A sudden transfer of any senior government official is always suspect—no matter how much officials try and describe it as a routine step. More so, when it is someone as important as a Commissioner of Police and one who is in the midst of a very high profile investigation.
So, the Maharashtra government may try its best to say that the abrupt shifting of Rakesh Maria is no more than a simple administrative step, just that it was taken three weeks before his tenure was up any way, but rumours, innuendo and speculation will not stop. For over a fortnight now, Maria has been personally leading the investigation into the Sheena Bora case (which, incidentally, should not be called a murder case since no murder has been established quite yet). This is certainly unusual—Police commissioners have many more things to do than participate in interrogation and brief the press almost on a daily basis. But that’s his prerogative, so it cannot be held against him.
But what it has done is to give him a larger than life public profile since he has been on the front pages and on the nightly television news on a daily basis. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he has become a national figure. Naturally then, an abrupt shift to an innocuous post right in the middle of the investigation would send shock waves. Then, just as people were scratching their heads at this move, the government issued another clarification that Maria would continue to mentor the investigation—that clearly cuts into the territory of the new commissioner Ahmed Javed. In two strokes, the government has annoyed two senior officers, demoralised the cops in the force and left a trail of questions. The chief minister, who also holds the Home portfolio and signed off on these decisions, left for Japan on a five day trip, but he will have to provide answers when he returns.
There is no dearth of conjecture on this turn of events. Was it because the chief minister did not like Maria taking a personal interest in just one case and ignoring others? Devendra Fadnavis did say that the Mumbai police should not only concentrate on those crimes that are in the media—that is seen as a hint to Maria. But why give a hint? As the political boss, Fadnavis could have easily called the Commissioner and told him, quietly but firmly, that he should stop hogging the limelight and do other work too.
Was it because Maria was seen as close to the Congress-NCP regime? In which case, why wait so long and why in these circumstances and in this way? That just shows churlishness, to say nothing of lack of finesse. It is no secret that politicians have their favourite officers, but in 20 odd days, Fadnavis could have appointed his own man. The fact is that the steps and missteps in this particular affair show that this government is confused.
All kinds of hints have been dropped, including by the former police commissioner Satya Pal Singh who retired prematurely to stand for elections on a BJP ticket. In police circles, it is said that both he and Maria had a mutual antipathy. If that is true, then Singh is not a balanced observer. But leaving aside personality clashes, several former top cops have said that the manner in which the government has acted has left a very poor taste in the mouth. There is a quiet and discreet way of acting that allows everyone a dignified exit—this “off with his head” approach is crude in the extreme. Some newspapers have mentioned that Fadnavis wants to show he is a tough minister; well, this is hardly the way to show it. Real power is exercised without any public noise; this is nothing but showmanship.
Whatever the reasons, a few things are clear. 1) The sudden transfer was done in a shoddy manner and the next move, of declaring Maria as still involved in investigations was even shoddier. 2) The Fadnavis government needs to learn how to handle such situations with more sophistication and in a way that doesn’t make it look all mixed up. 3) The Sheena Bora case is now going to get affected because any new team and leader will want to review the progress so far. 4) The police, from the officers to the other ranks, are bound to be upset, since they will feel that they will always be at the mercy of capricious political decisions.
All in all, this has not been this government’s best moment. The best that Devendra Fadnavis can do now is to address a press conference when he returns and give his reasons for Maria’s transfer. He needs to assure the people of the city that this was done after much thought and debate and not because of any extraneous reasons. He will also have to talk privately to the police force and uplift their morale. Not doing so will not just be poor governance, but also bad public relations.
