Indrayanikaathi,
IK
in brief, was, as we wrote a while back, a product of times when we felt the
life- fluid ebb away from our frame, and Gopal painted the last leaf. It was
christened in a philosophical vein, after the Banks of Indrayani,
consecrated by ज्ञानेश्वर माउली , whose presence there is forever vibrant and
abiding, so we believe. Senior had then just graduated from an
Institution right on the Banks of Indrayani. We harboured a superstition that the
stay at the hallowed Alandi, will somehow rub off on him. We are happy to
report that though the magic did not get reflected in his grades, the belief
has not been belied at all, reinforced, if anything... To be more accurate, the
desired result emerged, and the cause is a matter of belief, conjecture if you like,
and to make an important Disclosure, Alandikars don’t share this enthusiasm about
the exalted status accorded to their own town. It’s a universal phenomenon, not
to worry. Mumbaikars will recall the running battles neighbours of our beloved Siddhivinayak
have with the Lord’s abode.
The nature
and contents of IK were not premeditated. To quote Lewis Carroll, " if you
don't know where you are going, any road will take you there". That's
derived from an exchange between the Cheshire Cat and Alice. So IK
took on a wayward nature, usually gravitating to Hindustani Classical, taking a
Worm’s Eye View of Artistes, taals and notes...........
So the first Post was the antai-establishment 'Where are the sleuths?' (and the
Last Post is played on the bugle, he, he, he...) 'Where are the Sleuths',
dwelled upon the methods of the Indian Police, namely their motto 'Conviction
by Confession', the narco-test being nothing but third degree interrogation in
a pseudo-scientific and a smug,respectable garb. We pointed out that this
tendency was manifest even to our erstwhile British rulers, and the 150 year
old Madras Torture Commission takes this observation on record.
Which brings us to another dimension of
bare-foot justice that activists demand on various occasions. Guaranteed
Conviction in 7 days, I sayyyy... Just look how astonishingly close the trial
in ‘Hunting of the Snark’ is, to the trial of Goswami and Friends’ dreams!
We just saw the good Samar
Khan movie Shaurya, modelled as it is on 'A few Good Men' and that's what impelled
us in the first place to write this post.
Enough literature exists to disabuse
anybody being taken in by the myths of the greatness and nobility of the armed
forces, mince, if you care...........It’s all built into the
system Sirrr!. The Forces represent a cloistered and opaque arena where the
Principles of Natural Justice are in perpetual coma, and the Generals'
egos have a free run, be it India or the US or Timbuktu. The only thing one may learn from the chaps is punctuality!
The
Textbook of this contrarian belief is the book Catch 22 by Joseph Heller,
pronounced the best book to come out of WW II. What an irony! The Best Text to
come of the Great War is not a ballad or a tale of gallantry, but a dossier on
the sliminess of the men donning shining brass! ....Hhhaa..(Sholay’s Asrani
style). You'll recall how Chaplain A.T.Tappman was persecuted for his critique
of General Cathcart's condolence letters. Accused of stealing a plum tomato and
cashiered! And if you think bah...! it's fiction! read on....
The
centre-piece of today's post, happens (happen?) to be the travails of someone
derisively called the 'ketchup Colonel'. This happened in 2003
AD, and we
allow one of our most reliable publications to elaborate,
verbatim:
CNN IBN dated 8th July 2010:
CNN IBN dated 8th July 2010:
A
CNN-IBN investigation in 2006 had shown that Col. Kohli did not follow
his superiors’ orders to kill militants apprehended in an encounter in south
Assam. He instead handed them over to civil authorities. While Kohli stood his
ground here, he could not resist the pressure from the top. Then GoC Maj Gen
Ravinder Singh was clear these men had to be (at least) shown as killed. So a
photo of men just lying around smeared with ketchup was passed off for
militants killed in an operation. Letters and taped conversation, all evidence
with the court, points to the same. Listen in to the conversation between
Maj Gen Ravinder Singh and his junior Brigadier Suresh Rao.
Brig
S Rao: Hello Gen Ravinder
Singh sir?
Ravinder Singh: Hello?
SR: Sir good evening. Suresh...
SR: So I said, I will just inform you ki kya hua hai (what has happened).
SR: You know that I had given him assurances on your behalf.
SR: Ki Bhai, don't worry about bodies. Kuch nahi hoga (Don't worry about bodies, nothing will happen).
RS: On your?
SR: On your behalf na sir, when you told me that.
RS: About what?
