New Delhi, May 31: B.S. Bassi, who drew a lot of flak in his twilight days as Delhi's police commissioner, was back in the news today with his appointment as a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) drawing him considerable ridicule online.
Bassi was administered the oath of office and secrecy by UPSC chairperson Deepak Gupta exactly three months after he retired as the capital's top cop in the middle of the raging row over police action at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Accorded the status of an "autonomous entity" by the Constitution, the UPSC is in charge of recruitment for central government posts at various levels and also has a say in matters relating to promotion and deputation. The commission is made up of a chairperson and 10 members. Bassi is the 10th member.
As news broke of his post-retirement posting, social media was abuzz with people terming the appointment a loyalty bonus.
Unforgiving of Delhi police for filing a case of sedition against JNU students on the basis of doctored videos under his watch, Twitterers noted that Bassi's "experiments with untruth" had paid off.
Filmmaker Ramesh Sharma quipped: "For exemplary servitude & use of doctored tapes you are hereby appointed to the UPSC to select spineless bureaucrats."
Another Twitterer wrote: "Finally Thanks note for Bassi Saab has come. He has been appointed as UPSC member. Reward 4 Bassi."
A third noted: "Bassi started preparing for UPSC from April 2015 and cracked it today".
Several posts suggested JNU students might as well give up hope of cracking the civil services exam with Bassi as UPSC member. "JNU students. Stop aspiring for UPSC jobs. Bassi saheb is there for six years," said one tweet.
Nagendar Sharma, the media adviser to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, tweeted in a similar vein: "By appointing BS Bassi as UPSC member is Modi govt ensuring the country does not need JNU educated civil servants till it is in power?"
Given Bassi's numerous run-ins with the AAP government in Delhi, many Kejriwal-baiters were preening over the appointment. One said: "Bassi has been inducted in UPSC to make sure that anarchic termites like #Kejriwal are denied entry in Wooden Grid of India to save its end." Before he became an activist and then a politician, Kejriwal was an Indian Revenue Service official.
Bassi had initially been considered for the post of Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission. But the very suggestion drew criticism with RTI activists openly questioning the government's commitment to transparency and probity in public life, forcing it to drop the idea.
Bassi is the second retired Delhi police officer to be rehabilitated in the past fortnight. Kiran Bedi, who had also been BJP's candidate for Delhi chief minister in the 2015 Assembly elections, was earlier made the lieutenant governor of Puducherry.
Both appointments have been made in the wake of the BJP's victory in the Assam Assembly elections. Government officials said the win had brought the political leadership at the Centre out of its defensive mode that had set in since the successive defeats in the Delhi and Bihar Assembly polls last year. More appointments are likely in the next weeks, especially in institutions under the HRD and culture ministries - areas that are key to the RSS agenda of cultural nationalism.
