વ્યારામાં એક રાતે , લગભગ 10-11 વાગે એક માણસ મારા ઘરે મોટર સાયકલ પર આવી ગયો, કહે “ સાહેબ ચાલોને તમારી જરુર છે “ મેં કહ્યુ શું થયુ છે ? તો કહે મારામારી થઈ છે, એટલે મેં કહ્યુ તો ફોઝદાર સાહેબ પોઆસે જાવ ને, એક ફોઝદાર ન હોય , તો બીજાને મોકલુ, તો પેલો તો કહે “ સાહેબ , મારામારી તો મોટી છે, એક બાજુ હિન્દુઓ બીજી બાજુ મુસલમાનો છે “ અરે યાર, આ તો કોમ્યુનલ થયુ કહેવાય , વિચારી હું નાઈટ ડ્રેસ્સ્માં જ તેની મોટર સાયકલપર બેસી પોલીસ સ્ટેશને પહોંચ્યો, ( મારી જીપ ત્યાં પડી હોય, વળી ડ્રાયવરને તો મેં રજા આપીહતી અને સમય બગાડવો ન હતો) ત્યાં જેટલા પોલીસવાળા મળી શકે, ગાર્ડ ડ્યુટીવાળાઓને પણ તૈયાર કર્યા, એટલામાં પ્રાંત અધિકારી શ્રી પઠાણ આવી લાગ્યા, તેમની જીપમાં પાંચ-સાત પોલીસવાળાને બેસાડ્યા, પઠાન સાહેબ પોતે ડ્રાયવીંગ કરવા લાગ્યા અને અમે કોમ્યુનલ બન્દોબસ્તમાટે રવાના થયા. પઠાણ સા. ના ડાબા હાથમાં સ્ટીયરીંગ અને જમણા હાથમાં લાઠી ઘુમાવતા જાય , મેં પણ સાઈડે બેસી લાઠી ઘુમાવવા માંડી અમે કરફ્યુની જાહેરાત પણ કરી દીધી, , જ્યાં જ્યાં ટોળા દેખાય ત્યાં જીપ ધસે, ટોળા ભાગે , તેમનો પીછો થાય , બીજી જગ્યાએ તોફાન થાય આવુ સવારના 4/5 વાગ્યા સુધી ચાલ્યુ, લગભગ 4 વાગે સુરતથી વધુ પોલીસની કુમક લઈ જીલ્લા પોલીસ અધિકારી નીરુલા આવી લાગ્યા , દરમિયાન અમે ચાર-પાંચ હિન્દુ

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દરમિયાન અમે ચાર-પાંચ હિન્દુ તોફાનીઓને પકડી જીપમાં બેસાડી દીધા હતા, આ વિસ્તારોપર અમારો કંટ્રોલ સારો, એક વાર ગુનેગારને જોઇ લીધો, પછી તે ભાગે નહીં, અને જનતા પણ ઘણી સંસ્કારી , કોઇ ઉન્માદમાં, ઉશ્કેરણીથી ખોટુ કામ કરી પણ નાંખે, તો પાછળથી સમજી જાય, હવે બન્યુ એવુ કે પઠાણ સાહેબ જીપમાં બેઠાબેઠા “ તોફાનીઓ વિરુધ્ધ ( હિન્દુઓ ) કાંઈ ને કાંઈ બબડાટ કર્યા કરતા હતા, તે પેલા પકડાયેલા તોફાનીઓ સાંભળતા હતા, તેમને કોર્ટમાં રજુ કરવામાં આવ્યા , તેમને જામીનપર છોડાયા કેનહીં તે આજે યાદ નથી, પરંતુ એ આરોપીઓએ પઠાણ સાહેબ જેકાંઈ હિન્દુઓ વિરુધ્ધ બોલેલા તે બધુ બીજાઓને કહી દીધુ, દરમિયાન તો તોફાનો કાબુમાં આવી ગયા હતા, પણ પેલા આરોપીઓએ રાતના જીપમાં બેસીને સાંભળેલી વાતોથી લોકો ભડક્યા અને, એક મોટુ ટોળુ પોલીસ સ્ટેશનસામે આવી લાગ્યુ,પઠાણ મુર્દાબાદ” બોલતુ બોલતુ, હવે તો નવેસરથી તોફાનો ચાલુ થઈ જાય એવુ થઈ ગયુ, જ્યાં રાતે ચાલુ તોફાનો વેળા લાઠી થી કામ ચાલી ગયુ , તે સ્થિતિ બદલાઈ ગઈ હતી , અને લોકોનો ગુસ્સો પ્રાંત અમલદાર સામે આવી ગયો, રાતે મેં ફાયરીંગ ન કર્યુ, પરંતુ દિવસે ફાયરીંગ કરવાનો સમય આવ્યો ! અને તે પણ ક્ષુલ્લક કારણથી ! એટલે અજાણ્યા માણસોની હાજરીમાં ગમે તેવા શબ્દો કાઢવા નહીં, તે સાંભળનાર કોઇ પણ હોઇ શકે છે, અજાણ્યાની રુબરુ બોલવાનું જોખમકારક હોય છે,Bottom of Form

