by RVS Mani
Later, when I had gained my composure, I called the officer again, vacated the guest house around 3.00 am. and after scouting around for a hotel, checked myself in at a hotel in Worli. I used my wife’s spouse card to make the payment. When she received the card message in the early hours of the morning, she was paranoid as she had suffered a lot of trauma in the previous years.
I returned to Delhi during the day and told her about the attack on me in the guest house. It was obvious people hostile to me were keeping tabs on my movements. She urged K B B Singh, my advocate and childhood friend, to take action and he did send a notice in this regard.
In a popular movie of the last decade, Wednesday, the lead actor, Naseeruddin Shah, complains that his wife calls up every now and then seeking to know whether he had had his tea etc., but the real intent is to confirm whether he is safe and not a victim of any untoward incident. My predicament is no different. After calculating how long it would take to go wherever I was going, my wife now calls me to confirm whether I have reached safely.
Epilogue
I was fed up of serving the government. After a great deal of brainstorming with family and friends, I decided to take Voluntary Retirement from Service. After all, I had hit a glass ceiling.
In conclusion, some thoughts for India’s political leadership. My father would always say, refer to the holy Bhagwad Gita as a life management tool. Whenever some one was in difficulty, he would advice reference to the Gita to find solutions in its verses.
In the last seven decades the leadership has brought the nation to such a pass, it is in difficult times. India’s social fabric is being torn to threads. My sincere suggestion as a citizen of this great country of mine to all persons who wear the mantel of leadership, who are striving for the nation’s leadership, who are under the illusion that they are leading the country, refer to the following verse from Bhagwad Gita:
Yad Yad carati shrestatha tad tad evatoro janah
Sa yat pramanam kurute, lokas tad anuvartate
A leader’s (shretada yad yad kurute) acts are followed by common people, proof (pramanam kurute) of a leader’s outstanding acts is that it is followed world over.
Please make your actions such that they are idealistic and meaningful to be followed world over; strive to go by the above ideals and refrain from acting in any manner which, followed by common people, could tear the values enshrined in the Constitution and its Preamble to shreds.
Last word, I will die only once. My detractors may make thousand attempts. I will not succumb to any pressure, intimidation, fear etc. After all, my mother always branded me as a fearless person. I cannot betray her.
Annextures from the Indo-Pak Dossier
Navigation map of the sea route found with terrorists
Section II Dossier
Section IV Dossier
Section V Dossier
The controversy about Mukherjee and Zardari 219
The controversy about Mukherjee and Zardari