Galhotra’s merit matches perfectly with Raje’s political need for a backward class officer for the top post
In normal course, it’s difficult to supersede three senior officers in a row to pick a choice. But in case of Om Prakash Galhotra, chief minister Vasundhara Raje didn’t hesitate in naming him the top cop. She rewarded merit over seniority. And placing the best man on job is likely to boost not only the morale of state police but also the poll prospects of BJP.
Raje, known for using her political acumen to the best while deciding the top postings, has once again played a master stroke. Galhotra, a competent officer from backward community will brighten chances of BJP penetrating deep into the vote bank of backward castes. In this tenure she performed this trick twice. First in 2016, she reached out to the strong Meena community - a traditional Congress- by appointing Om Prakash Meena as chief secretary. And now again she picked another Om Prakash to attract loyalty of backward classes. However, Galhotra doesn’t want to be labelled as a backward class officer. He prefers to contest on merit. Also unlike OP Meena, he doesn’t nurse any political ambition. When members of Rajak community approached to honour him, he plainly refused. He wants to be play it on merit only.
Galhotra’s outstanding service record just helped her in firming up the decision. Raje knows that the year ahead would be challenging for her, both in terms of maintaining general law and order situation and carrying out elections peacefully.
Incidentally, police force is also undergoing through tough situations. It needs a strong leader to boost the sagging morale of policemen, who are agitated over wage cut. There had been ugly incidences of indiscipline which had brought bad name for the force, specially when a section of jawans went on a mass leave skipping their duty of giving guard of honour to union home minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to Jodhpur. Besides that, he will have to maintain harmony among various castes. While there have been agitations against Padmavati movie, Gurjars too are readying for a fresh protest to press their decade old quota demand after the High Court puts a stay on government’s decision of providing them 5% reservation.
In over 30 years of service, Galhotra has spent half the time on central deputation in CBI. This indicates his strong mental makeup and extra ordinary intelligence gathering skills.
“CM needs a tough cop to overcome challenges which are lined up. With his exposure in CBI, Galhotra is equipped to deal with such situations, said a police official, who had worked under Galhotra.
Seniority overlooked
Navdeep Singh, a 1981 batch officer was probably overlooked as his wife Param Navdeep has been Congress MLA
Kapil Garg: a 1982 batch officer was neglected as RSS is believed to be against his candidature. During Dargah bomb blast in 2007, he linked it with Hindu terrorism
Sunil Kumar Mehrotra: a 1985 batch officer turned down as Galhotra outshines him in overall performance.
On Central duty
Candidature of two other senior officers from Rajasthan cadre were not considered.
K. K Sharma: a 1982 batch officer, he is already heading BSF
Sudhir Pratap Singh: a 1983 batch officer, he is DG National Security Guard, retiring in January 2018 1
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