Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said the alleged victimisation of a section of IPS officers by the Gujarat government as reported in the media was a ‘matter of concern' but at the same time maintained that the Centre could intervene only if the any of the officers approached it.
Mr. Chidambaram was responding to a specific question at a news conference here on reports of the Gujarat government targeting some of the IPS officers. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley took exception to the remarks of Mr. Chidambaram and asked the Union government not to play the role of a big brother.
The remarks of Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Jaitley's response are in the context of reports about the Narendra Modi government's action against two senior IPS officers locked in a public confrontation with it over the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
To a question whether the Centre would intervene to resolve the crisis, Mr. Chidambaram said: “Rules do provide for the Central government to take certain decisions at certain stages but that stage has to be invoked by the officer concerned. If the officer concerned invokes the rule, certainly we will look into it.”
Responding to the Minister's comments, Mr. Jaitley said: “If officers of a State government are indulging in any indiscipline, it is for the State government to deal with them. The Central government is not the big brother that can intervene in these matters.”
