THE MYSTIC: PART I - THE SEEKER (Part 1 - THE SEEKER)

by Arindam Bhattacharjee

  Raghav tried to escape from the tent but the commandos were already outside waiting for him. Just as Raghav tried to lift the tent flap a grenade exploded on the other side of the tent. Another explosion followed to his left and the shock waves knocked him down to the ground.

  Captain Chauhan had made sure that all grenades were of Chinese make – the type mostly deployed by the Maoists. Within minutes the whole tent got engulfed in fire and commandos fired indiscriminately on the survivors. Captain Chauhan planned the bloodbath to depict the mannerism of Naxal attacks and the inmates were slaughtered in cold blood by the commandos. Raghav was left lying in a pool of blood.

  Later Captain Chauhan’s men replaced the bodies of government officials killed in real Maoist ambushes to prove that the operation was genuine. The media was called to the site along with the family members of the killed government officials. The next day’s newspapers were filled with images of Raghav lying in pool of blood along with other government officials. They also interviewed the grieving family members of the officials.

  The media was used as a medium to propagate government agenda showing the losses bestowed upon a government-enabled truce by the Maoists. The media reported that Raghav had become embroiled in a heated argument and when the government officials tried to arbitrate, the Maoists opened fire. Later reports tried to depict many Maoists having differences with Raghav’s ideologies and writings hinting that this could be one of the reasons for the attack. The entire nation saw the ghastly images of the bloodbath of Raghav and the government dignitaries.

  After few days the media started to defame Raghav; it was a planned onslaught. The media reported stories about Raghav’s life and his decision of not using his education on nanotechnology for the benefit of the nation. They showed that he was not a good son and did not want to follow his father’s wish to continue in US. After few weeks the newspapers started circulating stories about his fraudulent role in running businesses in India and his failure in opening up a school.

  They also showed that Raghav doubled as an activist over a blog using a pseudonym to undermine government efforts so that he could benefit from anti government forces. They even dug his old family history and found out that his relatives were involved in the Naxalbari movement and probably had a soft corner for the insurgency groups.

  Later reports said that he was actually a Naxal hiding behind the mask of a social worker. Though most of the facts spoken against him were incoherent and baseless – since he was dead, he could not fight back. There was not one whit of truth in the allegations made against Raghav but none dared to protest against the wrongdoings of the media for the fear of similar actions. Initially the whole nation lamented the loss of Raghav but eventually his image was tarnished and he was depicted as a traitor.

  After few years of continuous attacks against the movement by the commandos of Special Task Force, the entire Naxal movement was brought down.

  Chapter 3

  Dead Man Walking

  3.1: The New Media Frenzy

  December 2025

  Unmanned drones had become quite popular in civilian use especially in the field of journalism but it was still banned in India by the General Director of Civil Aviation to prevent its use for terrorist activities. It was a different story that the terrorists were not widely active in India after the massive government crackdown on the Maoists and increased security in the borders.

  Meanwhile some international teams of journalists had built a new type of journalism – a nonprofit organization named ‘Reporters without Borders’. Christina, an American girl was part of a secret think tank, aimed at finding news about democracies that had become authoritarian. She was trained to handle unmanned drones to carry out operations in remote locations of the world. One of its key operational attempts was to identify any facility in a democratic country that was funded by the pentagon and used for suppression of local dissent and unrest.

  Many countries started using policies developed by the pentagon to conduct their own experiments on democracy. Covert journalism maintaining stealth to uncover such experiments was becoming quite common around the secretive journalism community. The unmanned drones which had a long glorious military history were being used as a new means to get information from the field. They were mostly used to conduct reconnaissance operations in secret military and civilian facilities which the journalists thought were involved in social and political experiments.

  Christina applied for a fellowship program of BBC for a project in India to undertake an impact assessment of a new government initiative to map the dying languages in India; she was awarded it. Her hidden intention was to undertake special missions in some Indian military facility thought to be involved in suspicious activities. Christina was given an office space in the Hauz Khas region in New Delhi working for an English print agency that published weekly journals.

  Christina had a successful and fulfilling career as a journalist. With a degree in journalism from Harvard University, she took up a few assignments in different parts of the world. Her last assignment was to understand the new socialist movement, trying to get a grip in Russia. For this she stayed in Moscow and St. Petersburg and also worked with Moscow radio as an anchor.

  Her previous assignments included working in Algeria to study human rights abuse by the new government. She was also in Iran, studying the effects of dictatorship on Islamic life. In Nairobi, she struggled to understand how a medical system could be set up under dictatorship.

