Book Review [126] : The British, the Bandits and the Bordermen

I was not into the biographies of Police Officers and then i found this gem. 'The British, the Bandits and the Bordermen' is a biography of one of the finest police officer produced by this country - Khusro Faramurz Rustamji. He remains till date the only Indian Police Officer to have received the Padma Vibhushan - the second highest civilian award conferred by Indian government. 

Rustamji was born in a well to do Parsee family in 1916. He joined Indian Police at the young age of 23 and by 26 he became the Superintendent of Police. He played a key role in crushing the 1942 Quit India movement in central Provinces though with a moderate use of force. After Independence he played his part in Operation Polo of 1948. He enjoyed great proximity of Nehru when he was his Chief Security Officer (1952-1958). He was appointed the Inspector General of Police of Madhya Pradesh in 1958 when he was just 42 years old. 

When i was a kid i heard lot of legends (most of the times good) of dacoits of Chambal region. People used to and still remember the adventures of dacoits like Man Singh, Lakhan, Roopa etc. Under the leadership of Rustamji almost all the dacoits of Madhya Pradesh were flushed. Rupa was killed in 1959, Lakhan Singh in 1960 and Gabbar Singh in 1959.

He was asked to raise Border Security Force and was appointed its first Director General in 1965. It played a stellar role in Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. For this he was awarded Padma Bhushan. After his retirement he took the case of under trials of Bihar and this led to the famous judicial overreach in the form of Public Interest Litigation (in 1979). The then CJI P. N. Bhagwati ordered the release of about 40,000 under-trials all over India. He was also the member of National Police Commission set up in 1978 though its recommendations are still in cold storage.

He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1991. The great soul departed in 2003. 

India is blessed with so many great communities and Parsees are second to none in the process of nation building. 

Highly Recommended (10/10)

Book Review [125] : One Life Is Not Enough

Kunwar Natwar Singh has had enjoyed very close proximity to the power center of Indian polity for more than 4 decades. He escaped into a political oblivion in 2008 after Volcker report exposing the 'Oil for Food' scam linking his name with scores of others. 'One Life Is Not Enough' was his autobiography, released in the midst of high voltage politics of 2014 and it did achieve a lot of traction. 

Born with a silver spoon, studied in the best of schools, married to a royalty, worked in 'most' prestigious service (IFS) and enjoyed absolute confidence of Prime Ministers like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and leaders like Sonia Gandhi. He did not mince words when he criticize bitterly the Prime Ministers coming from parties other than Congress and other than the Gandhis. He was not a fan of Morarji Desai, Devegowda, PV Narsimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh. Without any respect to the Democratic norms he considers succession of a 'novice' Rajiv Gandhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi as a natural choice and he repeats the same thing after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi though Sonia Gandhi refused to lead Congress after the death of Rajiv. He revolted against the leadership of Prime Ministers PV Rao and created a new Party with other senior leaders. 

With respect to Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh in many ways he corroborates what Sanjay Baru has written in 'The Accidental Prime Minister'. 

He was too close to the Gandhi family and at many a times it appears that he mixed his Foreign service job with his political interests. May be those were different times when India was Congress and Congress was India. 

His political career went into a deep pit when his name came up in Volcker report. He calls it as a conspiracy hatched by some western lobbyist to get rid of him from External Affairs Ministry as he was bit "anti-American' in his ideology. 

This book has many interesting anecdotes and talks in details about the political dynamics of Delhi.

Recommended (7/10)