THE DAILY OBSERVER-(M-38)

 😎THE DAILY OBSERVER-(M-38)😎

Wed 24 Feb 2021

             SBT MINDSET

     When the Swayam Bhakt Thanedar and  the Samaj Ke Thekedar mindsets join hands,  Freedom is an immediate casualty. This is not about the Sensational Basic Toolkit episode but an incident that took place in the latter half of the last century which the ongoing toolkit imbroglio brought to the forefront of memory.

        The general theatre of action of this episode was the Chandigarh tri-city area a little after Op Blue Star days when much of the heat had cooled off. Things were limping back to normalcy in Punjab and neighbouring states with no curfews in place but a lot of checking activities going on at the State boundaries.A young Army Captain X ( son of a retired Brig) was at home on leave in Panchkula for the upcoming engagement of his younger brother.They decided to celebrate the installation of a music system in their new jeep by going for a drive in the hills.This was to be the young lad's last bash as a bachelor before his mangni ceremony the next day. Accompanying  them were three girls they knew from the Punjab Univ. One of them was the daughter of a Retd Lt Col., a post-graduate hosteller. And the other two were undergraduate sisters staying as paying guests while their parents were on a teaching assignment abroad. They picked up some beer and snacks and headed to Kasauli in the jeep. After picnicking around through the day, they were on their way back in the evening, happily singing along with the music blaring from the new system. On reaching the police checkpost at Parwanu (Himachal - Haryana border), they were halted and the vehicle was checked in the presence of the SHO, who was there ready and waiting. In moments, he informed the two brothers that the girls were being taken into custody. When they brothers protested, the younger one was roughed up while the elder was forced to flee the spot in his jeep. All this took place late in the evening. 

           Recently promoted Capt Santa Singh had just returned from a party in the Brigade Officers Mess, sozzled to the gills. Barely managing to take off his shoes, he had snuggled into the recesses of the warm quilt and was just stepping into dreamland when he was shaken awake by the sound of loud knocking on the door. Santa crawled to the door with some difficulty and managed to make sense of the torrent of words flowing from the visitor's mouth. A few splashes of ice-cold tap water on the face enabled Santa to come back to mother earth from Cloud 9 and he quickly grasped the situation. Three girls known to him had been held up at a Police checkpost ! A keen adherent of the dictum that a friend in need is a friend indeed, Santa lost no time in taking a quick shower and slipping into his uniform. Kicking his newly acquired Yezdi into action, he was at the checkpost along with his visitor( Capt X) in no time. The girls were nowhere to be seen but the SHO was there. Those were the days when Santa thought little of police officials of any rank, leave aside a mere ( in Santa's outlook) SHO. With an air of confidence far bigger than what he was actually feeling, Santa demanded to know where the girls were and under what charges they were being held.

Lying brashly that he was their local guardian, he demanded their immediate release. All this speech was accompanied by suitable high-sounding legal terms and dramatic physical gestures threatening dire consequences if  no satsfactory action followed .The SHO was obviously shaken by this unexpected verbal assault and started explaining that the girls had been held for their own safety as the guys were drunk. Just when Santa thought that he was beginning to get the better of the SHO who was weakening in his stand, X started pleading with the SHO to take whatever he wanted but release the girls. That did it. The SHO said that now all his men had overheard the offer so there was no question of release. When Santa demanded to be allowed to see the girls, he was told that they were in safe custody and no visitors were allowed at night. Santa had no option but to return after saying that he would be back in the morning.He also added that he would hold the SHO personally responsible if the girls were harmed in any way.

The first thing in the morning,Santa met his C.O. ,related the incident and requested for permission to proceed to the spot ( now PS Parwanu) for further action. Permission obtained, Santa reached Parwanu. He was shocked at the sight of the three girls behind bars in the lockup of the police station. It was obvious that they had spent the whole night crying. The SHO was now in high spirits and even acted cocky with Santa, asking him sarcastically what his interest was in the matter. Santa gave him his C.O.'s phone number and said he could contact there in case of any doubts. Meanwhile, the fiance of the eldest girl ( a PG Law student ) also turned up. Santa left him there to complete the formalities and paperwork for the release of the girls while he himself proceeded to meet the IG at Solan.

After being made to wait for a long time,he was granted audience.As he entered the IG's office,he spotted the SHO leaving. Still,he spoke his mind out to the IG and appealed to his better senses. Santa even dared to add that surely the IG must have gone out for picnics with girls in his college days.The IG let Santa tell his tale, barely looking up from the files he kept poring over, totally unmoved by the anguished oratory of his young visitor. When Santa gave up any further attempts at appealing to 

his better senses , the IG told him that the SHO had just been doing his duty. Santa left with a heavy heart, but that was not the end of the issue, not yet. On reaching Chandigarh, he came to know that the girls had been released on the condition that they would appear in Court the following week and plead guilty to the charges of " creating a nuisance in public by singing bawdy songs etc. etc." They had been given the option of either doing that or having their photographs published in The Tribune along with details.  Young, hot-headed Santa was all for putting up a fight even then, but luckily wiser council prevailed. The girls went and pleaded guilty in front of a lady Magistrate and were let off with a warning. All of them are now happily married and doing well. As for the SHO, this case added another feather to his cap, putting him in line for an award.

Santa is older and wiser today, but not before learning his lesson the hard way by confronting the SBT mindset to his detriment time and again ! So you see, there is no hope for us as long as such mentality is prevalent. We keep marching into the so-called bright future while this mindset keeps taking us backwards to the Dark Ages, says Santa.