Title: Let Me Say It Now
Author: Rakesh Maria
Publisher: Westland Publications, 2020 (First)
ISBN: 9789389152067
Pages: 614
The police department in Mumbai city is traditionally acclaimed as the best police force east of Suez. They better be, as the city is the financial hub of the country and is a melting pot of numerous societies hailing from every nook and cranny of India. It can safely be designated as the nation in microcosm. The syncretic Mumbai society lives peacefully in the city, protected in the bosom of Marathi culture. The city’s importance to the nation prompts enemy powers to target it and inflict wounds on it so as to bleed India through a thousand cuts. Mumbai Police is at the centre of the intricate network of law-abiding citizens, criminals, thieves, terrorists and bureaucrats and contributes a great deal to the way the city moves. Rakesh Harikrishan Maria was an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who retired as the Director General (Home Guards) of Maharashtra Police who had also worked as the commissioner of police of Mumbai city. He took part in major investigations such as the 1993 serial blasts and 26/11 attacks. This book is his memoirs spanning 36 years of meritorious work in the IPS, the majority of which was spent in Mumbai.
Maria’s elevation to the top echelons of law enforcement in Maharashtra encourages numerous middle class boys and girls who have no political connections or financial clout to aspire for the glories of Indian civil service. The author is the son of a Punjabi musician and a Pahadi housewife who had no links to power-wielders or elite of the city, which is a triumph of Indian democracy and the inclusive and cosmopolitan spirit of Mumbai. Even while in service, he was sensitive and always receptive to the issues concerning the common man. Maria is usually enraged at the gravity of a crime he investigates just like a layman does. He never puts up airs at being a top police officer and the book is structured in such a way that the readers can empathise with him with minimum effort.
This book is the autobiography of Rakesh Maria, but knowingly or otherwise, the city of Mumbai is also a prominent character in the narrative. Many incidents described in the text would not happen anywhere else. The author is also starry-eyed about his native city in a quite justifiable way. He glorifies the city with the most gratifying epithets such as urbs prima (prime city of the country), the city of dreams and also the city of illusions (maya nagari). The city is the microcosm of India, the symbol of India’s resistance and good cheer that defies all its shortcomings. It is truly cosmopolitan, arduously challenging yet generous. It has created its own language dialects such as Bambaiya Marathi, which is said to be incomprehensible in the state’s countryside.
Quite contrary to the left-liberal portrayal of the early 1990s as a period of great oppression of the minorities in India, we see them quite powerful in this book and capable of forceful retaliations against violence inflicted by organisations representing the majority. Even before the destruction of the disputed structure at Ayodhya in 1992, major cities in India had been rocked by a series of bomb blasts designed to create panic among general public and to undermine the morale of the police and law enforcement agencies. The author notes with concern that the social fabric of Mumbai was so fragile in the 1990s that even a tiny spark was enough to ignite a communal conflagration. Criminal gangs were polarized on communal lines with Dawood Ibrahim leading a group of mainly Muslim thugs and Chhota Rajan leading mostly Hindu thugs. Police diary notes of the 1993 communal riots and the events which led to it clearly indicate that it was not one-sided at all as is often described. The serial blasts of 1993 shocked the nation and the Chhota Rajan gang embarked on killing all those in the serial bomb blasts case.
Maria personally supervised the interrogation of Ajmal Amir Kasab of Faridkot, Pakistan who was the sole terrorist captured alive in the 26/11 attacks and later hanged after a fair judicial trial. He narrates the subtle shades of subterfuge employed by his handlers in Pakistan who nearly succeeded in passing the men off as Hindu terrorists. All of them sported a red string tied around their wrists like a Hindu and carried identity cards with fictitious Hindu names. Kasab was named as ‘Samir Dinesh Chaudhari’ of Hyderabad (p.436). The inordinate delay in hanging Afzal Guru, a convicted terrorist in the deadly 2001 parliament attack case emboldened Kasab that the Indian state was soft and his own execution would also be postponed indefinitely. This book contains the verbatim transcript of the conversations of the attackers with their handlers in Pakistan. The author tried his best to dispel the indoctrination of Kasab that the bodies of the martyred terrorists would glow in the dark and would emanate a sweet scent. He was surreptitiously taken to the hospital morgue where the partially decomposed bodies of the other attackers were kept to have a look at reality. On the way back, he was made to kiss the ground at a safe location and made to utter the patriotic cry Bharat Mata ki Jai twice, which he obeyed meekly.
