We Indians lionise Mangal Pandey for standing up to his British seniors, but when in the independent India a jawan speaks the truth, he is hounded out of the service. We Indians have become accustomed to hearing lies and telling lies.
The year was 1965. The Indo-Pak war was raging. An Indian Army truck came under the enemy fire. All soldiers inside the truck were blown up. Only the truck driver survived. The driver pondered over his miraculous escape. He concluded that he survived because he was destined to do something big. The truck driver returned to his village. Never married and lived at a temple. He single-handedly turned his village into a model village. Does the story sound familiar? It should because the Army truck driver is none other than Kishan Baburao Hazare popularly known as Anna Hazare! Clad in his trademark dhoti-kurta and Gandhi cap, the former Indian Army truck driver strides like a colossus today. He towers over Indian politicians.
Anna Hazare lives in a nondescript village Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district. But when the frail old man gives up food, mighty rulers tremble in New Delhi.
I am writing all that because I see another Anna in the making. He is Tej Bahadur Yadav, a BSF jawan who was dismissed for speaking the truth and now he sends shivers down the spine of Mr 56-inch also known as Narendrabhai Damodardas Modi.
As I write this piece, Tej Bahadur Yadav’s nomination papers have been cancelled by the Returning Officer on flimsy grounds. He was the Samajwadi Party’s candidate in Varanasi against Ganga Maiyya’s son Narendra Modi. And Modi is too afraid to withstand Tej Bahadur Yadav’s surgical strike. Therefore, getting his nomination papers cancelled was the easiest weapon available to the chaiwala-turned-chowkidar. The Varanasi contest was going to become an asli chowkidar versus nakli chowkidar poll. And the nakli chowidar chickened out.
I salute Tej Bahadur’s parents because they chose a befitting name for their dear son. The sacked BSF jawan is both Tej (sharp) and Bahadur (brave). When he was in the BSF, his video went viral. He complained against rotten daal in the BSF mess and accused his seniors of siphoning off ration money. Instead of punishing erring officers, the BSF dismissed the jawan for telling the truth. It is a case of shooting the messenger. In India whose national motto is Satymev Jayate, Tej Bahadur should have been rewarded for blowing the whistle. But he was fired for “indiscipline”.
We Indians lionise Mangal Pandey for standing up to his British seniors, but when in the independent India a jawan speaks the truth, he is hounded out of the service. We Indians have become accustomed to hearing lies and telling lies.
As an IPS trainee, I was attached to the BSF for 3.5 months in 1996. I was issued a BSF identity card. I have performed many duties with BSF jawans in the Kashmir Valley. I was inside a BSF camp when landslides stopped the Amarnath Yatra. I have patrolled Srinagar streets with BSF jawans. And I have lived in BSF bunkers along the LOC (Line of Control). These jawans are wonderful human beings living in conditions so harsh that civilians can’t imagine. But they are treated so badly. These jawans call BSF, BINA SAMJHE FANSE (trapped without information). Inside BSF kitchens, conditions are awful.
Instead of rolling pins (belan in Hindi), cooks use glass bottles! And capitalists and corrupt politicians are busy looting Rs 30,000 crore in the Raphale scam. Tej Bahadur Yadav comes from a family of freedom fighters. After his dismissal, he tills his land in Rewari, Haryana. Jawan has turned into a kisan. And Lal Bahadur Shastri gave the slogan: Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan. For the survival of India, we can’t afford to forget either Lal Bahadur or Tej Bahadur.
Jai Hind!
(Mr. Amitabh Kumar Das is a 1994 batch IPS officer. His views here are personal.)