CHIPPING IN: Former United States President Jimmy Carter constructs a house as part of the project to build 100 homes under the Habitat For Humanity, at Lonavala near Mumbai on Sunday.

Meena Menon

With wife and son, he led 2,000 volunteers in the construction work

·  Habitat for Humanity is building 100 houses

·  Issue of water not yet resolved, says society president

Patan (Pune district): Sadiya Sheikh did not sleep much on Sunday night. She was so excited that a former U.S. President was going to build a house for her on Monday.

From 8 a.m., a group of 2,000 volunteers led by Jimmy Carter; wife Rosalynn and son Jeff starts building houses here for needy women under a programme of the voluntary organisation, Habitat for Humanity.

Mr. Carter, 82, wearing a black cap and a grey checked shirt, looks at ease and carefully places concrete blocks to build a wall, which is almost complete by noon. His wife places the cement while his son provides the finishing touches. He later tells reporters he has a good wife who tells him what to do.

Sadiya lives at Varsoli village, eight km from here, in a rented house. Her husband Aziz is a driver with a private company. "I was introduced to Mr. Carter and his family and they asked about my children," she says. The only thing she wants is to get Mr. Carter's autograph. "He was so busy in the morning that I did not want to disturb him," she says laughing.

Donors

Mr. Carter is not the only celebrity working on Sadiya's house. Towards noon, Hollywood star Brad Pitt makes an unannounced appearance. Pitt is in India accompanying actor Angelina Jolie shooting for a film.

One hundred houses are being built by the Habitat for Humanity and the women contribute Rs. 75,000 for each house. They have already paid Rs. 25,000 and the rest will be paid in monthly instalments over seven years. The rest of the money comes from Habitat. Major partners for the project include Citigroup, Dow India, Vedanta Resources, Posco India, Aditya Birla Group, Whirlpool and HDFC.

Australian cricketer Steve Waugh contributed his bit to house building in another area of the seven-acre site, apart from Pooja Bedi and Dolly Thakore. The construction will continue this week.

All women allottees are members of the Abhinav Cooperative Credit Society, which is part of the NGO, Social Action for Manpower Creation (SAMPARC) in Maval taluka. There are 24 workers for each house, says Tony Bible, heading a group nearby.

Volunteers from all parts of the world are spread out at the site. Billy Burke, an ocean marine insurance underwriter based in New York, has been volunteering in Habitat's programmes for seven years.

"I give 20 days on an average in a year to build or repair houses," he says. He feels there is a sense of accomplishment and he meets "wonderful" people.

Burke says everyone has the ability to build but they do not use that ability.

Peggy Ehrhart from New Jersey has come for the first time to India and this is also her first attempt as a volunteer. "I have been a donor for Habitat and this time I thought I would actually work on the houses. I do have some experience in house building, we often do plastering and things back home," she says.

Lack of amenities

Most women have already worked at the site for a month. However, many of the basic amenities are not in place and water supply is a major concern.

