Carpenter blaming his own tools

Bal Thackeray is on soft ground when he criticises Sachin Tendulkar for saying that he is an Indian.

Carpenter blaming his own tools

Bal Thackeray is on soft ground when he criticises Sachin Tendulkar for saying that he is an Indian.u00a0 Hasan Gafoor is at a similar disadvantage when he criticises his own juniors, something a good leader should never do. It is almost like a carpenter blaming his own tools when his work is not appreciated.

The four officers, who were targeted by Gafoor, are some of the most competent in the department. Of three of them I can say without hesitation that their integrity is totally above board and certificates can be issued to that effect.u00a0 It is therefore surprising, almost suicidal, for Gafoor to have faulted them for something which in fact he himself was responsible.u00a0

K L Prasad is one of the finest officers that the Maharashtra Police can boast of.u00a0 Unfortunately, Gafoor never trusted him. He was unnecessarily suspicious about Prasad's loyalty. Prasad had met me and moaned that his immediate superior was wary of him for reasons he could not understand. Possibly, Gafoor felt that a group of good officers had advocated the appointment of Sivanandhan as Commissioner of Police of Mumbai when the post fell vacant. Gafoor was a couple of years senior to Sivanandhan and was lobbying for the appointment and did not like the parallel lobbying in favour of his competitor, who on merits could have supplanted him.

Since I had an identical problem with my own Commissioner when I was the number two in the Mumbai City Police in 1980, I knew exactly what Prasad was facing. This outstanding officer was led to approach the Chief Minister, just as I had done 30 years earlier, for a shift from the Commissionerate since the working atmosphere was vitiated by a hostile and suspicious chief!

Venkateshan, Deven Bharti and Paramveer Singh were comparatively junior to Prasad, but they too were suspected of being pro-Sivanandhan which may or may not have been true but did not really matter once the Government's decision was known. They were outstanding officers and a good leader would have made maximum use of their qualities to provide a good administration and enhance his own personal reputation. That Gafoor did not do so only reflects on his own failings.

During the height of the 26/11 attack, I phoned Prasad on his mobile and asked where he was deployed. As the officer in charge of Law & Order and the virtual number two in the Commissionerate the entire leadership of the operation against the terrorists should have been divided between him and his chief.u00a0 One of them, preferably the Commissioner, should have been in the Control Room to direct operations and when the chief moved out to inspect his troops on the ground This is the usual and time tested arrangement which Gafoor seems to have jettisoned because of his own fears and suspicions. He went and planted himself in front of the Oberoi Hotel and ordered Prasad to station himself outside the Taj! This was an arrangement which was both ridiculous
and laughable.

I also spoke to A N Roy who was then the DGP. Since Gafoor was by nature a low-key individual who neither liked to be seen nor heard I urged Roy to fill this void which was making the citizens nervous and forcing them to question "Who is in charge?"

u00a0The Commissioner of Police in the old presidency towns of Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Madras (now Chennai) was independent of the State Inspector General of Police (now Director General of Police) in operational matters.

As Commissioner of Police of the city, I knew that I was in charge and I would have been seen and heard by the people whom I was supposed to serve and who would be wanting to know what was happening and what I was doing about it. That Gafoor did not think it necessary or expedient to do so is a decision he made on his own and was probably commented upon by the Pradhan Committee in its report.

My main objective in writing this piece is to restore the honour and prestige of the four outstanding officers, who have been named by Gafoor and also restore the honour and prestige of the Mumbai city police who would have fared much better on 26/11 and the two succeeding days if they had a good leader at
the helm.