SR: Sir you know, that as far as the bodies are concerned. We'll not ask you.
RS: Haan Haan
SR: So after this what happened was... but this was done only when he was there. There was no other witness.
RS: Haan haan (ok)
SR: So I have... I have denied it.
RS: Good. Haan
While the Army and the Ministry of Defence initially agreed that Kohli could not take all the blame and should be reinstated with five years loss of service, they later changed their mind.
Ravinder Singh: Hello?
SR: Sir good evening. Suresh...
SR: So I said, I will just inform you ki kya hua hai (what has happened).
SR: You know that I had given him assurances on your behalf.
SR: Ki Bhai, don't worry about bodies. Kuch nahi hoga (Don't worry about bodies, nothing will happen).
RS: On your?
SR: On your behalf na sir, when you told me that.
RS: About what?
SR: Sir you know, that as far as the bodies are concerned. We'll not ask you.
RS: Haan Haan
SR: So after this what happened was... but this was done only when he was there. There was no other witness.
RS: Haan haan (ok)
SR: So I have... I have denied it.
RS: Good. Haan
While the Army and the Ministry of Defence initially agreed that Kohli could not take all the blame and should be reinstated with five years loss of service, they later changed their mind.
Well, Colonel Kohli did do something illegal, agreed, but we know how one
navigates under compelling circumstances, and The Colonel is not the sole
custodian and bearer of the Cross of Morality of Mera Bharat Mahaan. Given the circumstances, the Colonel has performed
to the dot, the duty of protecting life and liberty and has upheld the ideals
of humanity preached by Guru Nanak and every other saint. He is a Hero of our
times, and we suppose the Constitution envisaged protection of this sputtering
flame! This is indeed a rare episode of
its kind and given the glory bestowed by the hoi polloi on encounter specialists, one assumes that most officers
in placed like the good Colonel would have killed the quarry in cold blood, and
justified,... rationalised it, you know how.....The most tragic part of the
episode is that, leave alone restoring his rightful place in the Army, even
otherwise decent papers will preface his rank with the ugly sobriquet 'ketchup'
Funny eh....? Sister Jacobs of St. Xavier's used to say...we divested him of
everything, at least leave him with a proper name maan...the good name...ভালো নাম given to him by his parents beginning
from the letter the Book ordained...leave him with a shred of dignity yaar..,
in his dignity lives ours too. We as a community, (for which read ‘ when the other fellow is watching’),
will always try to be politically
correct, using polite substitutes for terms like 'deaf' or 'mute' or 'black'.
We don't watch our own word when the fellow is down, don't mind making him an
object of our mirth! What hypocrisy!
Hullowww....Any Emile Zola around for this Dreyfus?
Today
let’s cross our hearts
and take an oath
to make amends for what they did to the Brave-heart – mince no candle-wandle, not
to worry: just...let’s refrain from using the honorific, and call him just ‘Col. H.S.Kohli (retd.)’...इति .....
And
remember friend, there is no short-cut through the forest of the ‘Due Process
of Law’...!
Pardon us from again reproducing something prophetic from Alice in Wonderland: this is an amusing ploy from the original book:
|
(Poem #600) The Mouse's Tale Fury said to a mouse,
That he met in the
house, 'Let us
both go to law:
I will prosecute
you.-- Come, I'll
take no denial;
We must have
a trial: For
really this
morning I've
nothing to do.'
Said the mouse
to the cur,
'Such a trial,
dear Sir, With
no jury or
judge, would
be wasting
our breath.'
'I'll be
judge, I'll
be jury,'
Said cunning
old Fury:
'I'll try
the whole
cause, and
condemn
you
to
death.'
|
A Clarification:
A
reader asks us about the context of the following passage from the Asmita post:
ज्यांच्या करता हि उपजीविके चे साधन आहे, त्यांना जावू द्या ना! ते फार मोठे लोक! Johnny, Johnny , pudding
and pie, he , he , he , kissed the girls and made them cry, when Abu came out to play, little Johnny ran away!
The
full verse as you'll recall is 'Johnny, Johnny, pudding and pie, Kissed the
girls and made them cry. When the boys came out to play, Little Johnny
ran away!' It refers to the vanishing trick Raj Thackeray does when invited to
Azamgarh by Abu Azmi!
 |
| GENERAL RAVINDER SINGH AND BRIG. RAO |
 |
| COLONEL H.S.KOHLI |
 |
| Brave Maratha warrior (left) |
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