IPS officer Sandeep Tamgadge Sunday claimed the rise of a "new kind" of nationalism, which he said is based on subjective perceptions.

Speaking at the 'Madhukarrao Tamgadge memorial' scholarship programme 2019-20 here, Tamgadge, who serves as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Nagaland, also questionned "silence" of a section of Dalits on the issue of the freedom of speech.

He was the Investigating Officer (IO) in the alleged fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati, and alleged murder of Shaikh's wife Kausar Bi. He had also served as the superintendent of police, the CBI, Nagpur region.

"A new kind of nationalism is going on wherein people are defining it as per their own interpretations," he told the gathering.

Observing that a "nationalist environment" is building up in the country in the last 10-15 days, Tamgadge narrated his own example wherein he was questionned about his "patriotism" by a person, after the IPS officer asked him to desist from sending loaded messages on the social media.

"My father had served in Army for 30 years. I went to a Sainik School, and now I am in Nagaland cadre for the last 17 years. Against this background, some person doing business in Mumbai questions me about my nationalism," he lamented.

Tamgadge said a large number of Dalits who secured government jobs have closed themselves up.

"They have lost their right to freedom of speech. We should not limit ourselves so much that we cannot even speak out what is in our heart," he said.

Tamgadge claimed that a few senior government officials purposefully gave a miss to this programme claiming that my events are "political" in nature.

"If you are so scared, then from tomorrow stop saying 'Jai Bhim'. This is bluff and treachery against B R Ambedkar. They are so much afraid to attend the programme fearing that their jobs might come under cloud. This is wrong," he claimed.

Senior broadcast journalist Ravish Kumar was the chief guest at the programme, where a total of 50 needy girls were given cheques and school articles.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)