I am not Mahatma by Harshavardhan C (i am reading a book TXT) 📕

“I could understand your confidence in Aunt Arju. But I must speak the truth only at least at this stage. It was a fact that aunty also didn’t have any mala fide intention to do false encounter of innocent people. It so happened till she came to know it was a fake”

“Sorry, I couldn’t understand” He was in a state of confusion.

“I tell you what exactly happened”

She was trying to reconstruct the scene of occurrence.

Chapter: 59

“I am sorry; I have killed innocent people, who have come to the Dargah on the Hill Top and enjoying the feast Mr. Rau” Mrs. Rebecca Solomon, the Addl. DGP counter intelligence felt sad over what had happened.

There were tears in her eyes on seeing the dreadful and the most pathetic encounter of the leaders of the hectic groups of Islam comprising of Muslim boys and girls including the men and women and even the old aged.

“There are dead bodies of males, females, and even minors boys and girls with Biryani packets in their hands, of which some have eaten, some are eating, some are about to. It is a quite pathetic scene and no human being would relish it, Mr. Rau” So saying Mrs. Rebecca Solomon cocked her 9mm pistol and aimed at her temple region.

“No, I say no, please don’t’ be over sensitive Madam” The OSD, Mr. Rau ran towards her and pulled the pistol from her hand.

“I am a bloody criminal in uniform. I have brought disgrace to cops. I don’t deserve to live. Please leave me Rau” Literally she was weeping.

“Why are you thinking in that way madam? Please don’t forget the recent bomb blasts by Indian Mujahedeen, where innocent public, including Hindus, Christians and Muslims died so pathetically. In spite of these ghastly acts also, if my officer is feeling and has large heart to excuse them means I have no words except to call my madam officer either Mahatma or Mother Theresa. But, please remember Madam that we are only trained soldiers’, and we are not judges. Even judges may also sometimes err, while pronouncing judgment. After all we are only human beings madam, not Angels” The OSD Mr. Rau tried his best to convince her.

“But, one should have kind heart, and you have also seen them Mr. Rau. The dead are all poor and innocent people. You know they include women, children and aged. They are taking lunch and how can I ignore my ghastly sin Mr. Rau?”

“You have not done anything wrong madam. It is only your inhibition. You are only thinking on humanitarian grounds. But as a matter of fact they all have assembled here clandestinely only to discuss means and methods as how to implement them to shatter our economy, weaken the sovereignty and integrity of our country, and finally peace and tranquillity in the society. As it is lunch time, they served a delicious dish of Biryani to all those assembled here. Because it can be packed easily and carried to hill top and could be distributed easily to the gathering. Unfortunately, my officer couldn’t understand their secret meeting and confidential plans. After the morning session is over, they wanted to discuss about how best they could create great terror in some of the selective places in the cities, and this time they are not only targeting twin cities, but also all over the country. Fortunately, Madam Officer could lead the Octopus team in advance and that is why there are no casualties on our side. Please don’t think that they are unarmed Madam? They might have certainly secreted their arms and ammunition in their dens, which might be somewhere here only.

I once again request madam officer to take care of your safety and security. It is time for us to seriously think over the security of the state, keeping in mind the sensitivity of the incident. Please hear my advice at least this time madam” The O.S.D tried his best to console her and finally convinced her.

The rest of the things were manipulated and planted by the O.S.D.

The entire police force admired Mrs. Rebecca Solomon for her honesty, simplicity, kind heart and helping nature. Nobody believed that she would do anything illegal and even if she frankly confessed that she was responsible for the fake encounter also nobody believe it. Hence it was quite easy task for the O.S.D to create the incident and managed it quite naturally.

But blood was thicker than the water, and the vengeance knew no bounds. Human history was not silent over violent acts which were legal or illegal. And Mrs. Rebecca Solomon was no exception to the Indian Mujahedeen.

“I have revealed the truth Arju, not to belittle your department or let down any individual, especially aunt or point out your investigation “Honey tried to console him.

“I am sorry, even if you try to convince me, I am not”

“But facts can’t be suppressed Arju and for cops it is not the only case, but you may have multifarious duties, besides routine duties and investigation of number of cases”

“But, you have proved your enquiry is far superior to of the cops”

“Yes of course, ours’ is a cut throat enquiry. Nothing would happen even if the police enquiry is proved to be wrong. At the most some other experienced officer will be assigned with the job. But, it is not the case with the enquiry by the militancy. If it is proved to be wrong, the bona- fides of the comrades, who conducted the enquiry, would be suspected and the head of the fact finding committee would be done to death”

“Thanks for enlightening me about your organization dear”

“Sorry Arju, please delete the word ‘my organization’ and you know pretty well I have left the organization long back. Now I have become their class enemy and now I am expressly in their hit list”

“I know that dear, and I assure you, as long as I am with you, nobody could even dare to touch your shade”

“Thanks for supporting me Arju. We can only give assurance. But, we can’t guarantee full span of life to anybody in this world?”

