Remembering M M Singh - the legendary DGP of Gujarat

It was said of M M Singh, DGP Gujarat from 1987 to 1989, that whoever went to meet him returned monkey-faced - red with rage and embarrassment, making his detractors call him Maha Musibat Singh.

- SATISH KUMAR SHARMA

My own experience was slightly better.

In September 1988, I was waiting for a regular posting after my practical training as an IPS officer in Ahmedabad District. One day, the SP told me that I was to meet the DGP the next morning.

When I met him, Singh recalled my letter requesting him to discourage the display of photos of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in police stations for it hurt the police's secular image. He dismissed my objection as supercilious and after a few perfunctory questions about my training, asked, "What are you reading these days?" I said, "Fiction." "What in fiction?" "I said, "War and Peace!" "That's a classic, not fiction", he said and apparently unimpressed, waved me away.

Later I learnt that I had blown an opportunity for Singh was sizing me up for posting as SDPO Gondal, in Rajkot district, where at the peak of Patel-Darbar rivalry, MLA Poptatbhai Sorathia, a Patel, had been shot dead by a Darbar youth during the Independence Day function at a school.