Ungrateful People

The article below is an extract from the blog of Ravinar ( @mediacrooks ) titled, "Ungrateful People" - a topic made relevant by the current controversy and spat between the IB and the CBI on the Ishrat Jahan "encounter". The full article was posted on 20th July, 2013.

Please visit his very popular blog at http://www.mediacrooks.com for articles that will certainly educate you on the current unholy nexus between the media and political class in India.

Going back to the mid and late 80' when Punjab was gripped by fear and terror .....

To place the current goings on in a historical perspective, it is essential to go back in time to a not dissimilar crisis which confronted the Punjab Police wherein also, a vicious campaign of calumny, hostility and the litigation route was adopted as the most convenient strategy for vendetta against the police. This occurred after the Punjab Police had contributed in significant measure towards the latter part of the Punjab crisis of the 1980's and "peace" was "restored" in that state.

The case of the then SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu of the Punjab Police (somewhat reminiscent of Mr. Vanzara of the Gujarat police, now) and the classic statement of the then Punjab Police chief KPS Gill, unknown to most Indians, require to become a subject of national debate in the context of the "current trial by media".

SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu, during the 1980's, was perhaps the police officer most dreaded by terrorists in Punjab, after K P S Gill. A. S. Sandhu came into limelight for liquidating some top terrorists and restoring peace, particularly in the once terrorist hotbed of Tarn Taran police district in Punjab.

In 1997, nearly a decade after normalcy was restored in Punjab, Punjab Police personnel and especially A.S Sandhu began to be probed by the National Human Rights Commission and the courts, for their alleged excesses during the militancy. What were once touted as "achievements" suddenly became "excesses"? Reportedly, SSP A.S. Sandhu faced more than 40 cases of alleged excesses, killings and "stage-managed encounters".

On 23 May 1997, at about 11.05 AM, SSP A.S. Sandhu (52), threw himself in front the Kalka-bound `Himalayan Queen' and committed suicide; 20 km from Chandigarh. He left behind two daughters and a son besides his wife.

The police recovered a suicide note written by the deceased declaring: "Jalil ho ke jeen to changa hai mar jana'' (It is better to die than to live a life of humiliation).

By citing the above, no case is being made out for "immunity" for any member of the Gujrat Police. Nor is it being suggested that there will take place any "suicides". It is only to iterate that the investigations and trials be held, according to the laws of the land, and also considering the special circumstances that prevail in dealing with "Terrorism", while applying the statutes and also that trials should not proceed according to the processes that are seemingly being improvised on a day to day basis to implicate the Gujarat police personnel.

Two points before going on to KPS Gill's statement .

1. In 1997, when KPS Gill gave the u/m statement, "Low Intensity Wars" were being fought only in Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura. Having somehow dealt with the "Punjab Crisis", the national leadership should have taken note of the existing pattern of the "Low Intensity Wars" in the country, that could only be expected to grow in the future. Unfortunately, they did not and continued to dismiss them as "non-military threats" and the ill equipped police of the states and the Home Ministries (both of the states and the centre) dealt with them. The  result is that at present, the "Low Intensity War" Zone has got extended to an area stretching right from W Bengal, through Bihar, Odisha, Chattisgarh right down to Andhra and even Kerala( Maoists) ! But that is another subject all together. 

2. In 1997, when KPS Gill gave the statement, he spoke of "We are not far from the edge of the abyss". But, presently, we are perhaps in a state of free-fall in that abyss. That too is another matter altogether.

Now on to "Is namard desh mein paida mujhe kyon kar diya" [ Why was I born in this country where there are no men?] which is an excerpt from the classic statement of former Punjab Police chief KPS Gill  on the death of AS Sandhu.

Every word in the statement of KPS Gill, made way back in 1997 is very relevant and significant even. Those of "US" who were young Captains' and Majors' during the peak of the "Punjab Crisis" and were involved with it in one way or the other, would be able to better connect with the words of KPS Gill.

HERE'S THE CLASSIC STATEMENT OF FORMER PUNJAB POLICE CHIEF KPS GILL. READ IT AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF.

I have not called this press conference to express my grief at AS Sandhu's death. My feelings on this count are between his family and myself. What I have to say today is that we have already given up most of this country to criminals, to corrupt politicians, and to unscrupulous lobbyists who will work with any cause that serves their personal ends, whether criminal, political or secessionist.

