Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, an IPS officer turned politician and legislator was the poster boy of the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. Pratap had left his prestigious IPS service and resigned to join the AAP. He was nominated from Amritsar North where from he got elected with an impressive margin.
Having been born and brought up in Bihar, Singh after qualifying in the IPS was allotted Punjab cadre. Known for his exemplary and incorruptible integrity and honesty during his service, he was not known to compromise on principles. His stand on issues would at times be taken as his stubbornness. In 2017, during the Congress government he was once replaced as the Commissioner of Police, Ludhiana on the complaint of the local MP and the local legislators, who alleged that he was neither cooperative nor accommodative towards their concerns.
He still enjoyed credibility with the Capt Amarinder led Congress government, which appointed him to head the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Bargari sacrilege and related incidents. Given his integrity, he was considered to be one of the favourite officers of the Chief Minister, who had specially picked him up for the probing the sacrilege cases, which had shaken Punjab.
He was removed on the orders of the Election Commission of India, following a complaint by the Shiromani Akali Dal during the 2019 General Elections. Immediately after the completion of elections, he was again posted to head the SIT. However, the entire probe process suffered a setback when the Punjab and Haryana High Court rejected his probe report with some sharp observations. Kunwar was also accused of playing to the gallery.
Given the sensitivity of the matter and a public perception that he was being prevented from doing justice and bringing the real culprits to book, he enjoyed a lot of support and sympathy across Punjab, particularly among the panthic circles which were angry over repeated failures of the governments in fixing the responsibility for the sacrilege and punishing the guilty.
Rejection of his report by the High Court could not have come at a better time for him. Although it was quite embarrassing for the Congress government that the officer it dependent upon the most and who actually enjoyed a lot of credibility, had not been able to convince the court, the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh still stood by him. But Kunwar had other ideas. Nourishing political ambitions he saw an opportunity in the adversity and decided to resign from the service. Capt Amarinder rejected his resignation saying he was competent and experienced officer whose services were required the most. The AAP was gaining ground in Punjab. Since he had already made up his mind to cross over the fence from bureaucracy to politics, he persisted with his resignation, which was accepted.
He joined the AAP at a high profile function in presence of party supremo Arvind Kejriwal. It was indeed a boost for the party at that time. The AAP fielded him from the Amritsar North assembly segment, which he won by a huge margin of 28,111 votes. It was a unique result that a former IPS officer born and brought up in Bihar had won the assembly election from Amritsar in Punjab and that too with such a huge margin. While there was a sweeping AAP wave across Punjab, Singh’s personal integrity also added to the victory margin.
Since the cop turned legislator had nourished great political ambitions, he had expected to become a minister in the AAP government. For a while there was a buzz that he might even get the prestigious portfolio of Home Affairs, given his IPS background with incorruptible integrity. To his dismay and disappointment, he was not even inducted in the cabinet.
His disillusionment from the party, he had joined after resigning a senior IPS position, started from day one. The party also did not bother much about him for the obvious reason that it already “suffered” with the “problem of plenty” of MLAs. It had 92 in a house of 117. AAP is still left with 93, after suspending Kunwar. AAP added to its tally with some by-election wins.
Given his experience, integrity and competence, he thought he deserved to be a minister. Leave aside becoming a minister his plight was no different from all other MLAs. While the others could still manage their affairs, given their political experience, he could not “compete” with any of them in any way or any manner, since he lacked the “political experience and expertise” to get things done. Instead he adopted a confrontationist course towards his own government.
Being fair to the AAP, Kunwar did not leave any option for the party other than suspending him. The AAP has run the government with an iron fist without tolerating any dissent. Kunwar indulged in open rebellion and would not shy away from criticizing his own government publicly on various issues like justice in Bargari sacrilege or finishing drugs from Punjab and also action against political opponents. He had become a perennial “in-house” critic of his own government, which was embarrassing for the party, which eventually decided to suspend him from the primary membership for five years.
The AAP may not have come up to his expectations, but Kunwar also did not show any resilience or adjustment that political parties expect from its members, no matter from where they come or what positions they have held in the past. And at times, he did breach the party discipline also, by publicly criticising party’s decisions and referring to, what he thought were its failures. On one occasion, in recent past, he went to the extent of saying that if elections were held now, the AAP will not be able to win a single seat. Obviously no party will tolerate such indiscipline from any leader, irrespective of the fact whether he is right or wrong in his criticism. All the political parties have a common refrain about such situations that the leaders should use “party forum” and not public or media platform for airing any such grievances or issues they have.
Also Read: AAP suspends Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh for 5 years
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