Who Is D Roopa Moudgil? The IPS Officer Who Is Trending For Firecracker Ban

Senior IPS officer D Roopa Moudgil has been trending on Twitter since the past few days. The reason behind it was that she had written a Facebook post which condemned bursting of crackers on Diwali. She said that there’s ‘nothing Hindu about crackers’ and that bursting of them should be done away with. Moudgil was at loggerheads with a Twitter user who questioned her stance. A war of words broke between her and the user, who goes by the name ‘True Indology’, who seems to be a staunch right wing propagandist. However, the account has been suspended by Twitter.

“Crackers came in to this country with Europeans. It is no core-tradition or custom related to Hinduism. And one acquaintance tad doubtfully asked me, is it true that majority of the people who manufacture crackers are Muslims? Well, I remained silent just focusing on what makes people get a distasteful, sadistic pleasure on violating rules,” she wrote in a tweet. She added, “There are many ways to celebrate Deepawali. Light diyas, meet people, exchange mithai…but no, adamant people only want crackers. How unreasonable!”

Finally,u r agreeing to wht I said. That's exactly wht I said tht ancient scriptures don't have any mention of crackers. They didn't exist then.Tht makes it more a social practice. So how does cracker ban become anti-hindu/ religion per se? Ur apology is pending yet .@TIinExile https://t.co/BpxZe7GdkW

— D Roopa IPS (@D_Roopa_IPS) November 16, 2020

Get to know 10 things about this first lady IPS officer of Karnataka.

• Roopa Divakar Moudgil, commonly known as D. Roopa, was born in Devanagere. She completed her graduation from Kuvempu University Karnataka with a gold medal. Later, she achieved a post-graduation in MA in psychology from Bangalore University.
• In 2003, she married IAS officer and IIT alumnus Munish Moudgil and has two children, Anagha and Roshil. She currently stays in Bengaluru.
• She cleared UPSC in the year 2000 with an All India Rank 43. She was ranked 5^th in her training batch at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad and thereby allotted the Karnataka Cadre.

Also Read: IPS Officer D Roopa Moudgil Becomes First Woman Home Secretary Of Karnataka

• Moudgil was posted as Superintendent of police (SP) in Dharwad district, north Karnataka. She also served as SP in Gadag district, Bidar and also in Yadgir district.
• She was selected by Israel Foreign Ministry for promoting ties between India and Israel. She was part of "Discover Israel delegation" after her selection.
• The IPS officer is well versed with Hindustani Classical music. Moreover, she is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer. She had released a music video on 2018's International Women's Day as an inspiration for women.
• Notably, she became the first lady police officer in the nation in 2013 to head the Cyber-Crime police division.
• Moudgil was awarded the President's Police Medal in 2016 and then again in 2017.

Also Read: Who is Lipi Singh? The IPS Officer Being Compared To ‘General Dyer’ After Munger Shooting

• More recently, she became the first woman officer to be appointed as the Home Secretary to the Government of Karnataka and will replace Umesh Kumar, a 1995 batch IPS officer.
• She has always fearlessly taken up cases involving politicians and senior IPS officers in her career, making headlines on exposing biases at the jails. She has been transferred 41 times in 20 years, but still has worked courageously.

Shikha Chandra is an intern with SheThePeople.TV