Even though the author diligently managed the control room activities where he was assigned by his boss during the 26/11 attacks, he was accused by the wife of Ashok Kamte, a senior police officer killed in the attacks. She alleged that Maria sent him to a dangerous location and did not provide timely help. The author does a detailed job to refute this claim but the effort was mentally so taxing that he wishes that he had died that night instead of the other. He then wryly remarks that Ajmal Kasab too wanted to die because he wanted paradise while Maria was getting hell here. This book explains the sad plight of the overburdened police force with long duty hours and poor living conditions far from the required level of fitness. No wonder they sink into apathy and lethargy that comes with repetitive monotonous work. Even then, there are many resourceful officers in the force as evidenced in the clandestine transfer of a criminal from Nepal to India. The Mumbai police team even bribed the Nepali border guards by giving away their gold rings and chains!
The author believes in team spirit at the workplace and studiously lists out names of his subordinate officers – even down to the constables – who had taken part in investigations rather than appropriating sole credit. Some prominent and sensational cases are also discussed to attract readers. Maria is so confident of his ability and investigative prowess that he doesn’t hesitate to admit his goof ups. In the Sherlock Holmes series too, we come across stories such as the ‘Five Orange Pips’ and ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ in which the famous detective failed to provide a breakthrough! A blow by blow account of the 26/11 incidents are given which is very detailed and full of police jargon as to repel many a reader. Conversations in Hindi and Marathi with low-ranking officials, criminals and politicians are reproduced as such along with its English translation. This is very cumbersome at times. We can see such a practice in Sanskrit plays of the classical era. Unrefined characters and women use Prakrit or the local dialect while the major personalities use nothing but Sanskrit on stage. The author was transferred out of the post of commissioner due to a mix up in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case and when the government thought he was taking an undue interest in the case. Though he argued with senior officials and even the chief minister over the issue, the mind of the government was set against him and he could not approach the media with his own version of the story. The title of this book, ‘let me say it now’ in fact means his justification for what he has done in the Bora case.
The book is highly recommended.
Rating: 3 Star
Author: Rakesh Maria
Publisher: Westland Publications, 2020 (First)
ISBN: 9789389152067
Pages: 614
The police department in Mumbai city is traditionally acclaimed as the best police force east of Suez. They better be, as the city is the financial hub of the country and is a melting pot of numerous societies hailing from every nook and cranny of India. It can safely be designated as the nation in microcosm. The syncretic Mumbai society lives peacefully in the city, protected in the bosom of Marathi culture. The city’s importance to the nation prompts enemy powers to target it and inflict wounds on it so as to bleed India through a thousand cuts. Mumbai Police is at the centre of the intricate network of law-abiding citizens, criminals, thieves, terrorists and bureaucrats and contributes a great deal to the way the city moves. Rakesh Harikrishan Maria was an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who retired as the Director General (Home Guards) of Maharashtra Police who had also worked as the commissioner of police of Mumbai city. He took part in major investigations such as the 1993 serial blasts and 26/11 attacks. This book is his memoirs spanning 36 years of meritorious work in the IPS, the majority of which was spent in Mumbai.
Maria’s elevation to the top echelons of law enforcement in Maharashtra encourages numerous middle class boys and girls who have no political connections or financial clout to aspire for the glories of Indian civil service. The author is the son of a Punjabi musician and a Pahadi housewife who had no links to power-wielders or elite of the city, which is a triumph of Indian democracy and the inclusive and cosmopolitan spirit of Mumbai. Even while in service, he was sensitive and always receptive to the issues concerning the common man. Maria is usually enraged at the gravity of a crime he investigates just like a layman does. He never puts up airs at being a top police officer and the book is structured in such a way that the readers can empathise with him with minimum effort.
This book is the autobiography of Rakesh Maria, but knowingly or otherwise, the city of Mumbai is also a prominent character in the narrative. Many incidents described in the text would not happen anywhere else. The author is also starry-eyed about his native city in a quite justifiable way. He glorifies the city with the most gratifying epithets such as urbs prima (prime city of the country), the city of dreams and also the city of illusions (maya nagari). The city is the microcosm of India, the symbol of India’s resistance and good cheer that defies all its shortcomings. It is truly cosmopolitan, arduously challenging yet generous. It has created its own language dialects such as Bambaiya Marathi, which is said to be incomprehensible in the state’s countryside.
