TALL IDEALS, SHORT TENURES

It was not been an easy ride to the top for Rajesh Gupta, the recently-promoted Inspector General (Intelligence) in Madhya Pradesh Police. During his police career, Gupta has put his neck on the line on more than one occasion, including locking up a sitting minister for vandalism.

On November 30, 1998, Rajesh Gupta, the then Superintendent of Police of Sheopur district, received information that supporters of Congress MP and Labour Minister Ramniwas Rawat had gone on a rampage in Vijaypur, some 140 kms away. All because Rawat had been unable to secure a seat for himself in the just concluded assembly elections. Gupta started for Vijaypur immediately. Local Rameshlal Dhakre recounts the events of that day: “The vandals had not expected the police to arrive so quickly. Gupta personally arrested Rawat and when the leader refused to get into the police Jeep, he was physically pushed inside.” Rawat was made to spend the entire night in jail. As IG today, Rajesh Gupta still carries that reputation. “The more you think of political pressure, the harder it will be. I had decided the day that I joined the force that there would be nothing greater to me than the law,” Gupta tells TSI.

But it was not as easy as he makes it sound. Take his second posting in 1996 as ASP in Gwalior for example. Acting on information that fake silver coins were being circulated by local merchants, Gupta launched massive raids and recovered fake coins worth lakhs of rupees. The miffed merchants went on a strike and a great deal of pressure came upon Gupta. But in the face of popular support, there was little anyone could do.

Not that Gupta has not paid a price for making more enemies than friends everywhere he went. His average tenure at one posting has been just about ten months during his two decade long career. Gupta's son in fact had to change schools four to five times just to finish his first standard schooling. “Well, I had to pay some price for not making compromises. We anyway took an oath to serve wherever deemed necessary,” says Gupta. His detractors were so keen to keep him away from the action – that he has not been given any field postings for the last ten years.

The icing on this officer's cake is that his "oath to serve" is not restricted to just law and order. When associated with the Khandwa Zila Panchayat, he took on large scale work for water conservation in the region. His conservation efforts continue till date.