The General spoke his mind

Lt Gen Baljit Singh (retd)

Ebullient and irrepressibly vocal with his opinions, on becoming the Chief of Army Staff, General Rodrigues had to ‘eat crow’ once. Seldom is a Chief happy with the monetary allocations in the Union Budget, but none had called out his political masters a ‘bunch of bandicoots’, for which he was rebuked.

Like most Goans, his was a lively presence in any social gathering. The Commandant of the School of Artillery, Deolali, had invited a few of us for dinner, as also the resident Parsi couple, Dr & Mrs Mannes. Mrs Mannes was short, jovial and plump, and in a lighter moment, the hostess threw an open challenge, ‘Is there anyone who can lift Mrs Mannes?’

And in a flash, Major Rodrigues stepped out, and lifting her above his shoulders, pirouetted in the manner of Atlas from Greek mythology, holding planet Earth over his shoulders. The good-natured Mrs Mannes gave a peck on Roddy’s cheek.

He was among the generation of Army aviators who flew the fragile-looking fixed-wing ‘flying machines’ with ease and flourish. Back in 1963, his erstwhile flying instructor, Brig Govind Singh, was posted to Gangtok and felt restless for want of flying. Dawn lit up the horizon in Sikkim much earlier than the Bagdogra airfield where his pupil was posted. So at the crack of dawn each morning, he would call and ask, ‘How is the flying weather, Roddy?’ Woken from his slumber, Roddy would shout out a stream of expletives before answering the call and snatch a few more minutes of sleep.

After assuming the office of Governor of Punjab and Administrator, Chandigarh, a local rickshaw-puller’s son happened to crack the Civil Services exam. General Rodrigues and his wife invited the IAS aspirant and his parents to tea at Raj Bhawan.

The General lost no opportunity to enhance the ambience of the city. The Rose Garden, which had around 80 varieties of roses, got crowded by another over 100 new varieties of hybrid roses from a nursery in Bengaluru. To enhance and preserve the green cover of the Shivalik ridges forming the catchment of the Sukhna Lake, that tract was notified a wildlife sanctuary.

Sometime in mid-2005, our conversation veered to the National Wildlife Week, celebrated through the first week of October. I mentioned that there is a constitutional obligation in this regard, which begs to be the focus of this annual fixture, but is not even mentioned in passing. The following day, in the Governor’s office, I showed Article 51-A (g) — ‘It shall be duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and have compassion for living creatures.’ General Rodrigues had the Article inscribed on metal boards, each of which was installed in school and colleges in Chandigarh.

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