  But she was very much excited about the assignment in India as she always wanted to visit this country. India, to her, was a country that had exported spirituality to the rest of the world but the reports she received suggested that India, was now under some form of religious dictatorship.

  As a child Christina had always heard stories about this distant land from her granny´s tales and she became obsessed about learning the culture of the land, especially after her granny passed away. Christina was also a keen linguist and so India excited her more for the infinite stock of languages and dialects that existed there. But the reality was that most of the languages have gone extinct due to a new type of Cultural Revolution.

  One of the reasons why Christina was hired by the BBC was her background of working in different cultures around the world. Christina was also a great choice for totally other reasons. Her recommendation letter for the job read ‘Christina’s writing style is a passé and reminiscent of Victorian era. We think it would be more appropriate for reporting about India as the country seems to cling to its old colonial habits’.

  Though the credit for the tailor made recommendation for the fellowship could be given to a private think tank. Popular among her friends for her cool judgment, many of her bosses appreciated Christina's uncanny ability to impartially examine the causes of a problem and giving an objective and passion-free analysis of the reality. Also, in her articles, she provided predictions of future implications of different events and her readers really loved her for that.

  But above all, she had an uncanny flair for discovering a new story before people could even get a hint of it. In one of her previous articles she inveighed against the US policies of supplying weapons for mass destruction to developing countries. Her flair and ability attracted the attention of a think tank. She was hired by a secret agency and went through intensive training during two months, carrying out covert journalism operations in difficult terrains and extremely dangerous circumstances. She was taught to use drones and other surveillance equipments to help her in the operations.

  It was in the month of December when Christina landed in New Delhi, quite excited about the new task in hand. She choked in the smog of winter in India and during the first few days pollution made her fall ill. However, after working in parts of Russia, she found Indian winter quite bearable but could not handle the pollution near the South Delhi region.

  Christina stood at good 5ft 6in with a-gymnast-like figure but her complexion was pale compared to many
Americans which made her stand out of the crowd. She didn´t blend in and hated that. She also developed a very good sense for fashion as she believed first impressions were everything that matter when it comes to her profession.

  She always discarded all garments that had gone out of fashion and worried, maybe too much, about keeping up with new trends. She had a special liking for the Indian dress of lehenga choli but could never understand the technicalities of tying a sari – though she tried.

  Christina’s first assignment by the think tank was mostly to undertake covert operations in remote spots of India and she had a special team flown to India to help with the logistics. The task in hand was to undertake a reconnaissance operation of a secret military facility in the forests of Manipur. Satellite images had shown a facility deep inside the jungles – often frequented by army personnel.

  The suspicions were that it could be a secret military research facility conducting research in the field of chemical or biological warfare. Many international reports had suggested the use of such weapons in counter insurgency operations against the Maoist movement in India. It was Christina’s job to understand what was going on inside the military facility without giving out the identity. This assignment was a covert operation having full backing of the US agency.

  Though Christina's official assignment was to understand and study the dying languages of the North East as a cover, she had to submit a report at the end of the fellowship program. Christina could never have imagined, not even in her wildest dreams, what she was about to find out in the new job.

  The editor of the newspaper was middle -aged lady called Sagarika Hegde who was a prominent name in Indian media. The agency was involved in publishing few famous research journals on the political and corporate world of India. A sweet spoken woman, Sagarika was promoted to the role of the head of the unit a few months before Christina came to India. It seemed she made her career dealing with women-related issues and in the process she developed a dislike for Indian men. Her cause kept her unmarried as she devoted her life to her career.

  She was not a very talented writer and climbed up positions in the organization on the basis of sycophancy and taking the credit of other’s work; she encouraged other women in the organization. She loved supporting others in an attempt to get the best they could give and then snatch the compliments. Because of the strict women protection laws in India, she even blackmailed few people in the top management to the point of having these people fired.

  Many a times, women employees were given promotions above much more experienced male counterparts. Though these practices were detrimental to the growth of the organization, nobody could remove her from her powerful position. Christina saw the Indian work environment for the very first time with so much biases.

  The day Christina reported for work, Sagarika took keen interest in her especially although she wanted the opposite. She called her up for a meeting in her office and said,

  “We have high expectations from you to come with a very well researched study as part of your fellowship program. I also have your recommendation from BBC. They think that you are a smart person. So please do not take this as a paid vacation. You should make good productive use of your time here with us.”