Abhinav Cooperative Credit Society president Kantabai Katkar says the issue of water has not yet been resolved. As it is water supply is erratic in Maval taluk from where the beneficiaries of the project come from, she says.

Ernesto Castro, project director, says that the seven borewells sunk did not yield water but they are expected to fill up during the monsoon.

 We have learnt many things about simplicity of Lal Bahadur Shastree  and Vallabhbhai Patel .  

      We are learning the reports how the leaders of India and Pakistan have been robbing  the National Treasury  , particularly Commonwealth  Case, Chara Fraud , Coal Fraud and what not.

       Since relations between Pakistan remain  always strained, we never look to the positive sides of their rulers, particularly Moh.. Ali Jinna who was basically a Gujarati   from Khoja community.

     He was a trend setter even from the beginning . There are number of instances of his simplicity, humility , straightforwardness  and   fore-sight..

       1.  In the very first meeting of his cabinet , his ADC came to him and requested what to place on the table for the Ministers.  Governor General Jinna stared at him and said, “ Whichever Minister   wish to have tea or coffee, should either take it at home while leaving or returning. The Nation’s money is not for the Ministers. “

     2.  Some items costing  Rs. 38/- were purchased  for the Governor General’s House. Jinna asked for the Bill . He perused it  A few items were purchased on the request of Jinna’s sister Fatima  , he gave instructions that the amount should be deducted from her account. A couple of items were for his personal use , their amount was to be deducted from his ( Jinna’s ) account, The remaining items were for the Governor General and that amount was to be charged to the Government.

     3.  He  was very courageous and prompt in reply even to the  dignitaries. Once brother of the Emperor  of England,  Duke of Gloucestor was to come to Pakistan, the British Ambassador requested Governor  General Jinna to receive him at the air-port. Jinna promptly replied, “  If I do so, the British Emperor will have to go to air port to receive my brother when he would visit England ! “

    4. But he was equally strict with the blood  relations. Once ADC put a visiting card on his table, Jinna was furious on seeing it. The cause of his fury was that it was his brother’s visiting card  printed under his brothewr’s name was “ Brother of  Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Governor general  Pakistan “ Jinna was so furious on reading this that he asked his ADC to tell the visitor not to show his face again to him .

    5.  During the severe winter, he was camping in Ziyarat village of North West Frontier Agency and the climate was very  cold but Jinnah had no woolen socks , so Colonel  Ilahi Baksha  offered  him a pair of woolen socks. Jinnah asked the price and was told that the pair cost Rs. 2/- ( Two ) he said the price was high  , Col. Said “the socks are purchased from your account “  to which the answer from Jinna was that “ Even my account is a National Trust . The Head of the poor country should not be so extravagant “   , and he re-wrapped the socks and returned to the Colonel Ilahi   !

   6.  He ordered a writing  table to be installed in his plane. When the  File reached the Finance Ministry, the Finance Minister  sanctioned it but sent a written note  , “ The Governor General  must ask the Finance Ministry   before issuing any such order” Jinnah gave a written apology and withdrew his previous order.

    7.  There was an incident at the Railway tracks. When his car was to cross some railway crossing,  his ADC Gul Hasa ( who later on became Commander-in- Chief of Pak. Army  )  had asked the Railway Authorities to keep the crossing open so that the  car would pass unstopped. Jinnah learnt of this request  , he was very angry with ADC and said, “ If I  do not obey the rules , who else will ? “  

  2. Hitler had no courage to surrender alive, and he had no courage to shoot himself either. After his wife had taken poison, he had to kill himself, but he had no courage to pull the trigger of revolver and had to call a General to shoot himself .

                               ( 20 )     A

         Sensible Generals of Hitler.

        It is also not a fact that all the Generals  of Hitler were cruel , and had no sense of humanity. I am going to tell you stories  of at least two such Generals who  defied Hitler to save lives of their soldiers.

     General Guderian

    

In December 1941, when war was in full swing, the armies under Guderian were surrounded by the Russian forces.     