Quite contrary to the left-liberal portrayal of the early 1990s as a period of great oppression of the minorities in India, we see them quite powerful in this book and capable of forceful retaliations against violence inflicted by organisations representing the majority. Even before the destruction of the disputed structure at Ayodhya in 1992, major cities in India had been rocked by a series of bomb blasts designed to create panic among general public and to undermine the morale of the police and law enforcement agencies. The author notes with concern that the social fabric of Mumbai was so fragile in the 1990s that even a tiny spark was enough to ignite a communal conflagration. Criminal gangs were polarized on communal lines with Dawood Ibrahim leading a group of mainly Muslim thugs and Chhota Rajan leading mostly Hindu thugs. Police diary notes of the 1993 communal riots and the events which led to it clearly indicate that it was not one-sided at all as is often described. The serial blasts of 1993 shocked the nation and the Chhota Rajan gang embarked on killing all those in the serial bomb blasts case.
Maria personally supervised the interrogation of Ajmal Amir Kasab of Faridkot, Pakistan who was the sole terrorist captured alive in the 26/11 attacks and later hanged after a fair judicial trial. He narrates the subtle shades of subterfuge employed by his handlers in Pakistan who nearly succeeded in passing the men off as Hindu terrorists. All of them sported a red string tied around their wrists like a Hindu and carried identity cards with fictitious Hindu names. Kasab was named as ‘Samir Dinesh Chaudhari’ of Hyderabad (p.436). The inordinate delay in hanging Afzal Guru, a convicted terrorist in the deadly 2001 parliament attack case emboldened Kasab that the Indian state was soft and his own execution would also be postponed indefinitely. This book contains the verbatim transcript of the conversations of the attackers with their handlers in Pakistan. The author tried his best to dispel the indoctrination of Kasab that the bodies of the martyred terrorists would glow in the dark and would emanate a sweet scent. He was surreptitiously taken to the hospital morgue where the partially decomposed bodies of the other attackers were kept to have a look at reality. On the way back, he was made to kiss the ground at a safe location and made to utter the patriotic cry Bharat Mata ki Jai twice, which he obeyed meekly.
Even though the author diligently managed the control room activities where he was assigned by his boss during the 26/11 attacks, he was accused by the wife of Ashok Kamte, a senior police officer killed in the attacks. She alleged that Maria sent him to a dangerous location and did not provide timely help. The author does a detailed job to refute this claim but the effort was mentally so taxing that he wishes that he had died that night instead of the other. He then wryly remarks that Ajmal Kasab too wanted to die because he wanted paradise while Maria was getting hell here. This book explains the sad plight of the overburdened police force with long duty hours and poor living conditions far from the required level of fitness. No wonder they sink into apathy and lethargy that comes with repetitive monotonous work. Even then, there are many resourceful officers in the force as evidenced in the clandestine transfer of a criminal from Nepal to India. The Mumbai police team even bribed the Nepali border guards by giving away their gold rings and chains!
The author believes in team spirit at the workplace and studiously lists out names of his subordinate officers – even down to the constables – who had taken part in investigations rather than appropriating sole credit. Some prominent and sensational cases are also discussed to attract readers. Maria is so confident of his ability and investigative prowess that he doesn’t hesitate to admit his goof ups. In the Sherlock Holmes series too, we come across stories such as the ‘Five Orange Pips’ and ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ in which the famous detective failed to provide a breakthrough! A blow by blow account of the 26/11 incidents are given which is very detailed and full of police jargon as to repel many a reader. Conversations in Hindi and Marathi with low-ranking officials, criminals and politicians are reproduced as such along with its English translation. This is very cumbersome at times. We can see such a practice in Sanskrit plays of the classical era. Unrefined characters and women use Prakrit or the local dialect while the major personalities use nothing but Sanskrit on stage. The author was transferred out of the post of commissioner due to a mix up in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case and when the government thought he was taking an undue interest in the case. Though he argued with senior officials and even the chief minister over the issue, the mind of the government was set against him and he could not approach the media with his own version of the story. The title of this book, ‘let me say it now’ in fact means his justification for what he has done in the Bora case.
The book is highly recommended.
Rating: 3 Star
No comments:
Post a Comment