  Christina thought that if she, Christina, had got the fellowship program all by herself why did this other woman think she had the right to tell her what to do. But without expressing her thoughts, Christina decided to play along and be nice.

  Sagarika continued, “Christina, I hope you do understand how important your work is for the country and we will try to give you complete support.” Christina wondered why she was being patronized. This would make her work very difficult.

  “You must understand that your security is my responsibility. Since you will be travelling a lot for your job we need to give you a basic briefing about India. Especially you, being white caucasian, you need to be very careful of Indian men. They think white girls just want to have fun and then they will try to take advantage of you. The condition is worse with North Eastern men and that’s where you are going to work; it is also an insurgency-prone area.”

  Christina got a clue about Sagarika's attitude towards Indian men and decided to be polite but firm. She replied, “In that case, I need to be very careful. But I don’t think they would be worse than White guys in many Eastern European countries. I had many Indian friends from the North East and they were all gentlemen. I will however take note of the fact that as a girl I need to be careful anywhere I go.”

  Sagarika was not a quiet, weak kind of woman. She replied as if she had not been listening to a word Christina had said; other people's opinions did not interest her.

  “Your friends might be an exception but we have made a strict policy to train any new woman to know how to tackle any situation. This would require that we constantly monitor your movements in India and this way we could provide you with the needed security.”

  Christina got worried about the new methods of curbing her freedom. She objected saying,

  “Risk has always been in my mind since the moment I chose this as a career. I have worked in warfronts and North East India is not a war front. When I am doing my research I need to be able to chase some stories without bothering about informing Delhi office about my activity.”

  Sagarika replied, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to report. We will give you a GPS tag that will keep informing us of your whereabouts.”

  Upon hearing this Christina could no longer resist her anger. She said, “We tag criminals in US like this when they are under restraining orders. I have permission to move freely in this country and I don’t think BBC has any such restrictions.”

  Christina felt that if she allowed these people to check on her morals while on various assignments, the next step would be having them place a chastity belt on her! Sagarika knew that she had started on a wrong note and realized that Christina was not going to listen to her. This time she asked her kindly:

  “Anyways, would you mind going through the programme which we have designed for the purpose of keeping everyone on the proper track? It's an interactive session on Indian culture and many other foreign and Indian interns will also take part in this.”

  Christina knew that it would be a waste of time but she also accepted the fact that there was no escape.

  The sessions started the next day. To her amazement all the new interns were girls and she knew instantly that the whole session would be unbearably woman oriented. Christina had previously attended such sessions in the West but this would be on a very different tone in this new training session.

  The training started with an introduction to Indian culture. The focus was on the Indian value system and the importance of woman in the family. There were sessions where a lecturer described why keeping a “karva chauth vrath” (fasting for husband's well being) was important and why one must respect the mother-in-law in this country. They taught how Indian woman should dress up during different Hindu festivals and how such auspicious events lead to her happiness.

  Christina could not understand why she was forced to take these lessons on the Hindu culture about how to treat women and how a woman should feel. Many times she felt that these role plays were making fun of the Western woman. But the sessions that were to come next crossed all barriers of hypocrisy.

  They were made to read through the case studies of Western woman being raped and murdered in different regions of India. In many case studies the men were categorized in different scenarios. It was very clear to Christina that these studies were written by new generation of chauvinistic individuals and did not have any basis. To add to the misery, psychologists were brought in to evaluate individuals on their chances of getting raped in India.

  Christina could see that most of the tests reflected the mindset that Western civilization was bad and those women who followed these practices in India are more likely to be raped. The assessment reports suggested that Christina was high in the vulnerability
list but she knew that this was a complete waste of time. This however gave Sagarika plenty of excuses for poking her nose into Christina’s work.

  The work environment became complicated within the next few weeks. Many a time, gossips would reach Christina’s ears that Sagarika had said that she, Christina, had come to India on a pleasure trip. Sagarika had put few trusted lieutenants to keep track of Christina’s work. Their work was to follow Christina’s trail and figure out what she was doing. Christina was getting irritated; even more so when office resources were used to track her activities without having any project of its own.

  Sagarika was concerned as she wanted to get credit for the work Christina was doing. Many a time Christina managed to slip past these spies and go to meet her team to plan the main operations. When asked, Christina would say:

  “I took a leave of absence to explore the rural side for linguistics. This is part of my research and should be none of your concern.”

  Sagarika, not being able to track her began to chide Christina for her lying about the seriousness of the project. Within few weeks the whole environment changed and so did Sagarika’s attitude towards Christina.