 Now Guderian was Field Marshal and was in charge of the Eastern ( Russian  ) Front . On March 28, Guderian again went to the bunker where Hitler was staying , met him

                                                               

 ( 20 )   The Great Sacrifice of a German General’s Wife

                 General   von Dexter  and his courageous wife  Aloise

 The year was 1944  , when the American, British, and Russian forces were threatening German main land. Hitler had virtually lost the war but was adamant to accept defeat  and wanted all German soldiers and officers to lay down their lives for a defeated cause.   Some of his Commanders sensing defeat ,  simply put up a show of resistance , but conducted talks with the advancing Allies for favorable terms of surrender. When Hitler knew such instances , he flew into a rage and wanted to teach a lesson to the surviving Generals  in case they ever thought of surrender. For Hitler the lives of soldiers had no value now and it was better for them to die as they had not fought  valiantly and so , they should die. Such was his perverted thinking. In fact on  22 March 1944, he ordered destruction of all industrial areas of Ruhr, electricity installations,, water works, gas works and all food and clothing stores  before the enemies captured them. His War Production Minister Albert  Speer,  was so much horrified that he contacted the German Generals not to carry out this order of Hitler. Speer was called by Hitler and as usual gave a long lecture to him, then spoke  “ The war is lost , the people will be lost also. It is not necessary to worry about what the German people will need  for survival. On the contrary , it is best for us to destroy  even these things. For the nation has proved to be the weaker  , and the future belongs to the stronger Eastern nation ( Russia )In any case  only those who are inferior    will remain   ( survive ) after this struggle, for , the good have already been killed .   “      ( pp 230   Hitler : Military Commander  by  Rupert Matthews )  

 Such was the mentality of a dictator who  ruled most of Europe .

 When the German  Armies suffered heavy losses and the war turned  tables on Germany, the German Commanders  started thinking sensibly and in some cases there were surrenders before the advancing American and British Armies. Hitler wanted to stop this mentality and  issued ordinance that stipulated that the  families of such Generals, Officers who surrendered or did not put up best efforts , will have to be either shot or sent to Concentration Camps ( labour jails ). In other words the families of the German officers fighting in armed forces were to be regarded as hostages, this  order assumed  legal sanctity as Hitler was duly empowered by amended Constitution to issue such                                           orders and with its pronouncement, it became law. This was called the Law of Hostages.     

     General von Dexter’s family composed of 5 members, 1. himself. 2. his wife Aloise, sons 3. Friedrik  von Dexter  4. Lothar von Dexter 5. Ernst von Dexter .

     Out of these 1. Friedrik , the youngest was  killed in El Alamein ( Africa ) 2. Lothar was killed at Stalingrad in Russia and 3.  Ernst was  killed in  Rostow in Russia.So now he and his wife Aloise remained in the family.

      General von Dexter received order of posting at  Montravil, on the Belgian frontier on the English Channel coast ,  he would be Commanding Officer there and Aloise would remain as hostage at home in village.

      In military terminology then, this place was designated as fortress and it was expected of the soldiers to  live  fighting and die there. No escape or surrender. There was no choice  , either you get killed or your families are shot.  

     Hitler had devised another method of spying on the Generals, he posted  officers from SS , hard core loyalists as their superiors, and one Grupepenfuhrer  Frey was to be his superior.

     The German forces numbering thousands were encircled by American army , and there was no hope for them, either be killed in military action  or be killed by SS men here , in fact two soldiers who attempted to escape were caught and a court martial held and they were to be shot within hours.

     The news of this  predicament of the German Army facing massacre at the hands of the Americans was  broadcast by radios and papers and Mrs. Aloise Dexter came to know of it  as  many days had passed  after von Dexter had joined duties there. She knew that there was no hope for the encircled German  army , and her husband could not surrender fearing her safety at home. The options were very cruel and either of them were to be killed and  along with von Dexter ten  thousand  German soldiers were also destined to die. In any case he can not attempt escape or surrender but would die fighting for a lost cause .

