K P S GILL: THE PARAMOUNT COP
Rahul Chandan
Maple Press
244 pages; Rs 295
The story of Sikh extremism and police action in Punjab is loaded with violence, cruelty, heroism, cowardice, betrayal and high drama. It created an eternal night of pervasive terror in that state until K P S Gill - and substantially he alone - ended it. In that sense, Rahul Chandan's book, KPS Gill: The Paramount Cop, raises the valid point that Mr Gill deserves a proper appreciation of his contribution to the cause of national unity.
Mr Gill's eminence as an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer may be the core point of the book and the author establishes that fact with some interesting anecdotes about the man, revealing his hard-boiled professionalism as well as his daring and humane sides. The effectiveness of this message, however, is diminished by the biographer's penchant for unrealistic hyperbole, notably comparing Mr Gill's performance as a policeman to that of famous military leaders such as Ulysses Grant, Dwight Eisenhower and Bernard Montgomery.
But why blame Mr Chandan alone? He quotes the late Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who even equated Mr Gill, who is also a former security advisor to Narendra Modi, with some of history's most outstanding leaders - Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Deshmukh did not stop there. "The first name which comes to my mind is Chattrapathi Shivaji, Sardar Patel was also a legend, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is another, Indiraji and Rajivji have some outstanding qualities but in contemporary times you can have Gill Sahib," he had gushed. Such overwhelming generosity would have hugely embarrassed even the subject of the praise.
The best perspective on Mr Gill's contribution probably comes from former journalist and National Democratic Alliance Cabinet minister Arun Shourie. K P S Gill, he said, was the one man who saved Punjab for India at a time when there was no hope and he did it only by personal example and personal courage when there was no institutional support - the courts were not functioning, the administration had evaporated and the politicians, of course, had run away.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, Mr Gill's contributions did not lack for controversy. On December 18, 1990, as director general of police, he took a massive personal risk in mounting relentless operations against the militants. By 1993, the back of the extremists was broken. How he went about achieving this attracted considerable criticism later. Often, violence was met with violence and, in the process, innocent people may have suffered. As a result, Mr Gill and his police force faced serious allegations from so-called human rights groups, some of which were proxies of the Khalistanis. It is also true that several senior police colleagues were highly critical of Mr Gill's anti-terror tactics.
Part of the reason for the criticism was that Mr Gill's success in Punjab was possible precisely because of the non-interference from the bureaucracy and politicians, which enabled him to operate with full freedom. This is a point the author has emphasised, though it is possible that the distance of time has lent a certain hue of enchantment to the episodes he describes.
The non-police bureaucracy surfaced with all its fangs after peace and order was restored in Punjab, even though it was conspicuous by its invisibility during the high noon of the terrorist violence. And Mr Gill was to be haunted by his intolerance of the bureaucracy. From that point of view, perhaps, he can be excused for making satirical comments about the bureaucracy and its love for playing golf in normal times.
Since this is not entirely an objective study, it is worth noting that the author has cleverly avoided reference to the famous "pat-on-the-back" controversy involving a senior woman IAS officer. The only mention of it is an oblique one; Mr Chandan refers to an incident in which an influential individual had approached Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani for utilising Mr Gill's services against militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Advani reportedly said, "I know he can do that, but there is a molestation case against him."
Although the book may have made an attempt to highlight Mr Gill's achievements, the author has not been helped by his editors or the proofreaders. To write "causalities" for "casualties" (page 207), "sceptic tanks" (page 70), "Gill was not a calculated man in matters of finance" (page 83), and "after listening in details to the acquisitions" (page 106), etc is jarring. The text is replete with such lapses and it is hoped that these will be removed should there be another edition.
