Officers who praised IPS Sangeeta Kalia’s courage and the one who calls her transfer a political decision

TV garb as the spat continued between IPS Kalia and minister Vij

A FEW IPS officers, the IPS association and a large number of common men and women took to social media sites on Saturday to support 2010 batch IPS officer Sangeeta Kalia who was transferred a day after a video clip of her public spat with Haryana health minister Anil Vij went viral. A few officers however indirectly supported minister Vij in this Neta-Vs-Babu saga. Before talking about who all supported the young IPS, and who were on the minister’s side, let’s first present here the excerpt of the spat in a public meeting that was held on Friday in Fatehabad, Haryana:

Minister: You are getting liquor sold like this
SP: No sir, I am not getting liquor sold. This is a wrong thing to say. You cannot humiliate like this.
Minister: Go from here. Get out from here! Leave!
SP: Why? I will not leave. What is this?
Minister: You will not leave? Then I'll leave.
Superintendant of Police Kalia stood her ground and minister Vij left the meeting mid-way. On the next day, the Fatehabad SP was transferred as the commandant of the 4th Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) in Manesar, a relatively inconsequential post.
IPS Association came out in support of the officer, someone who was daughter of a painter and struggled her way up to do post-graduation in economics and then become an IPS officer.
“We expect IPS officers to be treated with dignity when they uphold law. In solidarity with Sangeeta Kalia; salute her courage #sangeetakalia”, IPS Association posted a bold and straight message in Twitter.
In fact, Ms Kalia aspired to be like Kavita Chaudhary, someone who played the role of an IPS officer in a popular TV serial called UDAAN that was aired in 1990s, according to her earlier interviews to newspapers.
A couple of women IPS officers -- Esha Pandey and Rema Rajeshwari who are highly active in social media, supported their colleague, but there were officers who indirectly supported the minister instead. “More power to you girl!!! #IStandWithSangeeta #sangeetakalia #SPFatehabad” Ms Pandey twitted.
 Kiran Bedi, India’s first woman IPS, refrained from supporting the IPS Kalia. “According to this Video the Minister overreached publicly. And the transfer of the SP is a political decision”, she tweeted. Bedi, who was BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Delhi earlier this year, would have probably taken a different stand, had Haryana been ruled by a non-BJP government.
Then, many had waited to hear the stand of Ashok Khemka, 1991 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer who himself was a victim of politically-engineered abrupt transfers. Finally, he tweeted and supported the minister. “Was Minister giving illegal order to SP? When public good is involved, politicking on spat is not conducive to making policing responsive”, she said.