If dedication and courage had another name it would be P.V. Rajgopal. The 70-year-old former Director of the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, has created a stir with his third book “The British, The Bandits and the Bordermen” published by Wisdom Tree. The book that has just hit the stands is again on Rajgopal's favourite K.F. Rustamji, the founding father of the Border Security Force, which follows his much acclaimed “I was Nehru's Shadow”, which recounted Rustamji's everyday experiences with Jawaharlal Nehru as his Chief Security Officer from 1952 to 1958.
Rustamji was the chief of the Madhya Pradesh police and Rajgopal served half his career in the State. This book is a result of 10,000 pages of articles and the personal diary he wrote everyday from 1938, when he joined police service, till 2003, the year he died. Punctuated with rare photographs, the book is divided into six chapters and recounts some stirring and epoch-making events in Indian history.
What made Rustamji and, hence, the book so daring?
Says the author, “Rustamji's suggestions on police reforms, for which he researched and drafted a document and presented it to the Government of India, have been of no avail till date. He said that the police should be free from political interference. It is his courage to suggest a quick disposal of criminal cases, and how! It is about his gift to Nehru on his 70t{+h} birthday; the news of how he nabbed the infamous Chambal dacoit Gabbar Singh (whom the film Sholay immortalised later); how he refused to obey orders of the British Army when during the Quit India Movement the villagers went on massive strike following the arrest of national leaders; his efforts to start PIL; his help to Bangladeshi freedom-fighters, which led to the formation of Bangladesh in 1971, and much more.”
Early thinker
Recalls Kiran Bedi, who launched the book with former DG-BSF Ashwini Kumar, “I met Rustamji in 1972 and was instantly inspired. I was shocked to read how his draft on police reforms was presented to Jai Prakash Narayan, who sat over it for 16 years. When it went to Giani Zail Singh he, without reading it, labelled it ‘Undemocratic' and next we knew, he was nominated President of India. The book raises several questions on who is accountable for not letting police reforms happen.” Raman Kumar, Director General of BSF, adds, “Eminently readable, the book shows how Rustamji had the courage to stand up against a man of the stature of Vinoba Bhave, how the BSF was a child of crisis and how he nurtured it despite hostile circumstances.”
Adds Rajgopal, “He kept repeating till his death that the martyrs of the 1971 War were not suitably honoured. He met Indira Gandhi and she agreed that the complaint was justified. She also promised Rs.2 lakh for a memorial dedicated to them.”
But the “autobiographical narrative”, as Rajgopal likes to call the book, is not only about the police and historical events. It is also about the village welfare Rustamji suggested in 1938 when no one had even thought of it, and his observation of Sonia Gandhi's sari. “I must confess,” Rustamji says in a chapter “Honours and Reform”, “I have never seen a Western woman tie a sari as gracefully as she (Sonia Gandhi) does”. Rustamji saw Sonia while receiving the Padma Vibhushan in 1991.
A rebel, Rustamji died a tragic death. Recalls Kumar, “I saw him dying when he was hacked off by a Pak parachute dropper.”
“I don't get any monetary benefits from this book. The entire proceeds from its sales would go the benefit of BSF,” says Rajgopal. Talk of the Rajgopal's dedication to the man.
