IPS Officer, Who Vouched for Ram Mandir, Now Offers to Campaign for BJP in 2019

Lucknow: After a provincial police services officer grabbed eyeballs for kneeling before Yogi Adityanath, another officer’s letter to the chief minister has stoked a fresh controversy.

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Home Guards, Surya Kumar Shukla, has written to CM Yogi expressing his ‘faith’ in BJP’s ‘works and ideology’. He has also pledged to build Ram Temple in Ayodhya and campaign for the saffron party.

“I have full commitment and faith in the works of your organisation and its ideology; I have served the people of different districts of the state and I am confident that I will be able to actively cooperate in giving further strengthen your ongoing efforts,” Shukla said in a letter dated July 23.

The officer, who is set to retire on August 31, has further requested the Yogi government to appoint him on posts like Planning Commission’s vice chairman and UP Pollution Control Board chairman as such top positions would help him effectively campaign for BJP ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“My pension post retirement will be enough for me and my family. After my retirement I would like to actively help you with the campaigning for 2019 Elections. The following posts (Vice-Chairman Planning Commission, Chairman Link Gramodyog Board, Speaker State Social Welfare Board and Chairman UP Pollution Control Board) are vacant under your government. By appointing any of these posts, I will be in a position to help you,” he wrote.

Earlier this year, a video of the 1982 batch IPS Surya Kumar Shukla had surfaced in which he was seen dressed in a black suit and was shown taking the oath with Azam Khan, head of the Muslim Karsewak Manch, along with a few others and chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

“We Ram-bhakts, today, as part of this programme, take this pledge that at the earliest, the Ram Mandir be constructed. Jai Shri Ram,” the video showed him saying.

Following this, the officer had come under criticism for participating in such an event. However, Shukla, who hails from Rae Bareli, had said that he had done nothing wrong.

“I was taking a pledge to create an atmosphere of harmony. The video that has gone viral is an edited version and portions have been deleted deliberately to create mischief. It is misinterpretation... The matter related more to creating a peaceful environment for the construction of the temple rather than construction itself,” he had said.