The requisitioning by the Central government of the services of three senior police officers who belong to the Tamil Nadu cadre of the Indian Police Service develops into a matter of confrontation between the State government and the Centre with the State refusing to relieve the officers.
IT is an interesting but unenviable situation. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government gives the impression of having been caught in the crossfire between the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government led by Jayalalithaa and the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) over the issue of the transfer of three police officers from Chennai to New Delhi. However, there are indications that the Centre is prepared to "push" the issue until it brings the State government to its knees. According to informed sources in the BJP, the Centre was prepared to back the DMK "100 per cent" in this issue because of the "compulsions of alliance politics". The DMK is an important member of the NDA.
The transfer issue has developed into a confrontation between the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government with the latter refusing to relieve the three officers to take up their new assignments in the Cabinet Secretariat in New Delhi. The officers - Chennai Police Commissioner K. Muthukaruppan, Joint Commissioner (Central) S. George and Deputy Commissioner (Triplicane) Christopher Nelson - approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Tamil Nadu, seeking the quashing of transfers. On August 7, the CAT ordered notices of motion sent to the Centre, State government and two Union Ministers, Murasoli Maran and T.R. Baalu (both DMK).
The Centre believes that the Jayalalithaa government is behind the officers approaching the CAT. Before the CAT, the Centre took the stand that it had not served any "orders" on the officers, but had only "informed" the State about the transfers. Additional Solicitor-General V.T. Gopalan said that the State had to pass orders first releasing the officers and then only could they approach the CAT.
What has nettled the Centre was the fact that it readily obliged Jayalalithaa in May when she assumed office and requested the transfers of P. Shankar, Secretary, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas, to Tamil Nadu to be appointed Chief Secretary, and K. Vijayakumar, Inspector-General of Police, Border Security Force, to the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force.
Jayalalithaa took the issue to a broader plane by writing to all Chief Ministers, claiming that the transfers had "wide implications for the future of all-India services and also Centre-State relations". She alleged that there were "political considerations" behind the transfers.
LATE on July 27, Shankar and Director-General of Police A. Ravindranath received a fax communication from the Union Home Ministry that the Centre had "approved" the appointment of Muthukaruppan as Officer on Special Duty in the Cabinet Secretariat. The Centre requested the State government to relieve the officer "with immediate effect with directions to report to the Cabinet Secretariat". The message added: "The date of his relief may please be intimated to this Ministry by return fax." Similar messages reached the Chief Secretary for the transfer of George and Christopher Nelson to the Cabinet Secretariat. While Muthukaruppan and George are direct recruits to the Indian Police Service (IPS), Nelson is a promotee officer.
Recently, the three officers were in the centre of a major controversy over the manhandling and arrest of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi from his home after midnight on July 30 and the subsequent events. Muthukaruppan was not present when the police arrested the 78-year-old DMK president and George and Nelson denied that they were there.
A row broke out between Baalu and the police when they did not allow him to enter Maran's home where a search was on. Both Maran and Baalu alleged that the police manhandled them. The police arrested them on the charge of obstructing public servants from doing their duty.
Soon, the DMK started gunning for the three officers as well as others. When the Centre came under pressure from the DMK high command and from Maran and Baalu for taking action against the three, the transfer orders were issued. But the transfers also blend with the Centre's policy of getting tough with the AIADMK government because the BJP leadership has not yet forgiven Jayalalithaa for toppling the Atal Behari Vajpayee government in 1999.
The transfers pushed into the background the issue of the Centre requisitioning the services of R. Rajagopalan from Chennai to New Delhi for appointment as Director-General of the National Security Guards. Rajagopalan, an IPS officer, was Director-General when Karunanidhi was Chief Minister. When Jayalalithaa took over in May 2001, he was given a sinecure posting as Director, Police Training Academy, Chennai. For inexplicable reasons, the Jayalalithaa government refused to spare his services.
