The Lehman link to Ayodhya security ring

NEW DELHI: Are stints in Lehman Brothers and Nomura Bank as the global financial crisis unfolded good preparation for managing law and order in Ayodhya? That’s one among several interesting points about UP government’s Team Ayodhya, a three-member core team tasked with maintaining peace pre and post Supreme Court judgment. Ayodhya’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ashish Tiwari, from Madhya Pradesh, is an IIT Kanpur computer engineer, who worked in Lehman Brothers and Nomura till 2010.
The 36-year-old joined IPS in 2012 after his second civil services exam attempt. He will work with District Magistrate Anuj Kumar Jha, 38, from Bihar. Jha has a masters degree in public administration and joined the IAS in 2009. Both these young officers are recent arrivals in Ayodhya. Tiwari joined his post in June, and Jha in February.



The UP administration added some experience to youth by posting Additional Director General of Police, Ashutosh Pandey, 52, to Ayodhya. Pandey, a 1992 batch IPS, is considered an ‘Ayodhya specialist’. He had been posted as SSP in the town earlier and had camped in Ayodhya last year when a VHP Dharm Sansad and Shiv Sena gatherings had ratcheted up tension. “It is a highly efficient set of officers,” UP’s Additional Director General (Law and Order) PV Ramasastry told ET.

Tiwari and Jha, in their first Ayodhya postings, have been holding flag marches and meeting locals and political leaders. Ramasastry told ET that chief minister Yogi Adityanath has “directed all senior officers, of ADG and Inspector General (IG) level, to spend time in various districts to build confidence. “The CM did a nearly four-hour long review meeting last night. We had started the exercise of effective monitoring over a month ago,” Ramasastry said.

And even though the Ayodhya dispute goes back in time, since the judgment is coming in 21st century, there’s naturally a special social media operation. A social media cell has been set up in UP Police Headquarters in Lucknow and social media monitoring groups in various districts have been tasked to monitor posts.