Mumbaiwalla recalls first engagement with Punjab

Julio Ribeiro

When The Tribune invited me to contribute a weekly column, reminiscing on my days in Punjab, I pointed out that I was not a professional writer. The discipline needed to write a weekly column would surely evade me. If I miss out at times, the readers would have to forgive me!

I celebrated my 90th birthday with my extended family in Goa in May. A month later, back in my own home in Mumbai, I slipped and fell in the bath. This necessitated a major surgery to fix the broken neck of the femur. At my age, it was sheer penance! It still is! A bed sore at the most unexpected of places — the ankle — refuses to allow the use of shoes. This, in turn, has affected my work.

What ‘work’? After my stint as Ambassador to Romania, I started two NGOs in Mumbai. Interacting with people, common people, is what I do best and, hence, running these NGOs — one to counter communal forces and the other to fight corruption in the market place — brought out the best in me.

The Mohalla Committees Movement works in the slums. I find it difficult to access these areas now. Younger retired IPS officers with a social conscience have taken charge and are doing a great job helping the police to douse rumours and possible conflagrations.

The second NGO, the Public Concern for Governance Trust, PCGT in short, was started eight years after the first, to support upright officers of the IAS and IPS from being victimised by corrupt politicians. BG Deshmukh, the former Cabinet Secretary, Dr Raj Kumar Anand, a Punjabi paediatrician born in Amritsar, and I were the founding fathers.

The NGO works with young people in schools and colleges of the city to instill in them respect for all human beings and ethical and moral values so essential for good citizenship. We mentor interns through the year, visit colleges regularly to interact with the staff and students on matters that should concern every citizen of our great country.

All this work keeps me totally engaged. I turned down two offers of governorship, one from PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the other from the Congress government’s Home Minister Shivraj Patil, to ensure that my work for the people of my city was not affected.

The fall in the bath, the subsequent surgery and enforced confinement to the home has set my clock back! I regret the time lost with the students. Tentatively, I have restarted my work. By December, normalcy should return.

When normalcy returns, the time available for writing will reduce considerably. So let me be as prolific as possible till that happens!

Setting foot in state

When did I first set foot on its sacred soil? Shankar Dayal Sharma, the future President, was Governor of Punjab. I was in Delhi in the Home Ministry. I had never done a job that did not require me to wear a uniform. This was the first time — almost at the end of my service. I was Special Secretary, a post that did not exist till Arun Nehru conceived its birth. In that capacity, I was asked to meet the Governor in Chandigarh to learn of the situation in the state from a Governor’s privileged perspective.

Earlier, like all Mumbaiwallas, I had heard of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his defiance of the authorities. We in Mumbai did not pay the attention it merited because of our preoccupation with our own set of day-to-day problems.

That was till Bhindranwale decided to visit the city whose police force I headed! I was informed that a bus carrying him and his followers was approaching the city. The snag lay in the information that some followers were armed with guns. Those who carried them were sitting on the roof of the bus.

How could I as the Police Commissioner allow this naked display of defiance? I phoned the state’s Home Secretary and informed him of my intention to disarm the lot, a step that would surely lead to confrontation. I pointed out that if I did not do this, the government’s bête noir, Bal Thackeray, would point this out as a precedent for similar ‘privileges’ when he travelled across the city, which he did almost daily!

Pat came the reply: ‘Hold your horses. The Centre has a plan in place to disarm the miscreants.’ My job was merely to report Bhindranwale’s movement many times daily to the Union Home Ministry. This I proceeded to do in partnership with the local Intelligence Bureau head.

It was a big shock when we were informed that Bhindranwale had reached the Golden Temple and resumed his work there! It was apparent that he had been replaced in his room in Dadar gurdwara by a lookalike while he himself had left his lair in disguise! He made a monkey of two senior police officers!

Next week: I don the uniform again