Delhi Police coming under AAP government will be unfortunate: Top cop BS Bassi

NEW DELHI: In his strongest assertion amid his ongoing tussle with the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation, top cop B S Bassi today said it would be a "very unfortunate" day in the history of the capital if the Delhi Police comes under the city government and its functioning under the Centre's jurisdiction was "perfect".
"It will be a very unfortunate day in the history of Delhi. As a citizen of Delhi I can say it would be a bad fortune for Delhi. They (AAP) have the right to make a political demand. It is political posturing. And as a citizen of Delhi I have the right to say this is not right for Delhi citizens," Bassi said.

Justifying his point, he said that under the present arrangement where it is under the Union government, it does not have to face any "local vested interest" as the Prime Minister or Home Minister have no stake here.

"The present system is the best. No Prime Minister has any vested interest in Delhi unless belongs to Delhi. I have not seen any PM having any local interest in Delhi during my long career.

"Every Prime Minister would want progress of Delhi but he will not have any local vested interest. Generally any Home minister also will not have any local vested interest in Delhi," he told PTI in an interview.

He went on to add that any sort of tinkering with the current structure would be "injustice" with the residents of the capital as the force has "reasonable autonomy" now.

"And any tinkering would be injustice with the people of Delhi as police would not strengthen rather weaken due to this. If you tinker and place it under the city government local vested interests would come into play. I have worked in Goa, Pondichery on that basis I can say local vested interests would definitely be created if it comes under the city government," he said.

On the question of AAP government mulling a referendum on the issue of statehood, he said the move would be "unconstitutional".

"Any referendum under the Indian constitution is unconstitutional. Indian constitution does not permit referendum as it stands today and unless it is amended it is not permissible. It shall be an unconstitutional act," he said.