“Why are you so cynical dear?”

“I am speaking practically Arju”

“No dear, you are losing self-confidence”

“What self-confidence Arju? We have very bad live examples. When your assurance is in the air, I mean in the flight itself, I have lost my mum. Don’t forget we have also lost aunt for supporting my mum. Though, they facilitated both of us go abroad safely. But, as their most lovable children, we have failed quite miserably to look after their safety and security. Even if we have thought at least one percent about their life risk as they are facing instant threat to their lives, I hope we wouldn’t have missed them today”

“It is true dear, but our knowledge about their trades then was a big zero. Then there was no much difference between a common lot and us. It was quite unfortunate. No children of Hit listed cops’ will say what their parents are doing? But in our case the reverse happened as the stone hearted women never exposed us as their children and they only cared for us and looked our safety and security, leaving their security to fate. But somehow we have to lead life and we have to bear all the ups and downs in life dear”

“But is it the life we shall lead, losing our beloved parents, sacrificing our careers and risking our lives?” She said in frustration.

“If all civilized people think in this way, we have neither cultures nor civilizations dear”

“But, I still feel that we have missed them Arju”

“Yes dear, I am also feeling that I have missed my mum. But they did their job in true spirit. They faced adverse conditions all through their lives. They both ultimately succumbed to the evil designs of the militants and due to the selfish police officers” He tried to cajole her.

“But can we tolerate such crocked people? Can they claim it bravery? I call them bloody cowards for they back stabbed the gladiators” She out busted.

“I do agree with you dear. But every human being down to earth man has justified reasons to support their actions whether legal or illegal dear. For instance, for doing right thing, we’ need training. And we need to give explanation to people and the state. But to weed out bad from the society we don’t need any training and so also we need not give any explanation to anybody. In fact every citizen is bestowed with the constitutional rights, i.e. the right against exploitation, threat to the lives of the individuals, arson, loot, destruction and damage to the property of both individuals and the state, threat to the county’s sovereignty and integrity, but are we conscious about that and helping either the individuals or the state?

“Truly speaking no”

“Then as citizens all of us are behaving like bloody jokers, and nobody is exception dear”

“So, you accept me to play a key role in aiding and assisting the Law and Order missionary whether I feel it as my social responsibility or not but act to wreck vengeance against the death of my parents”

“Okay dear, every good thing of yours is accepted as the greatest achievement of the women in this century. Then may I take liberty to tell you a secret of mine?”

“You are most welcome Arju. But before I could hear your secret, I want to tell you more important secret than anything else in my life and shall I reveal it?”

“Then, we do one thing dear, we write our secrets in a piece of paper, exchange, read them and so we both will feel the thrill. What do you say?”

She accepted his proposal at once.

They both took out piece of papers and each one wrote separately and folded the slips and exchanged them. And they both opened the slips and read out.

“Let not human beings remain enemies against each other. Please delete the word vengeance from the human minds. Befriend your neighbour with love and affection. For that purpose only I admitted you in the same medical college. I know that it is not that easy to unite the South Pole and the North Pole but I am confident that you both will marry and start a good beginning and create a new society where there shall not be any class enemies.

With warm love and good wishes, your mum.

Now they both exchanged the folded slips. They both opened the slips and found same thing on both the slips. On reading the same, tears rolled in their eyes. After all, the inherent character of every human being is ‘Live and let live’. It is not an exaggeration to say that Late Mrs. Rebecca Solomon and Dr. Glady D' Souza stand as the best example for perfect human beings, besides humane in the world.

“Now we pay red salute to your parents as they are the true comrades, and salute to my parents since they are sincere uniformed officers” He said.

“Sure,” She obliged him whole heartedly. Accordingly they paid respects to their parents.

“You have done a good job. But is this end of your job Arju?”

“It is not the end dear. It is only a beginning. I have taken up the challenging task of my parents’ and I will try my best to fight for the safety of the common man and the security of the state. And I want to make true the dream of the poet laurite Rabindra Nath Tagore’s,

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,

Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake”

“I further hope let the whole world awake dear” Arjun further added.

“Is it possible Arju? Can we at least dream of?” Honey expressed her doubt.

“Yes dear, it is possible because we are not beasts but we are human beings”

“Then how can we ensure a common man to move as freely as they could anywhere in the world