It seems like the union home ministry and the Delhi police are tangled in a game of passing the buck, following the Baba Ramdev fiasco at Ramlila grounds on June 4.
While the ministry is fast distancing itself from Delhi police's post midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters, highly placed police sources told rediff.com that the decision was taken at the highest levels in the government.
The otherwise media-friendly officers in the Delhi police were visibly shy of talking to the press about the operation.
On record, all officers echo what has already been told by the police on the morning after the crackdown: that the decision was taken as Ramdev had flouted the norms under which his trust had been issued permission to hold a yoga camp at Ramlila Maidan.
When this statement did not find much favor with the press, they added that there was a terror-threat perception against the yoga teacher.
The decision, highly placed sources said off-the-record, was issued from the highest level in the government."The home ministry and even the Prime Minister's Office knew about the operation," a senior police official said.
Officers are upset with the home ministry after Home minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday, said that the decision on the pre-dawn crackdown on Ramdev was taken by the Delhi police.
The statement was surprising, considering the fact that the home minister had earlier justified the action. Even the prime minister himself had said that the government "was left with no other alternative."
The official said that they were "merely following orders from the very top." This was exactly what the officers had said at the time of crackdown.
"There was no written order. At most, you can call it a verbal order. We were told to evacuate Baba Ramdev, which we did. Considering the number of people at Ramlila Maidan on the day, the damages caused was minimum, said the office.
"We followed extreme restraint even though we were repeatedly provoked by the supporters. Our men have suffered injuries too -- stones were hurled at us -- by the angry mob. In such a scenario, we did a professional job of evacuating people and making sure they don't disturb the law and order of the state following that," he added.
Senior officers feel that the home ministry summoned the commissioner after the Supreme Court turned the heat on the government and issued notices to them and the police, asking them to explain their "brutality" in dealing with "innocent citizens."
Rediff.com has learnt that police Commissioner BK Gupta visited the home ministry on Tuesday and submitted a report about the whole operation. The ministry was reportedly upset with the timing of the crackdown.
They chided the police chief saying that the operation could have been carried out even in the day. They were also upset with the fact that the Delhi police used force to evacuate the protestors.
"When the commissioner was asked why he ordered the operation, he replied that he had just followed orders issued to him by the ministry. The home ministry grilled the commissioner on why he chose pre-dawn for conducting the operation and why he ordered the firing of tear gas shells inside a closed compound," the officer said.
The commissioner, in his report, denied that a lathi charge took place inside the compound. The report also has medical reports of the victims, including police officials. A copy of the First Information Report of rioting registered at Kamla Market police station has also been submitted.
Now that the Delhi police have been left to defend themselves, frantic meetings are going on between the police and their legal advisors to prepare a report to be submitted within two weeks at the Supreme Court.
Sources said that there is a looming fear in the department, because possible punishment transfers are in the offing for joint commissioner and deputy commissioner level officers, who will most plausibly take the fall for a crackdown, which was ordered by the government.
