Book: "KPS Gill: The Paramount Cop"; Author: Rahul Chandan; Publisher: Maple Press; Pages:244; Price: Rs.295.
K.P.S. Gill, the supercop who crushed terrorism in Punjab, gives a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for the 2002 riots in this book.
Gets your attention, doesn't it?
The book quotes Gill as saying that he was "moved with his (Modi's) sincerity".
Gill was appointed security advisor to Modi during the 2002 riots -- and it was a decision that worked.
He is quoted as saying that "...through the pages of this book I want to make it clear to one and all that Modi was never communal in his conduct during this whole mayhem".
Gill's praise for Modi practically eclipses Rahul Chandan's effort to pen this book on Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, better known as K.P.S. Gill, who is willing to challenge the system for the larger good, an official who stands by his juniors, an official who takes on his superiors and is frank enough to call a spade a spade.
The author has focussed soft light on Gill's persona, highlighting his strengths. It is an attempt to showcase his chequered career, practically without blemishes. Incident after incident only go on to strengthen the nagging doubt that perhaps the writer, like many others, got carried away by Gill's strong personality.
Gill was undoubtedly a supercop. He was one of the few men in khaki who were an inspiration. But surely he must have his foibles. One hardly gets any insight into that.
He spent a good number of years in Assam before moving to Punjab where the situation needed his unwavering attention.
Gill is quoted in the book as saying that "one of the factors that had led to the emergence of militancy in Punjab was high-level complicity of New Delhi. Eager to consolidate its political hold over the state, the ruling party at the centre was prepared to ignore political violence when it served to intimidate opposition parties at the state level. This gave a kind of encouragement to the acts of terrorism".
K.P.S. Gill was an honest, brave, highly efficient and upright officer - attributes which every police officer in this country must have. He is a national hero in a way, but some would wish that he had not been deified.
(Rahul Dass can be contacted at rahul.d@ians.in)
