Contrasting tales of two fighters

ONE of them I know. The other I have never met, but I like her all the same. Both are women after my own heart — great fighters who accept no nonsense and are willing to call a spade a spade. Unfortunately, the one I do not know has recently fallen from grace by disclosing that her feet had more than a touch of clay.

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Many MPs have been nailed for taking money in return for asking questions in Parliament. The difference is that no one suspected Mahua of this corrupt practice.

The one I know was a junior colleague in the Indian Police Service, a woman admired by the public and police personnel alike. I first met Meeran Chadha Borwankar in Punjab when I was the Adviser to the Governor. Her father, who had retired from the Punjab Police, was ageing. He had been allotted a second-floor flat in a government housing society. He wanted a ground-floor flat as he was finding it difficult to climb the stairs. She wanted my help and I obliged.

When I retired and came back to Mumbai, Meeran was the Superintendent of Police, Satara, a politically sensitive district in Maharashtra. She asked me to visit her district to preside over a function. She sent her car to ferry me from Pune to Satara and back. During both journeys, the drivers, who were policemen, spoke about ‘Madam SP’ with genuine love and respect, especially about her sense of justice and concern for the junior ranks. The conclusion I drew was that here was a leader for whom the cops would do their utmost.

Much later, when she attained the IG’s rank and was sent to head the Crime Branch in Mumbai City, she phoned me to seek my blessings. I gave her my blessings as well as advice. The city police was becoming known for its ‘encounter specialists’, all confined to the Crime Branch. I advised her to get rid of these specialists, which she did. Police Commissioner Anami Roy had issued similar directives earlier, but at that point of time I was not aware of his instructions.

Meeran was much in demand as a speaker at civil society functions, especially on topics that concerned women. Her reputation as an honest, competent and fair-minded police officer preceded her wherever she was posted. She made a mark as Pune’s Commissioner of Police. Pune is the hometown of her husband, an ex-IAS officer who quit the service early and set up a manufacturing unit nearby.

Meeran recently published the story of her journey in the police (Madam Commissioner: The Extraordinary Life of an Indian Police Chief). It has caused a massive controversy in Maharashtra because of a chapter devoted to the sale of a plot of land belonging to the police department which Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who parted ways with his uncle Sharad Pawar and crossed over to the BJP along with the majority of his party (NCP) legislators, had ordered her to hand over to a controversial builder to whom the government had sold it.

The sale had been effected during the tenure of her predecessor. When the minister told her to hand over its possession, Meeran refused on the ground that the land was urgently required for police housing. She requested the government to reverse its decision to sell the land, thereby incurring the minister’s displeasure. Thereby, she missed out on a posting of her choice in Pune, but she stuck to her guns.

The other woman I said I admired was Mahua Moitra. The feisty Trinamool Congress MP is in the news these days, accused of receiving favours from a Dubai-based industrialist for asking questions in Parliament on his behalf. These questions, it appears, related to the activities of the Adani Group, which is supposed to have links with the BJP.

Mahua has been targeting Gautam Adani with the aim of embarrassing the Prime Minister, whose popularity remains unchallenged. She will go to any length to find out inconvenient truths about Adani. The industrialist, Darshan Hiranandani, seems to have had a business grouse against Adani, because of which he patronised Mahua. She, in turn, calls Hiranandani her ‘good friend’, though he disclosed in his affidavit before the ethics panel of the Lok Sabha that he had paid her hotel bills and other expenses incurred abroad and in Delhi.

When asked why Hiranandani ratted on her, she said that it was at the instance of the PMO, which must have threatened him with the might of the state in case he failed to cooperate. How did the complaint against Mahua about asking questions in the Lok Sabha in exchange for bribes reach the Speaker or the ethics panel? She pointed a finger at a jilted lover who allegedly could not reconcile to the separation and sought revenge. This ‘ex’ is a practising lawyer in the Supreme Court. He approached BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who, in turn, took up the matter with the Speaker.

Mahua is in a real jam from which it will be difficult for her to extricate herself. Even her party chief, Mamata Banerjee, must be nonplussed. But Mahua is unrepentant. She is not going to go down without a fight. Recent court judgments have assigned the rights of a married spouse to live-in partners. If Mahua can prove that the ‘whistleblower’ was a live-in partner (the dog, Henry, will provide the proof!), he may not be in a legal position to disclose to those who sit in judgment what he learnt from his proximity to her. The very basis of his complaint to the BJP MP will then collapse.

It was the jilted lover who informed Dubey that Mahua was getting all her material to target Adani from Hiranandani. It was the ‘ex’ who told the BJP MP that Mahua had shared her Lok Sabha log-in details and password with Hiranandani. She is sure to get a rap on the knuckles for that. The main charge is of receiving money for questions. Hiranandani’s affidavit makes no specific mention of payments, but how is she going to explain how and why substantial expenditure was incurred by him on her behalf?

There are many MPs who have been nailed for taking money in return for asking questions in Parliament in the past. There must be many others playing this game even now. The difference is that no one suspected Mahua of this corrupt practice.

Finally, my gratuitous advice to the lady: be careful, very careful, when choosing friends. My friends and I will avoid listening to the proceedings in Parliament if you are not there to enliven them.