It was indeed a welcome relief. Well, I am not referring to the sudden downpour during the last few days . Rather my sense of deja vu has more to do with the outpourings of one of the finest officers of the Tamilnadu police force, Walter Dawaram. His recent interviews in a few magazines and to a private television channel, go a long way in putting the record straight on several aspects of the Veerappan episode, or shall me say: Veerappan saga.
The last few weeks, in the aftermath of the hostage crisis, have been witness to a spate of functions to felicitate the one and only State-sponsored emissary on his daring and humanitarian mission to the unknown jungles to ‘rescue’ with ‘great difficulty’ those unfortunates who were in the custody of the brigand. The media was so awash with scoops of stories dished out by the emissary, who held the sole rights to whatever transpired with the brigand even to the exception of the government, narrating the escapades of the brigand media that one was virtually drowned in the deluge.
And now the former DGP has thrown a lifeboat to our rescue. For once we have had a chance to hear the other side, which in normal circumstances should have been the right side of the story. But then, these are abnormal times. So abnormal that when a man like Dawaram, who led a crusade to nab the brigand and who was responsible for reducing the army of the brigand to just five from 150, has few takers for his version of the Veerappan story; so abnormal that the government would prefer to take the help of unofficial sources to negotiate with Veerappan rather than take the considered opinion of men like Dawaram and the STF. And the reason given for such a course, by no less a person than the highest authority of the State, is that the STF personnel were busy chasing tribal women instead of Veerappan and so they have no locus standi. The logic no doubt rings a bell as one remembers the IPKF episode. It is not of relevance that, if the same logic works in the reverse, several people would not be where they are now.
Strange still are the ways of the other State involved, whose Chief Minister first heroically declared that there would be no let up in the campaign against Veerappan. So, when it was believed that the STF operations would begin soon after the hostage crisis, the sober CM scotches such rumours and announces that, so long as the brigand confined himself to Tamilnadu, his government would not mind, thereby buying peace with him. Curse our naivety, for we still believe that both Karnataka and Tamilnadu belong to one country called India that is Bharat and what is good or bad for one should be so for the other too.
And so with one State refusing to trust the STF and the other rendering it redundant, the only agency which had come anywhere near nabbing the brigand is virtually out of circulation. We do have the emissary who can reach him at will, but it is not his business to help bring the brigand to book, (that would be treason, betrayal of faith); he can at best confine himself to rescuing hostages, taking exclusive video clippings, negotiating surrenders on the brigand’s terms, and making out a foolproof case for the granting of amnesty at every available opportunity. But helping the authorities to nab the brigand is out of question. When even the government has so far not made such a request, who are we to expect the emissary to voluntarily offer his services?
Are not freedom of the press and its right to protect its source of information more important than national security? Have not other eminent former chiefs of police, who are surely not senile, also supported the case and cause of Veerappan and have in fact recommended the emissary for the coveted Pulitzer?
And while the brigand media celebrates its phenomenal success in voicing effectively the aspirations and ambitions of an outlaw who has over 140 scalps to his credit, while two governments find it convenient to let the issue die down for the present partly owing to their administration’s impotence and partly due to lack of will, everything seems to be going great guns for Veerappan. With everyone in a mood to appease him, the surrender really appears to have taken place, i.e., the surrender of law to the outlaw. Anyway, thank you Mr. Dawaram, for making your voice heard above the din; but sorry, Mr.Dawaram, we are helpless!
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