Newsmaker | Kuldiep Singh: Trusted by Amit Shah, the conflict-hardened IPS officer who is Centre’s man in Manipur

But those who know the 1986-batch IPS officer of the West Bengal cadre say Singh, 61, may just be the man for the job – an officer not known to mince his words, and to keep his approach to the most complex of issues simple and straight.

Sources in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs say Singh, who retired as CRPF DG last September, was chosen by the Centre for the job due to his vast experience in conflict zones, spanning West Bengal’s Junglemahal and Darjeeling, to Chhattisgarh. His appointment, sources said, was done on a nudge from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who has been so impressed with Singh’s work that after then NIA Director Y C Modi retired in May 2021, Singh was given additional charge of the agency and continued to hold the dual responsibilities for more than a year.

Sources said Shah was particularly impressed with Singh’s leadership in the smooth conduct of the West Bengal polls, which have a history of violence, and that he is one of the few IPS officers to have a direct line with the Home Minister.
At the time, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP had exchanged words over the unprecedented number of Central forces personnel deployed. At a rally in Cooch Behar, the Trinamool Congress chief had said: “Keep an eye on CRPF personnel. Gherao them because they do not let people cast their votes.” The BJP had slammed the statement as “anti-national”.

Few were surprised then that when Shah visited Manipur towards the end of May, amid a second spurt of violence in the state, he announced that Singh was no more just a security advisor but the chief of a Unified Command that would coordinate efforts of all security forces in an “unbiased” way.

It was on Singh’s recommendation that senior IPS officer Rajiv Singh was appointed as the new DGP of Manipur. Neither of the officers, incidentally, has any prior experience of serving in Manipur.

Over his long tenure, Kuldiep Singh has notched up several successes. During his tenure as CRPF DG, he oversaw the building of over 100 forward bases in core Maoist areas in Chhattisgarh, with the force’s aggressive pursuit of ultras helping free several zones of Maoists. Just ahead of his retirement, the force was able to clear Budha Pahad area of Jharkhand, a Maoist stronghold for over a decade, and set up permanent security force bases there.

While he was handling the NIA, Singh speeded up probes into cases against Kashmiri separatists, as well as against NGOs and overground workers of militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir. (The period was marred by an embarrassing episode of an NIA officer, who was later arrested, allegedly leaking crucial Kashmir case papers to an accused.)

“Most of his career, Singh has been in conflict areas. When he was in Darjeeling, the Gorkha agitation was still on. During his posting in Cooch Behar, he dealt with the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation movement. He was IG (Naxal) in the West Bengal Police and when he came to the Centre as part of the CRPF, he was in Chhattisgarh for four years. He also handled the porous India-Bhutan border during his posting in the SSB (Sashastra Seema Bal) in Siliguri and the complex India-Bangladesh border as SP of North 24 Parganas in West Bengal,” a fellow West Bengal cadre IPS officer says of Singh.

The officer goes on to talk about Singh’s other skill, as a horse-rider, a hobby he picked up while he was in the Kolkata Police. “He has even won medals in police competitions,” says the officer.

Most of his colleagues in Bengal and the Centre say Singh is either adored or completely disliked by those working with him. “If he does not like your work or your way of working, he will tell you so, without being diplomatic. Some people feel he is too kadak (tough). But the leader of a force needs to be kadak sometimes,” says a colleague from the central force.

Another CRPF colleague says that given his experience in conflict zones, Singh also tends to be “hands on” and has great “clarity of thought”. “Most importantly, he was decisive. If he wanted to say no, it was an absolute no. If it was a yes, he would back the plan to the hilt… When we were clearing Budha Pahad or entering Chakrabandha Maoist zones (in Bihar), he never held us back and in fact egged us on to go further,” the officer says.

Many say as a leader he is more a “facilitator” than a “supervisor”. “He always asked what we wanted in order to get the job done and would make sure it was provided. He also never came with any preconceived notion or with the idea that ‘I know it all’,” says an officer, adding that his encouragement towards taking initiative and risks paid off.

However, there were also drawbacks to this. Like in April 2021, when a large contingent of the CRPF that had gone to a Bastar village on intelligence of Maoist presence was ambushed on the Sukma-Bijapur border in Chhattisgarh. As many as 22 jawans died while 31 were injured. The intelligence was later found to be misleading.

At a personal level, Singh, the son of a small farmer from Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district, is popular among colleagues for his earthy sense of humour. “He often tells stories from his own life and career with all their flaws. He has the ability to laugh at himself. He also takes interest in the lives of his subordinates,” says a colleague.

While he might be the right man for the job by all accounts, Manipur is perhaps the biggest challenge of Singh’s career. The violence has now stretched on for close to 60 days, while Singh has the task of steering a police force that is itself divided along ethnic lines.

“The good thing is that Singh knows his limitations. He has told us not to focus on the larger problem, which we can’t solve. We are thus managing ‘events’ and not the ‘situation’,” a senior Manipur security establishment officer said.