      On the  17^th day of the seize, the attacking forces launched a devastating attack ,  von Dexter was injured .If Dexter was killed his superior Frey was to sacrifice the entire garrison of 10,000 soldiers  , he was a true disciple of Hitler and meant business of war well.  

      A German plane flied over head and dropped a medal for von dexter for resisting the onslaught of the American forces and a letter from Mrs. Aloise Dexter. General Dexter was too tired but in the light of a candle read the letter from his wife. It read : 

         “ My dearest  -  This letter brings you  every good wish  and my deepest love ,             you know you have had during  all the years of our marriage. But, dearest,  I am afraid this letter is going to add  to your unhappiness. I have bad news for you..

     

              “ I shall not be alive when you will receive  this letter . I have a cancer . It has not been too bad until recent days but now I 

                                ( 19 )

       Adamant Hitler and his sensible Generals

     The German dictator Hitler was planning to invade Czechoslavakia. The German Army Chief  Ludwig Beck   was    cautious about the consequences and repercussions of the planned invasion.  He wrote a letter to the Commander-in-Chief  in which he cautioned that as a result of such an invasion,  England, France and Russia will unite against Germany    (  Field  Marshal Caulaincourt had warned napoleon in a similar way )and that USA will become their arsenal ..Germany will never win such a war. The scarcity of raw material for the armed forces will make victory imposible.The military and economic strength of Germany is weaker.

        But C-ib-C  Brauchitsch  was so much mesmerized by Hitler that  he never brought such logistical  problems to the notice of Hitler and he went on toeing whatever line Hitler drew  , blindly.

       As no reply was received from the C-in_C , Army Chief  Beck wrote to him again  , stating, “    In full consciousness of the magnitude of such a step but also                                                         of my respomsibilities , I feel it my duty to urgently ask  that the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces   ( Hitler  )   call off his preparation for war  , and abandon the  intention of solving the Czech question by force  until the military  situation  is fundamentally changed. For the present, I consider  it hopeless  and this view is shared by  all the higher officers of  the General Staff.  “

       Hitler could realize that almost all higher officers were against the intended war.So called a meeting of officers immediately below such officials and harangued them on the necessity of  attacking Czechoslovakia for three hours  !  Even there after one general told, “ If we shift our entire force on Czechoslovakia , then our western border will become undefended and the French Army will easily march into Germany  and our defence wall there will not last more than three weeks. At this point Hitler roared, said what three weeks ? It  is so strong that it will stand there more than three years. And it will thwart the march of the French effectively.

           Hitler was determined to launch attack on Czechoslovakia and  General Beck resigned from his post.

            Germany easily defeated Czechislovakia and in a series of victories  it defeated other small countries , with this his conceit   rose higher and higher and ultimately it attacked France and defeated it. So his conceit saw no bounds and he started dreaming defeating Russia , a colossal country ( see  in the world map, its geographical dimensions )

             But problems of logistics, supplies of woolen  clothings to the soldiers fighting under minus 35 degrees , food supplies at home, went on increasing day by day , as he went on winning more and more territories, the requirements of men , material, food, weapons , spare parts , petrol , communication vehicles, also rose which made it necessary to attack and annex more and more territories. There were less farm labour in Germany so food production had gone down , so granaries of some countries were to be annexed , their   food grains  stocks   consfiscated  and transported to Germany , there were no servants in the house holds of German soldiers and officers, so men and women from the defeated lands  were to be imported into Germany as slaves to  work as servants in the German  house holds, weapons were in constant demand, so ordnance factories were to function round the clock , so jews and other able bodied  men from defeated lands were to be employed there, so more educated men were to be caught and herded as slaves in the ordnance factories, military vehicles were deployed in far flung areas of Europe and Africa  so vehicle factories were to be run non-stop, they run on petrol so petrol fields  of  Rumania  and Russia were to be annexed . This way Hitler got Germany caught in a web of  vicious circle, one action giving rise to another and it in its turn would  create new actions  ! It was like nuclear fission , one atom exploding and giving birth to number of atoms , who exploded and created new atoms only to explode , multiply and on and on !

