Today’s Namak ka Deroga versus the famous ‘Namak ka Daroga’ of Munsi Premchandje

 Vivekanand Jha Ranchi: Namak ka Daroga, one of the famous stories penned by an immortal Munsi Ptemchandjee, which is being filmed by Gulzar, was  recently shown on Doordarshan. As I watched the story of an honest and upright Daroga, Station in charge of a police station, the story that I read in my juvenile days, came tumbling out of my memory: How the Deroga, robustly resolved never to take any bribe, outright rejected the tempting bribe offers made to him by the rich landlord whose stock of illegal consignment he had seized.

No wonder the rich and influential landlord, given to high connexions and manoeuvring skills, eventually got the Namak ka Daroga trapped: He was dismissed from his job when the charges he had levelled against the landlord did not sustain. Interestingly, when the family members of the Namak ka Daroga, presuming that all was lost, were excoriating the latter for his gullibility, suddenly the landlord appeared in the scene to reward the Namak ka Daroga–he was reinstated with better perks and privileges as the general manager of the landlord.

 Contrast this story with the real life scenario: Today’s one of Namak ka Daroga’s, Mr Anant Kumar Singh, a retired senior bureaucrat, who dared to bite the bullet to defy the institutionalised norms, by daring to lock horns with the topmost leadership of the country. ironically, in contrast to should be construed as prudent step, by pushing the scam under the carpet, Mr Anant Kumar Singh had gone to order an enquiry of around rupees 200 crores in the Handloom department in the then capacity of the Textile Secretary.

Incidentally, prime minister had congratulated him for organising a great textile fair in Ahmedabad. However as was expected, soon after he had ordered for an investigation into the scam, he was transferred from Textile to Land Resource. Regrettably, even his submission of point by point evidence to Mr Nripendra Mishra, the then Principal Secretary to PM, had hardly had any tangible impact on Prime Minister. The morale of the whole episode is this: while Namak ka Daroga, by way of fictitious character, gets feted for standing by truth, as per the doctrine of Mandukya Upanishad’s Satyamev Jayate, the real life Namak ka Daroga stands reviled and patently ignored for so staunchly adhering to truth and honesty.

This also indicts, in no ambiguous terms, the chest beating Modi, claiming to wondrously possess 56 inches chest to uphold probity in high offices, whose enigmatic silence, even if not an obvious complicity, makes him stand in the witness box. Contrast Modi’s style with that of Shri Vajpayee: During Vajpayee’s regime, when petrol pumps were allotted to the BJP members and their families, Indian Express had conducted a detailed investigation into the same, resulting in the then Prime Minister cancelling all such allotments. It is on account of Vajpayee’s doctrine of ‘no tolerance’ or ‘ zero tolerance’ towards corruption and fundamental belief of Swami Vivekananda’s vision of ‘ Vedantist mind and Islamic body’ shall constitute Bharat Varsha. Seemingly, it is this principle i have been steadfastly parading through my articulation. No wonder i held on to this belief, throughout my yesterday’s interview.

Vivekanand Jha