Meitei organisation demands removal of Biren Singh’s security advisor: Who is Kuldiep Singh?

Singh had been sent to Manipur as security adviser to the CM in the aftermath of violence in May.

The 1986-batch IPS officer of the West Bengal cadre was seen as the right 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 had told The Indian Express that Singh, who retired as CRPF DG in September 2021, was chosen by the Centre 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.

In fact, he is believed to be one of the few IPS officers to have a direct line with the Home Minister.

Shah was said to be particularly impressed with Singh’s leadership in the smooth conduct of the 2021 West Bengal polls, which have a history of violence. At the time, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP had exchanged words over the unprecedented number of Central forces personnel deployed for the elections. 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”.

During a visit to Manipur towards the end of May, Shah said Singh was not merely a security advisor but the chief of a Unified Command that would coordinate efforts of all security forces in an “unbiased” way.

It was also 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.)

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’,” an officer said, adding that his encouragement towards taking initiative and risks has 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.