(      -------------       )

    The result of unsatiable hunger for power and territories ?

1. Napoleon was imprisoned on the island of saint Helena, where de died as a prisoner of England

  2. Hitler had no courage to surrender alive, and he had no courage to shoot himself either. After his wife had taken poison, he had to kill himself, but he had no courage to pull the trigger of revolver and had to call a General to shoot himself .

                               ( 20 )     A

         Sensible Generals of Hitler.

              Speedy justice

          How can it be realized ? 

        Once Julius Caesar went to sea but was captured by the pirates who demanded a ransom of   20 crowns , Caesar said to them , “ You are mistaken in demanding such a small amount from me “

      So, he paid them 50 crowns and got release but told them that he would return and execute them all .

   He went to his capital, collected army and attacked the piratesw, captured them all alive, held a court on the ship and executed them all there and there  !

    No  other King or Dictator has been so much swift in  delivering  justice  !

                                          ( 18  )

                  When Gandhi failed to rise to the occasion

          The place was Nagpur,  the year   1920  ,    93 years ago. 

 The venue was Nagpur, where Congress Adhiveshan  was being held.

The sequence of events was like this .

Gandhi brought a Resolution  in the Subjects Deliberation Committee demanding full scale Independence.. Mohammad Ali Jinna was not agreeable to this demand and stressed the necessity  that before accepting the reins of power , the people and the leaders should be moulded and  educated in the art of democracy., and only there after the Britishers should be told to leave India.

But Gandhi and other Congress leaders were not ready to  accede to Jinna’s proposal. Then Gandhi presented his Resolution in the Plenary Session of the Party.

    As expected M. Jinna  got up to oppose this Resolution and climbed the platform. . The Congress delegates  started booing Jinna and shouted slogans  like :  “ shame , shame , cheater  cheater “ Jinna began his speech  in the din of the shouts , but the audience was  not  ready to listen to him.  

      Jinna spoke, “ The Resolution moved by Mr. Gandhi …. “

      The audience objected to  Gandhi being referred to as “ Mr. Gandhi “ and demanded of Jinna that he address Gandhi as “ Mahatma Gandhi “

 Jinna again spoke      “ Mr. Gandhi’s Resolution   .. “

Again there was uproar against the word “ Mr. Gandhi  “

     Jinna was equally  agitated  and he dropped the reference “ Mr. Gandhi “ and started speaking plainly  “  Gandhi’s Resolution “

     The Congress delegates were infuriated on hearing the word “ Gandhi “ as they were all habituated  to hear of Gandhi as “ Mahatma Gandhi “ only  !

     The delegates shouted , “ No, No , speak  Mahatma Gandhi “

    

          At this juncture, like the  Field  Marshal   Caulaincourt  , Jinna  uttered some divine like prediction  ,  “ At this time the destiny of India is  in the hands of two men , one of them is Gandhi …………………I can see that Gandhi has majority in this session, I appeal to Gandhi to stop this din before it is too late.”

       But there was no response from Gandhi, he remained unmoved  silent and seemed to enjoy the predicament of Jinna . Along with him , the other  Congress leaders also  kept mum and did nothing to stop the din or to appeal to the delegates to listen to Jinna. The convention had turned into a crowd and cat-calls , abuses, insults  from the crowd continued unabated.  

       Yet M. Jinna stood his ground on the platform alone  His courage was praise worthy .    

         M. Jinna  ,exhausted  and   humiliated ,  got down    from the rostrum  . He was so much shocked  and depressed that for months he withdrew within himself .

         He studied the history , sociology and mass psychology of the people of India and came back to politics  to complete the unfinished  sentence  “ The destiny of India is in the hands of two men , Gandhi is one of them    …….” the other man was Mohammad Ali Jinna himself.     

           The seeds of Pakistan were sown in the land of RSS strong hold , Nagpur.  

            He had come prepared with the plans of division of the country , India was bifurcated into two countries 1. Bharat and 2. Pakistan.The history and geography were changed on 15^th August 1947 and M. Jinna  became  Governor General of Pakistan and then the President of Pakistan.

