justice’ towards Haryana Director Normal of Police (DGP) Shatrugjeet Singh Kapur and Rohtak Superintendent of Police (SP) Narendra Bijaluniya.
Admitting that the suicide of Puran Kumar, who belonged to the Dalit neighborhood, might tarnish the Bharatiya Janata Occasion’s “ethical picture”, a senior occasion official in Haryana mentioned, “This incident is seen as testing the state authorities’s dedication to social justice, fairness and non-discrimination. The allegations that even senior IPS officers allegedly confronted caste discrimination might tarnish the federal government’s picture.”
One other Bharatiya Janata Occasion chief echoed this view, saying the occasion might face political setbacks in constituencies held by the Skeduerd caste (SC) if the notion persists that the Saini authorities has failed to guard Dalits, together with senior officers in Haryana.
Within the 2024 meeting elections, the BJP misplaced each the state’s SC-reserved seats of Ambala and Sirsa, however within the meeting elections just a few months later, it gained eight of the 17 SC-reserved constituencies. Dalits represent about 22% of Haryana’s inhabitants.
Kumar was discovered lifeless of gunshot wounds at his dwelling in Chandigarh on October 7. Mr. Kumar left behind a “suicide be aware” accusing a number of cops, together with the DGP and Rohtak SP, of “caste-based discrimination”.
As Chandigarh police had filed an FIR on the idea of Kumar’s ‘suicide be aware’ however didn’t identify any of the cops talked about, Amneet has demanded that they be included within the FIR within the part specifying the names of ‘recognized/unknown/suspects’ and that stricter provisions beneath the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act be invoked.
The Saini authorities took the transfer to switch Rohtak SP on Saturday.
Kumar’s household dismissed it as “simply an eyewash.” “The response is just too little and too late. The switch of the SP-rank officer shouldn’t be a punishment,” mentioned a supply near the household. indian specific.
Kumar’s autopsy additionally grew to become a flashpoint between the household and the federal government, which got here beneath hearth for transferring the physique from the federal government multi-specialty hospital to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Schooling and Analysis (PGIMER) in Chandigarh on Saturday.
Whereas Chandigarh Police Commissioner Sagar Preet Hooda mentioned they had been discussing the household’s issues to acquire autopsy consent, Amneet and her brother, AAP MLA from Bathinda district Amit Ratan, alleged that the police forcefully eliminated Kumar’s physique with out his consent.
The problem has given ammunition to opposition leaders throughout occasion strains, together with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Congress Congress Occasion president Sonia Gandhi, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Azad Samaj Occasion (Kanshi Ram) chief Chandrashekhar Azad and even the Bharatiya Janata Occasion. Chirag Paswan, chief of the ally LJP (RV), expressed assist for Amneet.
The Congress additionally threatened to stage protests throughout the state except the federal government “does justice” to the households.
Compounding the BJP’s issues, a number of Dalit leaders, together with Congress Sirsa MP Kumari Selja, former MP Ashok Tanwar, Congress Jalandhar MP and former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi, have termed Kumar’s dying a “homicide”.
“Why had been Mr. Kumar’s warnings repeatedly ignored? The federal government is within the dock and should reply. This isn’t an remoted incident. The officers Mr. Kumar named had been the identical ones towards whom Mr. Kumar had complained. Sadly. , neither the institution nor the federal government turned a deaf ear to Mr. Kumar’s struggling…Does even the voice of senior officers and civilians haven’t any worth on this nation? It’s shameful that motion was taken solely after the household refused to carry out the final rites,” Selja mentioned.
Recalling Kumar’s refusal to fireside at protesting farmers throughout the 2020-2021 agitation towards the now repealed central farm legal guidelines, calling him a “martyr”, Chani mentioned the police officer at all times “stands on the aspect of justice and the downtrodden”.
BJP injury management
Saini’s authorities is struggling to include the fallout from the incident. Prime Minister Saini canceled a cupboard assembly scheduled for Saturday, however despatched a staff of ministers and senior officers to Amneet’s residence in Chandigarh to pacify her and guarantee her household that the federal government would ship justice.
Mr. Saini himself met Mr. Amneet on Thursday, whereas a number of state ministers together with Anil Vij, Krishan Bedi and Krishan Lal Panwar, and senior officers together with Chief Secretary Rajesh Kral, Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi and Deputy Chief Secretary (House Affairs) Smita Misra had been additionally tenting at his official residence.