Nonetheless, in a country dominated by those who prefer to criticise from the safety of their homes, or the comfort of air-conditioned debating societies at Delhi and Chandigarh, there are still a handful of people who are willing to risk everything including their lives and the lives of their family to protect the unity and integrity of their nation, and the lives of citizen's terrorised by an utterly unprincipled and merciless enemy. I can say without reservation that AS Sandhu was one such man.

Tarn Taran, at the height of terrorism was sometimes spoken of as the rocket that would propel Punjab out of the Indian Union. The terrorists influence was absolute; for years, it was virtually out of the control of the civil administration, and even the police had no more than a nominal and symbolic presence there.

It was in such a situation that I was looking for an officer who had the courage to mount an effective campaign against militancy in this militant heartland. I spoke to several officers, and each excelled in the invention of ingenious excuses to avoid the responsibility. When I asked Sandhu if he was willing to go to Tan Taran to put down terrorism, he accepted without hesitation. Some will say that he went there to exploit and enjoy the "power of the state".  But the state, when Sandhu went to Tan Taran, had no power there. I know that he was a hair's breadth away from death throughout his tenure in the district. I know he never compromised.  And yet, he achieved everything I could hope for.

Few, today, understand the significance of what happened in Tan Taran. Had we lost control over the district, Punjab's secession would have become an inevitability. Had we lost Punjab, Kashmir would certainly have followed. And once this process of fission began, every linguistic, ethnic and cultural group would have raised the standard of revolt. Pakistan would have been celebrating this 50th year of its independence through the realisation of its dream of a balkanised India. Delhi and its "think tanks" would have no hinterland to analyse and exploit. The unending supplies of electricity, food, water, and a cornucopia of goods that keep Delhi's elite in a state of luxury would have come to an abrupt end. And the Government and the Apex court of the land would probably have presided over a jurisdiction from "Delhi to Palam". Judges may have still continued to write erudite and exquisitely worded judgements. But they would have no relevance for this country. This country, as we know it, would no longer have existed. The fact that this scenario appears incredible today is testimony to the achievements of men like Sandhu.

All men are heroes in a time of peace. But those who are heading the self-righteous witch hunt against the officers and men of Punjab police today should ask themselves where they were hiding for 10 years when terrorists roamed free, unchallenged by any but the Punjab police and their comrades in uniform from other services -  and a handful of courageous farmers who would not succumb to terror? For 10 years the judiciary remained in a state of unmitigated paralysis in Punjab. Where was their commitment to justice then? For 10 years, the press published on the terrorists" diktat- with only a single exception that all of you know of. That is a long vacation for the "truth".

I am not here to defend corrupt or venal policemen. But the distortion and manipulation of legal process that is being resorted to by an utterly compromised "human rights" lobby cannot be supported. This lobby understands the nuts and bolts of the judicial engine, and knows every method of the orchestration of the media and the new tyranny of trial by the press. A police officer can effectively fight their designs only if he has a great deal of money to buy the best legal advice in the country; and only the corrupt have that kind of money.

A sustained campaign was carried out by the Human Rights lobby against A.S. Sandhu on the Goebbelsian Doctrine that an untruth repeated endlessly becomes the truth. He was supposed to have made a lot of money.

I do not, despite these circumstances, justify the action of a proud Jat Sikh committing suicide. But I understand the reasons. This is not the action of a coward unable to face the dangers of life. Sandhu faced more dangers during his tenure at Tan Taran than many brave men could in several life-times. It was not fear that drove him to death. I do not think that the man knew the meaning of the word, it was ingratitude.

It is not, of course surprising that having lost the battle for Khalistan through force of arms, the terrorists and their front men should have exploited the human rights angle to target men like Sandhu. What is unforgivable is that the nation he fought to defend, the people who he risked his life to protect, simply turned away in indifference or joined the crescendo against him, when such a plot was engineered; without checking the merits of evidence, without even giving him the opportunity of a fair trial. 

The Indian state must start educating itself on how it is to tackle individuals and groups trying to destroy the State. And it must learn how to arm and protect those who put their lives at stake in the defence of India's unity and integrity.

We are not far from the edge of the abyss.  Let this nation beware of the hour when no man will risk his life to protect another or to defend the nation, Josh Malihabadi once wrote, "Buzdilon ke ishq mein, shaida mujhe kyon kar kiya. Is namard desh mein paida mujhe kyon kar kiya". When men of courage begin to say this, all hope will die. No people who treat their heroes as we have done can expect to survive.

K P S Gill

Chandigarh

(Although the speech of KPS Gill has been reported in various sites, the full speech reproduced in the mail is not verified by me. Readers can make their own assessment and conclusions.)