           It seems the stand of Jinna as regards lack of democratic spirit in the people and leaders , particularly of Congress who was destined to become Ruling Party  for decades was correct .

          Gandhi and other Congress leaders had lost a golden opportunity of keeping India undivided, on this fateful day of 1920 in Nagpur. More over ,  Nagpur is the seat of Hindu Orthodoxy, RSS . When Dr. B R Ambedkar shirked Hinduism and embraced Budhdhism  in 1956 , it was again in Nagpur.

( 16  )

          This  happened  in the darbar  of  Napolean

  

           What happens when you do not respect the advice of sanity  ?

         This incident took place in the year   --------.

        The  place was Paris, capital of France.

     

         Napolean was itching for attacking Russia  and was planning the attack.

         For preparing the attack he had called a meeting of his Generals and he put forward his plan to attack Russia. He explained his scheme of attack and the Generals listened to him attentively, naturally, what to do then  ?

        Then one  Marshal  Caulaincourt got up , he spoke with calm and measured voice. He rolled out numerous logical arguments against the planned attack

       Napoleon was listening him with calmness and peacefully.

   Summimg up his arguments , the General told Napoleon,

         “  Sire, my entire life is at youyr disposal, you can do what ever you like to do with it on the war front. . But I do not agree with your planned invasion of Russia  as my conscience  and intuition  tell me that I should tell you where the interest of France lie . If I fail to say  conviction , I would be failing in my duty to  you and the mother land. I do not believe in ----------------  for the sake of it  , but I should say you the  grounds of my conviction plainly and in clear words.  I do not mind if I am branded a coward for advising you against the invasion but I should not back tract  when the questions of life and death of millions of people, including our soldiers, is involved. “

              Napoleon was taken aback on   Marshal’s  plain  representation.

The Emperor got up, and  rushed  in full anger towards marshal Caulincourt.

 He said, “ What do you want to say ? “

Now the marshal dropped all the norms and discipline of the army and    went on ,

“  You should know that the country will be put to untold disaster and all the kings of Europe will unite against  you. It seems you are inviting your down fall  and France will fall with you. “

          In spite of this voice of sanity, Napoleon went on as per his plan and was ruined.

      The lesson of this story is that we should listen to the things we do not like to hear, should think over it, balance various consequences of options available  with cool mind and should  examine our plans from all dimensions and then take decision. This is called mature decision making.

                                    ( 15 )  

 

             What happened    in the  darbar of Gandhinagar  ?

       History is full of such instances , one instance occurred recently on 27.2.2002 ion Gandhinagar, capital of Gujarat.

            The Chief Minister was holding meeting of high ranking officers and Ministers in the wake of Godhra Train incident occurred the morning.

         It was the order of the Chief Minister to the top ranking Police Officers that the Muslims of Godhra had burnt alive at least 60 Hindu pilgrims and so , the Hindus would retaliate  tomorrow, the police should not  obstruct the Hindu rioters in venting out their anger.

       It is the story of the Director General of Police Chakravarti, that he  objected to such instructions as such retaliation would be  violation of law .

   

      The CM did not take this stand kindly and brushed aside the objection of the DGP with anger.  The Police Commissioner of Ahmedabad  P. C. Pande who was present in the meeting , simply  remained seated  calmly like a statue  and did not support   his own DGP Chakravarti ‘s legal stand .

    Next day morning hell broke loose in Pande’s jurisdiction Ahmedabad , Gulbarg Society of Chamanpura where an Ex-MP was straying was gheraoed by the rioters, the inmates  , 69 , killed, Naroda Patiya’s Muslim  colony was burnt,  casualties  -----, in all damage to the lives and property was   ---------    dead  and Gujarat burnt for one month.

      This happened because the Police Commissioner P C Pande and other IAS officers failed to  rise to the occasion , rally round the DGP Chakravarti . in his legal objection.

       Should  we  not call all of them modern day Bhisma ?