By Dr. Bikkar Singh Lalli
“We are all visitors to this time and place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love, then to return home”. On Sept. 12, former DGP Kirpal Dhillon, a dear friend of mine since 1951, returned “home” after his visit to this land for 89years. He was hospitalised at Max hospital, Saket, where he breathed his last. He is survived by his wife Sneh and three very talented daughters. I and my wife had a tea with Amrita Dhillon, who visited UBC’s Saunders School of Business, four years ago.
On Sept.19, 1951, both Kirpal and I joined as lecturers at Sikh National College Qadian. He was a brilliant scholar of English literature, and soon became one of the most popular instructors. Both of us were given accommodation, meant for guests, at the second floor of the student residences, where we shared all the existing facilities, and enjoyed the evening meals together. During my student life I was not interested in supports. I could not play badminton with him, when he pressed me for doing that. It is all because of him that I became a good all round player within a short time. Two fourth year girls, started playing badminton with us. Kirpal once said jokingly: “Bikkar you are respected by your students, but I am loved by my students”. One of those girls, indeed, fell in love with him, and the second one played a very supporting.
In 1952, Kirpal joined Sudhar College, closure to his family, and from there he wrote the exam for Indian central services. His English essay was adjudged the best. His first choice was IPS, the choice he later regretted. In 1953, he joined the IPS batch of Madhya Pradesh cadre. From Sudhar, once he visited Qadian and met that girl at her friend’s house. That sweet and beautiful girl could not survive the shock of a “blunt refusal” from her parents, and Kirpal was heart- broken. When I was going through the manuscripts of his books: “Identity and Survival” and Time Present & Time Past: Memoirs of a Top Cop”, I did not find any reference of that unfortunate tragedy, and I avoided referring to it in any of my emails to him, thinking that he may not have mentioned it to anybody else.
Director General of Police Punjab Mr. Suresh Arora has deeply condoled the demise of Kirpal. In his condolence message Mr. Arora said “Mr. Dhillon had a distinguished career and was a guiding force and great mentor to his juniors. He was a person of indomitable courage and undaunted commitment to profession. His demise is a great loss to the Punjab Police, he added”. He prayed to the almighty to grant peace to the departed soul and give strength to the bereaved family to withstand this grief.
The full life story of his hard and dedicated work is revealed by Ms. Bhama Devi Ravi, in her review of his autobiography, in Hindu (March 24, 2014. And an article by Mr. Sanjoy Hazarika, a long-time friend of Kirpal, and former Director International Director of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. The first real challenge he faced was his posting in the dacoits-infested Madhya Pradesh. A posting which he confronted fully in conformation with his conviction on what is good and correct policing. He succeeded in persuading some of the most dreaded dacoits, and Chambal ravines’ most celebrated bughies, to surrender. Even though he did not agree with the way the “surrender” was accepted by the political powers, he was quite happy with his role and the outcome. For this man- integrity was a bag of honour, says Bhama Devi Ravi. She further adds that there are many instances narrated by the author of how witnesses are manipulated, how erring policemen are protected and even custodial deaths are covered up as a departmental routine – often with the cooperation of the District Magistrates. In his view, the lowest point in policing was his during the counter terrorism operation in Punjab with the Punjab Police being given a free run, thereby becoming a “lawless Law-enforcer”.
After Operation Blue Star, he was appointed DGP in July3, 1984, a month after that traumatic, bloody operation, he would travel across villages with light security at a very challenging time. The effort was to re-instill confidence in the Punjab police and the system. When Indira Gandhi interviewed him for the Punjab job personally, she said to him, “Suna hain aap bahut shareef hain”. That endorsement of integrity was to him, a ringing affirmation of those core beliefs-says Mr. Hazarika. He saw the need for the police to be a community service, sensitive to the people and understanding of their concerns and needs, and not just an agency of enforcers. “Under our system, the police is there for the protection of the Raj, the rulers, the establishment, it is not there for the protection of the people. The aam janata would be the last to receive the protection of the police, he remarked”, (Kirpal). After the assassination of Longowal, Dhillon was replaced by his batchmate Julio Ribeiro, who became well-known for his “bullet for bullet” statement.
Dhillon has blamed former President Zail Singh and former Home Minister Buta Singh of playing a “dubious game” meant to scuttle whatever the Rajiv-Longowal accord-signed in 1985-meant to achieve. He goes on to blame KPS GIll, the then IG of Punjab, for lapses in security that led to the killing of Harchand Singh Longowal. In his book, Dhillion says: “Longowal had credibility among Hindus and Sikhs. This did not suit Zail Singh and Buta Singh and their supporters in the Punjab Congress.”
“For students of politics and governance, Dhillon’s autobiography is replete with interesting examples of both intrigues and the competitive politics played by the Akalis and the Congress alike at that time, the alienation among the Sikhs following both Operation Blue Star and the Congress party engineered anti-Sikh violence following Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the dismal state of politician-police relations and the extent to which personalities and personal equations between politicians and police officers and, likewise, among police officers themselves play in decision making and police functioning”.
Once, I wrote in “LINK” that “Dhillon should have stayed in the academic field”. After his retirement Dhillon accepted the office of Vice-Chancellor of Bhopal University in the midst of troubled times for the institution. He started his professional life as a lecturer and ended as a Vice-Chancellor, with 35 years of policing in between
Dr. Bikkar Singh Lalli is a Surrey-based writer.
