Bhujbal-Mendonca rift hurts law and order

Bhujbal-Mendonca rift hurts law and order
PRAFULLA MARPAKWAR

MUMBAI, APRIL 28: Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal may have announced an action plan to rein in gangsters in the wake of the killings of Shiv Sena activists in the city, but the government's ambiguous attitude towards Mumbai police commissioner R H Mendonca will most likely frustrate all such plans even before they take off.

The Congress-led Democratic Front government will first have to take a decision on the police chief and then formulate its strategy to combat crime and halt the recurring attacks on politicians, film-stars and businessmen, which have led to a collapse of law and order in the city. If the government, and Home Minister Bhujbal in particular, has zero confidence in the police commissioner, Mendonca should be asked to go; else, he should be given complete autonomy so as to enable him to function like a police commissioner in the real sense.

Soon after the Democratic Front assumed power on October 16, it considered shifting Director General of Police Arvind Inamdar and Commissioner of Police R H Mendonca in view of their closeness to the erstwhile Sena-BJP government, particularly former Chief Minister Narayan Rane and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde.

Accordingly, Arvind Inamdar was unceremoniously shunted out to Pune as the Director General (training and research). But Inamdar's transfer boomeranged on the government, since the high-profile police official resigned instead of taking up the new assignment. Alarmed by the setback, the Democratic Front government dropped the proposal to shift Mendonca.

However, though Mendonca continues to hold fort, he has several times submitted to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar that he should be shifted elsewhere in view of his differences with Bhujbal.

Mendonca's grievance is that while, on the one hand, he is responsible for law and order in the metropolis, on the other he has absolutely no role in the selection of his subordinates. ``When he does not have a team of his choice, it is wrong on the part of the government to expect better results from him,'' a senior police official said.

Mendonca was shocked when the DF government reappointed T K Choudhary as joint commissioner of police and posted at least half a dozen deputy commissioners of police without his knowledge. Choudhary had made specific allegations against Mendonca as well as Inamdar before the Central Administration Tribunal and, therefore, for administrative convenience, it was expected that the government would not post him under Mendonca.

On the appointment of deputy commissioners of police, Mendonca's contention was that all the new appointees were inexperienced and that they should have been given independent charge of the district and posted in Mumbai after some time. ``No doubt it is the government's prerogative to appoint any official, but it has been a convention to consult the commissioner of police before making any important appointments in the metropolis. For obvious political reasons, the Congress-led Democratic Front government has given a go-by to the practice,'' the police official said.

After Mendonca lodged an official protest with the Chief Minister, the new appointments were stayed for a brief period, but subsequently the orders were cleared without any change.

``Under such circumstances, we are facing a piquant situation at the cost of the peace in the city. While more than half-a-dozen Shiv Sena leaders have been killed, no visible steps have been taken to restore confidence, except holding a meeting with opposition leaders and police officials. The government will have to take a decision on Mendonca. Either shift him or give him full autonomy,'' a senior bureaucrat said.

Former Chief Minister Narayan Rane said that inspite of being an efficient official, Mendonca has not been able to meet the challenge posed by gangsters due to rampant political interfernce, while another former chief minister Sudhakarrao Naik remarked the entire police department has become helpless before gangsters.