Ajay Bhargava, Managing Director, SK Systems Pvt. Ltd.
One would expect anyone, much less an IPS officer who has been in public gaze for over four decades for his extraordinary exploits, to be very careful to cover his tracks when he makes his diaries public. But then if you expect that discretion from Amod K Kanth, the brilliant Police Officer whose book 'Khaki in Dust Storm' published by Bloomsbury last week has made a huge international flash, you don't know him as I have known him for this entire period, first as a crime reporter and later as a part of Prayas, which he founded.
So what if this book deals with the tumultuous period of the 80s and early 90s marked by unprecedented events like the assassination of two martyred Prime Ministers, Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi, the infamous Hindu Sikh riots of 1984,followed by transistor bombs blasts killing 80 innocent Hindus, assassinations of VIPs including Lalit Maken, Arjun Das, General Vaidya and the drug terror politician nexus.
And as luck would have it, Amod Kanth found himself at the centre of all these events in his career with Delhi Police and then with the CBI.
All through this gripping narrative, the thinking and sensitive cop that he is, he is also seen pitching in for police reforms because as he says time and again, the vintage Indian Police Act still remains rooted to the original Act created in 1861 to crush the Indian Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, also known as the first armed war of independence against the British. What strikes the reader of this narrative is the fact that where any other police officer would have avoided the pitfalls of saying things that could lead to controversies and counter statements, he sticks his neck out boldly.
Like 'My Experiments with Truth' the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, Khaki does not care to hide his thoughts, sticking to the dictum 'I will speak the Truth and nothing but the Truth'.
For instance, everyone knows how he received the Police Gallantry award for dealing with the 1984 riots where he managed to keep the death toll under
control in the Central District while other districts had a very bad time. But at the end of the chapter he writes, "During the entire period between 31 October and 5 November I personally felt extremely embittered , and blamed myself for not exactly succeeding in performing the task at hand...the loss of property and lives besides the shattered spirit of the suffering community left a permanent mark on my psyche." Asked why he felt this, he says," Even though the riots were unexpected I felt short of resources and support from my own bosses to deal more effectively with the situation."
He has gone on record to state how
Congress leaders led by Dharam Das Shastri the MP from Karol Bagh, reached the
Patel Nagar police station and threatened to create more riots if their supporters arrested for loot, were not released.
There are reports that implying that the then Home Minister Narsimha Rao was backing the rioters while new Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was in mourning for four days. Ram Vilas Paswan, had even told the Nanavati Commission that when he met President Zail Singh to ask Rao to call the army he told him that Rao was not taking his calls. Today Kanth feels that "Rajiv Gandhi was a nice person because
the moment he got his report about the incident he took no time to take action and since that day the careers of Shastri and other Congress leaders with him went into oblivion for ever." Similarly, the day he got the news that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had been assassinated his first instinctive reaction was "Was it a policeman". Many of his well wishers advised him to remove this part from the book as some of his rivals could ask questions. But he says he felt it that way for no obvious reason but saw no reason to remove it from his Diary.
A strong supporter of police reforms all through his life we are not surprised that he was removed from the post of DGP in Arunchal Pradesh for implementing the Model Police Act approved by the Supreme Court in 2006 on the initiative of Veteran police officer Prakash Singh.
But that experience notwithstanding, nor the fact that he is on the wish list of various police academies for training courses, he does not mince words when he writes in his book "half of Indian Police remains involved in VIP security specialised security duties other than its core functions and services as I perceive them; the actual crime control and maintenance of law and order, and to give justice to people in distress and the implementation of social legislations that serve the real needy, poor and deprived are yet to take their rightful position in the scheme of Indian Policing."
It's a rare combination that a high profile police officer like him has also been an equally committed social worker having founded Prayas in 1988 while still in Delhi Police.
Asked if he was now fulfilling the asks he could not do as a police officer through Prayas he says," Not really.
It's only an extension of my work in the police as I have always insisted on following the community policing method as is done in most countries. Today through Prayas and a pivotal position with the NITI Aayog I am able to contribute in evolving new legislations for Child Labour, Juvenile Justice Act etc. The only change is that the time has now come for police to incorporate these changes and bring community policing to the mainstream to keep up with the modern and democratic trends across the globe."