---

We are rubbish. Literally.

By : Vandana Vasudevan

This article appeared in : the blogs of Vandana Vasudevan in The Economic Times
on Wednesday July 03, 2013

I have only one question : Why are we like this, only?

A British youngster calling herself “Garbage Girl” galvanises people around her in disaster struck Uttrakhand to clean up the place. In another part of the same unfortunate state, a German lady and her nine year old son quietly pick up plastic wrappers and cartons in an overcrowded relief camp.

Two Caucasians clearing up the mess Indians caused.

The Uttarakhand relief camp inmates would have been tired, ravaged, hungry and maybe we shouldn’t expect model public behaviour from them if well fed, prosperous families in hill stations don’t think twice about chucking a soda can into a verdant valley in the Himalayas. Last year, at the Formula one race in Greater Noida, where ticket prices start at Rs.3000, two couples littered chips packets on the grassy stands and looked at me like I was the freak when I pointed it out to them. Sure enough, a uniformed attendant whose job it was to clean up, appeared and picked up all the trash.

Perhaps that’s the problem, say some sociologists. Cleaning in Indian society has always been the job of a poorer low caste person and Indians therefore assume some such person will emerge and do it for us. That’s why we just don’t get the idea of keeping public spaces clean. Even in the villages of UP that are on the border of Delhi, it is the job of members of certain castes to sweep the village roads everyday. No other person belonging to other castes will do the job. This behaviour is so deeply entrenched that it stays on even if you’ve left the village, prospered in the city and bought yourself a bungalow in Defence Colony. 

Another theory as to why Indians stubbornly refuse to practice public hygiene is even more interesting. Sudipta Kaviraj, scholar of south Asian politics teaching at the University of Columbia has argued in a remarkable paper that studies filth in public spaces in Kolkatta, that this behaviour harks back to our colonial history. In the city, the municipal authority run by the British, was intent on shaping public conduct and making people subscribe to certain regulations. It installed blue metal boards with white lettering (still the preferred design for government boards) telling people how to behave. Boards which ordered “No spitting” or “No urinating” or “Commit no nuisance.” They were written in English, at that time an alien language. (Maybe even that possibly apocryphal, but horribly offensive notice “Dogs and Indians not allowed” was one such board.) So, such instructions evoke the spirit of that time- they convey the subjugation by a higher, resented power over the poor and the powerless. Defying is a sort of rebellion; a thumbing of their noses at someone telling them how to behave in what they see as their own space.

Or perhaps it is race? Are we just genetically hard coded to throw trash about irresponsibly? Like the two Uttrakhand girls who led by example, are Caucasians somehow hard wired to keep their surroundings clean while Indians are the opposite? I would be tempted to root for this theory, looking at how naturally public hygiene comes to even a two year old in the west. What stops me is that it is not just the western world but even the Japanese are intrinsically clean. Recently, Japanese children in a school grouped together to clean the school’s toilets. (Can you imagine the outrage a similar initiative in India will cause among Indian parents?) People who have worked in African countries like Tanzania and Nigeria say no one defiles public spaces there. So, it would be a bit of a stretch to imagine that evolution bestowed only Indians with the filthy gene. Most tellingly, Indians in other countries will meekly find a bin to throw their garbage in and even separate recyclable and biodegradable garbage wherever they are asked to by the law of that land. If we were “congenital litterbugs” as a British MP labelled us in 2008, then we wouldn’t be able to abide by cleanliness rules in other countries. Therefore, we don’t seem to be racially disadvantaged with respect to civic cleanliness.

So, what may be the problem?

I have a personal theory on what makes India a large trash can and this is consistently borne out by my observations of daily life whenever I am in the west. It is that in all the countries where public space is clean, people’s patriotism is not notional, it is real and practical. They think of their country as though it was one large home. This is not as simplistic as it may sound when you first read it. The next time you get a chance to travel to a “developed country” watch the common as they negotiate public spaces. The poorest mother living on social security dole instructs her child to throw the soda can into the bin, just like she would do in her own home. Even the homeless tramp with a big Alsatian holding a “end of the world is here” placard doesn’t mess up the corner he occupied. The patriotism in these citizens is active, meaningful and visible in everyday acts. Our so called patriotism is hollow. It only emerges during a cricket match. Whether this is a quality that can be taught or is ingrained is of course another debate. But I think there lies the answer as to why Indian cities are literally rubbish.

---