Read Online Open Secrets: The Explosive Memoirs of an Indian Intelligence Officer by Maloy Krishna Dhar - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Maloy Krishna Dhar
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subsequent change in leadership both in Delhi and Calcutta.
The Congress government was highly discredited and the party apparatchiks had lost touch with the reality. The Communist Party of India, now divided into two factions, had sharpened up their electoral strategies and had almost paralysed the state through industrial and service-sector strikes. Lawlessness had replaced the calm and civilised social and security ambience. In fact, in Bengal, the political parties had already initiated the process of surrendering the constitutional process to the muscle of the underworld and the barrel of the gun.
The Hindutwa movement and its political front, the Jan Sangh, were yet to take root amongst the Bengalis. The Bengalis from East Pakistan suspected both the Congress and the Hindu political outfit as they had failed to protect their interests. The Communists had started exploiting their helplessness. The society was nakedly divided. Taking advantage of the tottering political hold of the Congress and change of guard in Delhi the much-neglected social and economic reforms had started rushing at devastating speed against the existing value system. Clashes and changes were in the air. The domestic changes were being intricately linked up with the global changes.
TWO
THE FIRST TEST OF WATER
The fool, with all his other faults, has this also: he is always getting ready to live.
Epicurus
December 6, 1965.
My attachment to the office of the SDPO Siliguri was an invigorating experience. Deepak Ghosh, the young sub-divisional police officer, wasn’t a wizard in police work, crime investigation and prevention. The police force, as I saw it from a little distance, was not equipped to fight crime. The police stations were located either in rented and dilapidated government buildings, the officers and men were far fewer than required by the graph of crime. They were devoid of mobility. Some police stations did not even have a single jeep. The concept of police patrolling in the crime prone areas had become redundant.
By 1965, Siliguri had become a hub of political and criminal activities, besides being the main artery between mainland India and the Northeastern states. Criminal gangs from neighbouring Bihar, Nepal, Bhutan and East Pakistan operated with impunity in the narrow land link euphemistically called the chicken neck. They operated freely in tea estate areas, plundering, maiming and assassinating the affluent tea estate managers and lumber traders. Some of the illegal lumber traders were in cahoots with the interstate criminals. On top of it the smuggling routes between India and Nepal flourished with the connivance of the corrupt politicians, police and revenue officials.
Siliguri and its neighbourhood had assumed strategic importance after the fatal war with China in 1962. The just concluded war with Pakistan had enlivened the area with increased military presence. The Baghdogra airport had become operational as a fully-fledged Air Force base. The nearby hamlets around Binnaguri hummed with activities, where the military engineers and the Border Roads were busy in setting up the infrastructure of the Corps headquarters.
In addition to strategic military concerns a strong pro-China Left Communist movement was raising its head amongst the landless masses and the deprived tea estate workers. Charu Majumdar and his able lieutenant Kanu Sanyal spearheaded the movement. They had found an able ally in Jangal Santhal, a tea garden labourer. The Charu group had broken away from the parent Communist Party after the formal 1964 split between the Moscow and the Chinese camp followers that had divided the Communist monolith into CPI and the CPI (M); M representing the name tag Marxist, more Marxist than an ideological follower of poor Marx.
The Siliguri police chief Deepak managed to float above the troubled waters. My overtures to him to discuss the political, criminal and the security scenario did not evoke much response. He
The Congress government was highly discredited and the party apparatchiks had lost touch with the reality. The Communist Party of India, now divided into two factions, had sharpened up their electoral strategies and had almost paralysed the state through industrial and service-sector strikes. Lawlessness had replaced the calm and civilised social and security ambience. In fact, in Bengal, the political parties had already initiated the process of surrendering the constitutional process to the muscle of the underworld and the barrel of the gun.
The Hindutwa movement and its political front, the Jan Sangh, were yet to take root amongst the Bengalis. The Bengalis from East Pakistan suspected both the Congress and the Hindu political outfit as they had failed to protect their interests. The Communists had started exploiting their helplessness. The society was nakedly divided. Taking advantage of the tottering political hold of the Congress and change of guard in Delhi the much-neglected social and economic reforms had started rushing at devastating speed against the existing value system. Clashes and changes were in the air. The domestic changes were being intricately linked up with the global changes.
TWO
THE FIRST TEST OF WATER
The fool, with all his other faults, has this also: he is always getting ready to live.
Epicurus
December 6, 1965.
My attachment to the office of the SDPO Siliguri was an invigorating experience. Deepak Ghosh, the young sub-divisional police officer, wasn’t a wizard in police work, crime investigation and prevention. The police force, as I saw it from a little distance, was not equipped to fight crime. The police stations were located either in rented and dilapidated government buildings, the officers and men were far fewer than required by the graph of crime. They were devoid of mobility. Some police stations did not even have a single jeep. The concept of police patrolling in the crime prone areas had become redundant.
By 1965, Siliguri had become a hub of political and criminal activities, besides being the main artery between mainland India and the Northeastern states. Criminal gangs from neighbouring Bihar, Nepal, Bhutan and East Pakistan operated with impunity in the narrow land link euphemistically called the chicken neck. They operated freely in tea estate areas, plundering, maiming and assassinating the affluent tea estate managers and lumber traders. Some of the illegal lumber traders were in cahoots with the interstate criminals. On top of it the smuggling routes between India and Nepal flourished with the connivance of the corrupt politicians, police and revenue officials.
Siliguri and its neighbourhood had assumed strategic importance after the fatal war with China in 1962. The just concluded war with Pakistan had enlivened the area with increased military presence. The Baghdogra airport had become operational as a fully-fledged Air Force base. The nearby hamlets around Binnaguri hummed with activities, where the military engineers and the Border Roads were busy in setting up the infrastructure of the Corps headquarters.
In addition to strategic military concerns a strong pro-China Left Communist movement was raising its head amongst the landless masses and the deprived tea estate workers. Charu Majumdar and his able lieutenant Kanu Sanyal spearheaded the movement. They had found an able ally in Jangal Santhal, a tea garden labourer. The Charu group had broken away from the parent Communist Party after the formal 1964 split between the Moscow and the Chinese camp followers that had divided the Communist monolith into CPI and the CPI (M); M representing the name tag Marxist, more Marxist than an ideological follower of poor Marx.
The Siliguri police chief Deepak managed to float above the troubled waters. My overtures to him to discuss the political, criminal and the security scenario did not evoke much response. He
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