• MUKESH BHARDWAJ: There is an increasing trend of politicians victimising government officers. Do you agree?

Independence of the bureaucracy is extremely important. Very few officers have the guts to put their foot down and take inconvenient decisions. Most of the officers are reduced to merely taking notes and acting at the behest of politicians. Every time a new government takes over, one finds a long list of postings and transfers in the newspapers. The ability to speak the truth is almost crushed, partly due to the power of transfers vested in the government. One way out of this could be that officials are given fixed tenures.

• GAUTAM DHEER: Do you think one can be a DGP of a state or get any other top-post in the government without any political patronage?

If it’s Punjab, the answer is no. In other states, it’s possible.

• HARPREET BAJWA: Punjab police had started a system of surrendered militants acting as informers during times of militancy. It had led to numerous controversies. What do you think of the practice?

There is nothing wrong with it. The police have always used criminals to detect crime. However, senior officers should stay within their limits and keep their men under control.

• MANRAJ GREWAL: Jammu & Kashmir Governor Lt Gen S.K. Sinha (Retd) has mentioned in a book that he had planned Operation Bluestar in a manner which could have reduced the number of casualties. Comment?

The year 1984 (when Operation Bluestar took place) was a strange period. When the situation deteriorated, the Punjab police refused to flush out Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his men from the Golden Temple complex. The Border Security Force too refused and it was only then that the task was given to the Army. It was a difficult operation and the Army has its own methods. Gen Sinha is a very wise person. But the atmosphere was surcharged and tense then: a large section of Sikhs across the country were mesmerised by Bhindrawale. I was in Assam in 1984, and my introduction to Bhindrawale was by a driver in Guwahati who had put on his audio-cassette in the car. I could not bear it for even two minutes. My blood started boiling. Sikhism was never meant to be as described by him.

... contd.