The Lucknow ‘state visitor home incident’ of 1995 through which BSP supremo Mayawati was alleged to have been encircled by Samajwadi Get together supporters throughout an influence tussle between the 2 alliance companions made former Uttar Pradesh DGP OP Singh a “pariah” and a “villain” for this episode, recollects the officer.
The 1983-batch Indian Police Service officer has come out together with his memoir “Crime, Grime & Gumption: Case files of an IPS officer” and dedicates an extended chapter to this notorious and controversial episode.
Singh, who hails from Gaya in Bihar, retired from service in January 2020 and headed two central forces –the CISF and the NDRF– throughout his 37 years of service within the police, a reasonably lengthy profession for an IPS officer.
Calling the ‘visitor home’ incident an “indecorous” political drama within the historical past of modern-day India beneath a chapter titled “Tsunami Years”, he says this occasion “not only changed the politics in UP but impacted the politics of the country as a whole”.
Singh offers a blow-by-blow account of the occasions that befell on June 2, 1995, the day he took cost as SSP (Lucknow).
He recounts it was round 2 pm when he received a name from the Director Normal of Police (DGP) about some “disturbance by unlawful elements” on the visitor home positioned on Meera Bai Marg. He together with the district Justice of the Peace and different officers reached the spot at 5:20 pm.
Mayawati, who was staying in suite number one and a pair of, was assembly her MLAs on the guesthouse amid the excitement that the Bahujan Samaj Get together (BSP) had withdrawn help from the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led authorities, Singh writes.
“The situation was quite precarious for the power supply was down and the telephone lines were dead. There was complete chaos,” he says.
“Make sure suites one and two are doubly secure”, he directed the officers and a sudden commotion erupted with a BSP MLA actually being carried away within the grip of arms. Quickly, the police resorted to baton cost and Singh states that he remained on the visitor home until issues have been regular.
The officer says “stories and rumours” in regards to the developments on the visitor home “ran wild” together with the entry of an LPG cylinder within the premises.
Mayawati expressed want to have tea and after the property officer knowledgeable that there was no cooking fuel within the kitchen, a cylinder was organized from the neighbourhood, he writes.
“The sight of the cylinder as it was being rolled towards the kitchen area, and the grating noise caused by it, sparked a rumour that there was an attempt to set Mayawati on fire.
“This was however one other addition to the shock and distress that awaited me,” he goes on to say.
Mayawati, Singh says, wrote a letter the same day to the governor alleging that SP members gathered at the guest house attacked and took away some of the BSP workers “proper beneath the nostril of the police and district administration officers current”.
“As a police officer, I used to be once more caught within the crossfire of the insidious type between two political events, enjoying their energy,” Singh writes, adding that the governor dismissed the Mulayam Singh government that very night and Mayawati was sworn in as the new chief.
Singh was suspended by the new government, a lay dater, on June 4, 1995.
“Why me? There have been 4 of us (on the visitor home). Three in addition to me, the DM, the ADM (Metropolis) and the SP (Metropolis) and solely I used to be suspended…It was apparent that I had been chosen to be suspended,” he says.
This was the beginning of his being treated like an outcast by his “spineless seniors” and colleagues, the retired IPS officer writes.
“As soon as once more, greater than the politicians, it was my seniors and their submissive manner that disillusioned me… I can always remember the physique language of a senior IPS officer after I referred to as on him put up my suspension.”
“He was very uneasy with my presence in his workplace and he ensured I realised that I used to be probably the most undesirable particular person round him. Such was the phobia of Mayawati in these days that no officer needed to be seen with me. In a single day I had turn into a pariah,” he says.
He also recounts how his senior officer “actually turned him out of his workplace”.
Singh mentions in his book he was slapped with two FIRs related to the guest house incident and in “every of them, I used to be named the villain, the villain who was nursing a grudge towards Mayawati and was concerned within the kidnapping of legislators”.
He was reinstated in service by the government a few months later and the cases against him were also withdrawn.
Three years later, Singh says, he got an opportunity to meet Mayawati in Azamgarh when he was posted as the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Azamgarh range.
“I’ve nursed this sense for a very long time, Madam. To satisfy you and clear some issues. With all due respect, I’ve some direct questions for you, I used to be upfront and direct,” he writes.
Mayawati replied: “Aap poochiye (you ask). Her huge eyes and direct eye contact have been a transparent indication that she was all ears.”
Singh writes that with a quivering voice he pulled himself together and asked what was his fault on the fateful day of June 2, 1995?
“Madam, why? Why was I singled out? I’m an apolitical officer. My complete service file will let you know that…”, he told Mayawati.
“Was the punishment a reward for doing the fitting job…’ I ended once more. I used to be shivering. I lowered my eyes to gather myself. Mayawati did not say a phrase all this whereas. By now I had a sense I would not be getting a transparent reply,” Singh says as he soon left without a reply from the politician.
The book goes on to mention other important events during his tenure as the DGP including the Kumbh mela at Prayagraj in 2019, the general elections that took place that year, the maiden Police Commissionerate system brought by the state government at his behest in 2020 and the Ayodhya verdict given by the Supreme Court.
The officer also praises Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s working style.
The book further mentions in detail Singh’s earlier tenures including tackling Khalistani terrorism in the ‘Terai’ areas of the state that border Nepal and being on the “goal” of terrorists during his stint as the SP of the Lakhimpur Kheri district.