Less than six months after he retired as Inspector General in Uttar Pradesh Police, Kavindra Pratap Singh is now the VHP’s ‘Kashi Prant’ chief.
A recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service, Singh served most of his career in the region where he will now look after the affairs of the Parishad – an outfit that, he says, distinguishes itself due to how it “worked without making too much noise”.
While there have been instances of retired police officers joining political parties before – including Minister of State for Social Welfare Asim Arun, who contested and won the recent Assembly elections on a BJP ticket from Kannauj, after taking voluntary retirement – this is a rare instance of one of them joining the VHP, a hardline Sangh Parivar-affiliated outfit more in news for activities bordering taking the law into its own hands.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Singh said his focus would be promoting “unity in society” and inculcating “our culture and traditions” in youths through “sanskaar shalas (culture classes)”. Indicating that he had already started participating in such activities of the VHP, he added: “We need to tell them (the youth) that they shouldn’t get influenced by Western culture, and instead follow our ideals. Also, the country must be served.”
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com . Read the full story here
