New Delhi:
Is the breakdown of relations between the ruling Congress and the BJP spilling into newer but volatile territory? In the recently concluded Annual Director General of Police (DGP) conference in Delhi, the customary special interaction between the Prime Minister and select top cops, none of the DGPs of BJP ruled states and several NDA ruled states were invited. After the address at the conference, the Prime Minister's meet with select officers is an old tradition. Usually the Prime Minister spends about 40 minutes with the DGPs. He is briefed by these DGPs on key concerns and an informal consensus is hammered out to deal with the issues.
Sources tell NDTV, that DGPs of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh were invited for the special-interaction with Prime Minister. Those from Punjab and Odisha too were left out. This despite the fact that during the meet the Prime Minister mentioned the exodus of North-Easterners from Karnataka after the circulation of hate SMSes on clashes between the Bodos and Muslims in Assam.
During the conference, Dr Singh had launched a frontal attack on Maoist front organizations masquerading as Human Rights Groups and even pulled up Maoist affected states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand for a poor police to population ratio and vacancies in the state police forces. "Left Wing Extremists affected States also need to improve the police-population ratio, strengthen police infrastructure and equip their police forces with better weapons," Dr Singh said when addressing the conference. On the issue of Islamic terror, the Prime Minister said "we are still in the process of developing capabilities to take pre-emptive action in respect of terrorist threats. Realignment of operational approaches, training of police personnel and more effective collaboration among States and between States and the Centre should form part of our overall strategy." However, regardless of these observations, DGPs from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand or Odissa weren't invited from the special interaction. Sources also tell NDTV that during the Special Interaction with the Prime Minister, Left Wing Extremism was one of the issues on the table. Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) K Vijay Kumar made a presentation on Maoist menace in the Special Interaction with the PM. And, although, over a dozen young men have been arrested from Bengaluru for being part of a terror module, Director General (DG) Karnataka was left out of the special interaction.
Interestingly, the DGP of Bihar, Abhaynand, did make it to the list for the special interaction. Though Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is in power thanks to the BJP's support, but the Congress has been making overtures to the JD(U) after Nitish Kumar went public against Narendra Modi's candidature for the Prime Minister's post in 2014. During the recent the past the PM, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have heaped praise on Nistish Kumar - adding to the speculation that the Congress will like to wean away the JD(U) from the BJP.