‘Kamte Ka Danda, Solapur Thanda’

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s angry tiff with a young female police officer has been followed by countless messages deploring his outburst. Moreover, there are many who have demanded to know if a minister has authority to challenge police action in this manner. Though all political leaders dish out sage advice that the administration should be left to free to operate, very few behave accordingly. Actually, there are frequent interferences by political leaders in the working of the bureaucracy. Pawar’s show of ire has revived the memories of a stern action taken by daredevil IPS officer Ashok Kamte many years ago in Solapur where he was posted at the time. Situated along the Maharashtra border with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Solapur is a town where multiple languages are spoken. Some bigwigs from the two states reside in Solapur. One of them was Ravikant Patil, a Janata Party MLA from Indi in Bijapur district of Karnataka. One night, the police received a complaint that deafening noise was being created by firecrackers at Patil’s bungalow late in the night to celebrate his birthday. When a police party reached there to halt the disturbance, Patil became aggressive. Learning this, Kamte rushed to the spot and tried to reason with Patil but instead had to face a violent response. Enraged, he caught Patil by collar and dragged him to the police station. ‘Kamte ka Danda, Solapur Thanda’ became the norm in Solapur till he was there. Unfortunately, Kamte was killed along with Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar, two other ace police bosses by Pakistani terrorists during the 2008 Mumbai attack. His memories still linger.