In September 1989, I was working as sub-divisional police officer at Mangrol in Junagadh district of Gujarat. The Superintendent of Police, Surinder Kumar, one day, called me to discuss the security arrangements for the annual Kharwa fair at a coastal village in my sub-division.
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Mr. Kumar told me that traditionally, there was a lot of drunken revelry at the fair and the participants also indulged in gambling. Whenever the police tried to stop it, the merrymakers clashed with them resulting in violence. The SP said the party in power wanted to avoid violence at all costs because the Lok Sabha election was due, and it wanted to keep the Kharwa community in good humour. He asked me how I proposed to handle the issue.
I said that with prohibition in place in the State, allowing liquor or any other illegal activity at the fair was out of the question, but that I would need at least one company of the State Reserve Police Force to enforce the law. The SP shook his head and said his request for the same had been turned down by the head office.
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Mr. Kumar said if I agreed he would depute me to handle the security of the Vice-President’s visit to the Somnath Temple at Veraval in the adjoining sub-division, scheduled around the same time as the fair, and bring an experienced Deputy SP in my place to handle the law and order of the fair.
So, I went to Veraval to supervise the security of the Vice-President’s visit. While I was there, someone spread a rumour that I had been deputed to be in charge of the Vice-President’s security because I was his nephew. Shankar Dayal Sharma was the Vice-President then. He was from Madhya Pradesh and I too had joined the IPS from there. Obviously, someone had put two and two together and made five.
Mr. Kumar’s scheme worked. Though the police had to look the other way, the Kharwa fair passed off without incident. And so did the Vice-President’s visit. When I met the SP later, he asked me if I had heard the rumour about my being a nephew of the Vice-President. I said yes and was about to tell the truth when he raised a hand to stop me and, with a broad smile, said, “No, don’t clarify, neither to me nor to anyone else. It would do you no harm.” Well, nobody asked and I nearly forgot about it.
Two years later, after Sharma became the President, I happened to meet Mr. Kumar again. On seeing me, he asked with a smile, “Where are the sweets? Your uncle has become the President of India.”
satish_k_sharma@hotmail.com