FOOD GOES FOUL AT THE BORDER

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The social media outburst of a Border Security Force jawan must have come as a rude shock to his supervisors. Other Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and State Police Forces will also carry out a reality check. Electronic media is bound to bring this news to jawans all over the country and flood the news space on their channels with the footage and comments of the troops and officers. The BSF on their part have rushed senior officers to carry out a fact-finding enquiry. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also called for a report from the Director General of BSF on this disturbing video of poor and insufficient food being made available to the troops deployed on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir.  A preliminary report has been received by MHA and the detailed report is awaited. The public as a whole is also very critical of the CAPF leadership on social media for their failure to ensure quality food to those who defend of our borders. The whole episode has unfortunately raised suspicions about the quality of life of our troops on the borders.

Inspector General of BSF in Jammu has claimed that constable Tej Bahadur Yadav of 29th Battalion is a habitual offender and has earned several punishments in his career.  The manner in which Yadav has bypassed the established channels of communication to voice his grievance is questionable as per service rules and needs to be dealt with effectively so that discipline and morale of other troops do not become a casualty in the long run. The history of delinquency on the part of Yadav does not undermine the need for an enquiry into his allegations of poor quality food, long working hours and corruption by the officers of his unit.

Of late, it has become common for officers and men of the uniformed services to post their pictures in uniform and with weapons and also disclosing their locations on social media, which calls for revisiting the social media policy being practised in the CAPFs and the state police forces. The concerned authorities have issued voluminous instructions in this regard which is seldom translated into a vernacular understood by jawans.  A gist of these instructions is rarely prepared and circulated to all the field units and posted on the notice boards meant for the jawans.  Proper briefing on such matters may also not be taking place because the junior leadership at the ground level itself is blissfully unaware of the import of such policies.

I have had the fortune of serving in the BSF and SSB where the opportunity to supervise and deploy battalions on the LoC was also part of my responsibility. I can assure the readers that the police leadership is acutely sensitive to the food served to the jawans.  All visiting officers like to share the food with the jawans at the forward locations and if any deficiencies are noticed appropriate measures are taken to correct them.  After the Monday parade in the districts, the senior-most police officer visits the cookhouse and samples the food himself to ensure its quality. Whenever any senior officer visited the forward locations, he carried sufficient amounts of fresh vegetables and fruits for the troops.  I sincerely hope that the practice still continues.

With better road communication and improved logistic support, there is no reason why fresh vegetables and fruits, condiments, tinned food and other rations should not be available to the troops. There are two systems of procuring rations in the CAPFs. Wherever the troops are deployed under the command of Army on the LC or the LoC, the responsibility to provide rations lies with the Army, as per the laid downscale. At all other locations, the messes are run on a cooperative basis where a committee representing all ranks of the unit purchases rations after market survey. Since the day to day running of the kitchen is participatory in nature, there are virtually no complaints about this system. There are certain occasions particularly during winters and natural calamities like floods leading to disruption of road and air communication which may lead to an occasional shortage of supplies, but then the hardy troops of CAPFs are used to such situations and do not complain about it.

However, the issues highlighted by Yadav on social media need to be thoroughly examined by the BSF and whatever be the loopholes in the system should be plugged immediately.

Goodbye Inspector Anant Welankar!

Confined to the cold four walls of my sarkari house due to an unprecedented snowfall in Shimla in decades, I had little to do but reflect on the recent happenings. A white out and capitulation of the state capital's infrastructure before the fury of nature made me sombre. In the dark of the night without electricity, darker thoughts crept in to occupied the mental space. One such thought was the untimely demise of the celluloid giant, OM PURI.

Om Puri is no more! World cinema has lost an actor par excellence. His departure is a colossal loss to the Indian cinema in particular as Om Puri with his contemporaries like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil redefined the parallel cinema and drew crowds to theatres who not only accepted it as an important genre in filmmaking but longed for more and more of it.

He had his period of struggle like all newcomers. But it was just a  matter of time for the audiences and critics to hail the exceptional talent of Om Puri.  Film industry showered all its awards on him as the best actor, supporting actor and for lifetime achievement. He was also awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of our country.

Om Puri appeared in 300 odd Bollywood flicks including commercial and art cinema and Hollywood movies.

I recall a number of his films like Ardh Satya,, Agneepath, Pyar To Hona hi Tha, Vinashak, Farz, Maqbool., Dev, Mumbai Express, Don-2, Ghayal, Gupt, AK-47, Mukhbir, Dabangg, Bin Bulay Baraati and many others in which he played a cop. His portrayal of Commissioner Yashwant Sinha, ACP Malik, Inspector Udham Singh, ACP De Souza, Inspector Khan and Inspector Anant Welankar left an indelible mark not only on the viewers but on us, the policemen as well. He played different ranks of the police and types of the police with remarkable understanding and ease. He looked very much like a policeman on the street and not a super cop flaunting his six-pack abs and taking on the baddies of the world singlehandedly.

Om Puri’s stern looks and rich baritone particularly suited the police roles. The versatile actor in him provided life like presentation of the character that not many in the industry have succeeded to do. One of his National Awards for best actor came from his role as a police Inspector in Ardh Satya and twice he was nominated for the best supporting role as a police officer in Ghayal and Gupt.

It was particularly in the highly acclaimed film Ardh Satya that Puri played Inspector Anant Welankar and virtually lived the situation of a policeman in a corrupt system and society. Anant Welankar’s dilemma is the dilemma of every cop who goes through the same emotional and professional journey or chakravyuh. 

एक पलड़े में नपुंसकता

एक पलड़े में पौरुष

और ठीक तराज़ू के काँटे पर

अर्ध सत्य.

Om Puri will be missed on the silver screen.  We in the police will also miss you Inspector Anant Welankar. RIP!