No Power Struggle, Kejriwal Spends 3 hours at police headquarters

NEW DELHI: One year is a long time in politics, and seeing a smiling Arvind Kejriwal inside the police headquarters on Friday evening made the police-government standoff from AAP's first stint in power seem like a distant memory indeed.
The nearly three hours long interaction between the chief minister and police commissioner B S Bassi—who had refused to bow to Kejriwal's diktat to suspend three police station chiefs last year—signaled a willingness from both sides to work together for improving law and order in the city, especially with regard to women's safety. It also marked a thaw after repeated run-ins between AAP—the chief minister's party—and cops that started with an alleged liquor haul at a premises owned by relatives of Naresh Balyan, AAP's MLA from Nangloi, in the run-up to the elections.

A week ago, two AAP legislators were accused of inciting a mob to attack a police station in Burari. Then, during the recent assembly session, AAP MLAs had demanded that Bassi be summoned to the House to answer questions on law and order, and a day after this the police chief had held discussions with the Speaker, Ram Niwas Goel, in the latter's office.

Sources said Bassi had invited Kejriwal to the police HQ to understand the department's functioning, and the CM's positive response bodes well for the city.

Kejriwal arrived at the police HQ around 7pm and was shown a detailed presentation prepared by various police units. "There is no power struggle between me and Delhi Police. They made a detailed presentation and also showed their modernization projects, and we discussed several issues," Kejriwal said after the meeting, around 9.45pm.

The CM spent the first half hour discussing his agenda and seeking clarifications on various issues from the commissioner. He was then taken to the third-floor conference hall for the presentation that covered vigilance cell, police structure, PCR operations, crime branch, special cell and women's cell. However, with time running out, presentations on traffic and modernization could not be shown.

Bassi talked about police's initiatives for women's safety and curbing corruption. Kejriwal was seen smiling when Bassi told him about the WhatsApp helpline to which people can send videos and photos of cops demanding bribes. The CM had proposed this idea last year.

Kejriwal also met the special commissioners who head various police functions in the city.