The State government decided not to yield on the transfers of Muthukaruppan, George and Nelson because the Centre and the DMK would then perceive it as " weak" and pile up more pressure. So it delayed sending a reply to the Centre. Home Secretary Naresh Gupta in his reply on August 2 argued that the three officers were not on "the offer list", that is, they had not offered to go on deputation to the Centre. Besides, Muthukaruppan was on "the debarred list"; an officer opting out of deputation to the Centre is put on the debarred list for a certain period of time. George had just returned to the State cadre from the Centre and was on "cooling off period". Nelson, a promotee to the IPS ranks, could not be transferred because his "rank" had not been fixed yet.
Top sources in the State government said the transfers were an "indirect way of punishing" the officers because they were connected with the arrest of Karunanidhi and subsequent developments. The State government perceived these transfers as an "unethical and immoral way of dealing with purely administrative matters". According to sources, the officers "feared" that if they went to New Delhi, they would be transferred out elsewhere.
Other sources in the government said that the Jayalalithaa government would have to relent ultimately: "The Centre will quote rules and insist that they be deputed to the Cabinet Secretariat. The State will quote rules and say they cannot be spared. This war of attrition will go on... Finally, the State government will have to relent." These sources said that the State could have bought peace with the Centre by agreeing to send Rajagopalan and offering three other officers for deputation.
According to The Indian Police Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954, a cadre officer "may, with the concurrence of the State government or State governments concerned and the Central government, be deputed for service under the Central government or another State government..." The rules, however, categorically stated that "in case of any disagreement, the matter shall be decided by the Central government, and the State government or the State governments shall give effect to the decision of the Central government." Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley seemed to rely on this rule when he asserted that the Centre had "overriding powers" in the transfer of IPS officers.
The respective allies of the AIADMK and the DMK lined up behind them. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India (CPI), allies of the AIADMK, were in the vanguard in attacking the Centre. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau alleged that the transfers were "not a simple administrative matter but has definite political implications." The move followed continuous pressure exerted by the DMK and its Central Ministers Maran and Baalu on the NDA government to take "vindictive action" against the State government. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau said that "this move is aimed at scuttling the inquiry commission (headed by retired Judge A. Raman)" set up by the State government to inquire into the allegations connected with Karunanidhi's arrest. These officers were key persons connected with the inquiry and the transfers marked "a clear violation of norms governing Centre-State relations...," the party said.
The CPI characterised the Centre's decision a "continuation of its blatant moves to provoke, confront and punish the Tamil Nadu government at the behest of the NDA ally, the DMK." The CPI said the transfers violated the spirit of the Constitution and the code that governed Centre-State relations.
Karunanidhi reacted sharply to the allegations of the CPI(M) and CPI that the Centre's move was meant to satisfy the DMK. "If this is true, then are these (Left) parties issuing statements justifying the anti-democratic acts of the government only because they happen to be the AIADMK's allies?" he asked. He recalled that when Vijayakumar, who was in charge of Jayalalithaa's security, sought a transfer to the Centre in 1996 after her election defeat, the DMK government obliged him although the Centre did not requisition his services. Moreover, the Centre had sent back Vijayakumar and Shankar to the State on Jayalalithaa's request, Karunanidhi pointed out.
Karunanidhi asked why the CPI(M) and the CPI were silent when Rajagopalan was removed from his post by Jayalalithaa. He pointed out that the Centre had recognised his talent and given him a suitable post. "But when Jayalalithaa refuses to release him, why is the Left silent?... When the Left could support Jayalalithaa's refusal to send three police officials to New Delhi, why are they mute on Rajagopalan's plight?"
The DMK's general council, which met on July 29, passed a resolution urging the Centre to take action against the police officers who "misbehaved" during Karunanidhi's arrest. Karunanidhi denied that they were transferred under pressure from the DMK. He said: "We wanted action to be taken against these three officers. But they have been given transfers." He called the transfers "routine," which could even be "promotions for their talent".
