Any crusade against graft in the backdrop of corruption eating its way deep into our collective life hogs the spotlight nowadays, courtesy media. However, there are people holding exalted positions in the administrative/police hierarchy whose names sink into oblivion despite their having done monumental service to the nation. This is because of the fact that they do not jockey for media glitz.
One of them is Jasvir Singh. He is among the few Indian Police Service officers who have declared details of their properties in public. Several IPS officers followed his lead later. He waged relentless war against graft involving the high and the mighty. He incurred the wrath of the power-that-be for his ‘boisterous adventurism’.
Notably, he was right in the eye of a storm after he started exposing the dreaded don Raja Bhaiyya bit by bit. He was promptly transferred. A 1992 batch IPS officer, he took a break from police duty when he was the principal of police training school based in Gorakhpur a few years back to take up the public cause more effectively, thus being shorn of the khaki uniform. He is now planning to file a public interest litigation in the court pinpointing anomalies in the rehabilitation of the 2013 disaster victims in Uttarakhand.
This correspondent had talked to him at length on the strength and weakness of the country’s police system when the IPS officer was in Tehri. He had his maiden posting in Moradabad as DSP. Since, he kept on moving from city to city till he was posted in Allahabad as SP, City. The real challenge of his career, however, began when he became Pratapgarh SP in 1997. He started collecting evidences against the don Raja Bhaiyya. He was transferred to lalitpur. Unfazed by the Government frowning on him, he took actions against a leader there too. The alarmed administration wasted no time in shunting him to Gonda.
His invincible honesty proving a thorn in the flesh of those running the show, he was again transferred to Gazipur. Things continued as he was transferred to PAC 39 Battalion, Mirzapur. Sickened with his being kicked from post to post as a ‘reward’ for his indomitable zeal to set things right, Singh opted for CRPF on deputation. On his return, after another spell of postings and transfers, he was made SSP, Muzaffernagar. Singh moved petitions against the then CVC P J Thomas and Amar Singh. Both were removed later.
Jasvir Singh feels moral education holds the key to emancipating the system from the scourge of corruption. Education system should be adequately spruced up to help the nation stem the rot. Even a plethora of anti-corruption legislations would not help a bit unless those who formulate and enforce them are themselves honest. “It is not too late. The nation must rise to the occasion to take bull by the horns and rid the system of the cankers now spreading wings in every realm of our collective life,” Singh affirmed.