With Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Law Minister HR Bhardwaj meeting to decide on the steps that the Union government could take based on the semi-official diary kept by Gujarat Additional Director General of Police RB Sreekumar during the course of the riots, the Narendra Modi government has gone into overdrive to question the authenticity of the diary. With the possibility of the diary being used as the basis for a CBI investigation into the role of the administration during the riots, the bureaucrats of the state are now going out of their way to be their master’s voice.

The diary has been presented before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). Within days of the diary being presented, Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah questioned its authenticity by stating that the diary could be a “fabricated” one. Perhaps, not satisfied by this effort, he then contradicted himself by claiming that “the diary which Sreekumar possessed could be his personal one and not semi-official.”

Anandvardhan Yagnik, Sreekumar’s lawyer, says, “The diary was issued by then IG (Administration) OP Mathur and Sreekumar filled up 67 pages out of 207 because rather than written instructions, oral directions of a sensitive nature were being given. Therefore the police officer concerned was expected to keep a record of compliance. The real issue is that the directions were not met.”

But rather than respond to such crucial issues, Director General of Police AK Bhargav also decided to prove his loyalty to the ruling regime. He told the media that the police doubted the veracity of the contents as it was against the police manual for an official of Sreekumar’s rank to maintain such a diary. He then wondered why Sreekumar had not produced the diary “for the past two years and why he has come forth with it now”.

Shaktisinh Gohil, a high court advocate and Congress spokesperson, says, “It is clear that the officials are dancing to the tune of the state government. The DGP’s view on Sreekumar’s diary is not his independent view but the Modi government’s view.’’  “The state government is yet to file a formal reply before CAT, therefore any comment on the diary is totally uncalled for and particularly a person like DGP should not have made such a comment,” Yagnik adds.

(Source: Tehelka)