Sushilkumar Shinde & RK Singh always shared uneasy relationship, Dawood talk an extension of old war

NEW DELHI: Behind former Home Secretary RK Singh’s outburst against Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is a six-month-long cold war between them that began with the Nirbhaya rape protests to only abate with Singh’s retirement last June.

The first point of conf lict between them, a number of ministry officials confirmed to ET, was Shinde’s “unhappiness” over the Delhi Police handling of the Nirbhaya rape protests in December 2012.

With Singh firmly siding with the then Police Commissioner and his counterpart from Bihar, Neeraj Kumar, and both also holding a joint press conference to justify the police action, the no-nonsense Home Secretary had managed to irk his ‘politician’ Home Minister.

Shinde recently even conceded that he had “scolded” Kumar and Singh during that episode, a version that Singh privately contests.

Matters came to a head between them on Afzal Guru’s execution last February. Though it was a done deal in government to keep the execution secret, Shinde told ET at an earlier occasion that he had asked Singh to ensure Afzal’s family was made aware of the impending execution.

However, a speed post letter ultimately reached the family much after Azfal was executed, creating a political furore in Kashmir. The PM also expressed his unhappiness to Shinde on this point.

“You cannot work in government by putting a gun to one’s head…we have to listen to people,” Shinde had told ET then, pointing to the hawkish style of Singh’s working, when asked on his uneasy equation with Singh soon after the latter’s retirement.

Shinde then did not even shy away from saying that he “had sent a message” to Singh by appoint ing Home Secretarydesignate in Ani l Goswami nearly two months before Singh was to retire last June.

Singh, a home ministry official said, considered this as a “humiliating move” towards him as Shinde wanted all files to be routed to Goswami too.

Singh’s open disagreement with CBI’s decision to prosecute Intelligence Bureau officers in the Ishrat Jahan case, just before he hung his boots, was his farewell flash-point with Shinde.