I Was Nehru's Shadow: From the Diaries of KF Rustamji (IP) Padma Vibhushan

Cover

It was a great pleasure to go through the book compiled by PV Rajgopal from my husband’s diaries on his years with Pandit Nehru. My husband and I were privileged to have had the opportunity of getting to know more about the man rather than just the public persona. It could be said that this was our tryst with destiny.

—Mrs Naju Rustamji

As one who has served under KF Rustamji, I found him to be an extraordinarily perceptive, sensitive, compassionate and far-sighted person. He was a keen observer of men and events, who could objectively and precisely sum up his impressions in a few pithy phrases. His long and proximate association with Jawaharlal Nehru, that incredibly popular Indian leader, during a most crucial phase of Indian history, enabled Rustamji to look at the great Indian tamasha in a manner given to few other Indians of his generation. PV Rajgopal has done a remarkable job in editing an extensive and often disparate journal and turning the finished product into a highly readable account of independent India’s first few critical decades. The book is a valuable addition to Nehruana.

—Kirpal Dhillon

(former Director General of Police, Punjab, Vice Chancellor, Bhopal University and Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and author of Defenders of the Establishment.)

I find myself in a unique position in the context of this book. I knew both the main personalities in the text—KF Rustamji as a professional, and Nehru because he was my elder uncle (Bade Phupha; Mrs Kamla Nehru was my father’s elder sister). Until 1964 I had a free run at the Teen Murti Bhavan—the Prime Minister’s house and used to meet the great man in family gatherings.

As for Rustamji, my meetings began after 1970 and ended by 1998, when our paths got separated. It was during the period when Rustamji was with the National Police Commission that we found ourselves together on some sections of his tours and shared our views on police matters.

The reader will find the material in this book of immense research value on Nehru. We have till date tended to treat Nehru as a political persona. Here is an original insight into the human being that he was. The author has taken great pains to collect the facts and arrange them for the delight of the reader. Nehru emerges as never before, and so does his Boswell, who kept the details of the daily routines around the man and also looked after his security.

—Pandit Gautam Kaul

(former DG, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and author of Cinema and the Indian Freedom Struggle.)

This book is based on original archives and covers the period from 1952 to 1958, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was at his peak. As Nehru’s Chief Security Officer, Rustamji closely observed how Nehru impacted on the people and this comes out very well in this book.

—Dr Bhashyam Kasturi

(Associate Editor, Selected Works of Jawaharalal Nehru and author of Walking Alone—Gandhi and India’s Partition.)

About the cover

Jawaharlal Nehru consistently ignored the absolute minimum of precautions, refusing to travel in a closed car, which he called a cage, flaunting himself in an open car. Sometimes he got up on a bus or jumped up on the bonnet of the car or would sit on its mudguard and drive through a crowd, happy as a schoolboy out for a bit of adventure. Sometimes he got down and walked through the crowds which became wild with joy, seeing their favourite idol in their midst. It was partly due to these pranks that people took him to their hearts.

Nehru, who was extremely fond of fruits, always had with him bananas (which he called ‘the fruit of travel’) or apples in the car and kept munching them during travel (from KFR’s diaries).

The photograph on the cover shows Nehru eating something while going from Bidar to Osmanabad (both places were then in Hyderabad state) in September 1952. KF Rustamji, his Chief Security Officer, is sitting next to him, wearing a sola topi.

The photographs are from Rustamji’s own collection, except for those that are acknowledged separately.

i was nehru’s shadow

FROM THE DIARIES OF

KF RUSTAMJI, IP, PADMA VIBHUSHAN

Edited by

PV RAJGOPAL

© PV Rajgopal, 2006

First published 2006

Reprinted 2007

Second Edition 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise—without the prior permission of the author and the publisher.

ISBN: 978-81-8328-330-4

Published by

Wisdom Tree

4779/23, Ansari Road

Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110 002

Ph.: 23247966/67/68

wisdomtreebooks@gmail.com

Printed in India

To

the memory of all those

gallant police and security personnel

who laid down their lives

protecting the lives of the

political leaders of the country.

Khusro Framroze Rustamji

KF Rustamji was born on 22 May 1916 at Kamptee near Nagpur, where he had his entire education. He did his schooling at St Francis De Sales School and MSc from College of Science in 1936. He worked as a Demonstrator in Zoology in the same college from 1936 to 1938.

In 1938, Rustamji was the only person selected from the erstwhile Central Provinces, now Madhya Pradesh (MP) for the Indian Police (IP), the forerunner of the present day Indian Police Service (IPS).

After serving as Superintendent of Police in some districts of MP, he was promoted in 1949 and posted to Aurangabad, which was then in Hyderabad state, as Range Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG). He went on deputation to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 1952 where, as Deputy Director, he was in charge of the Prime Minister’s security apart from other miscellaneous duties.

In 1958, at the age of 42, he became the youngest Inspector General of Police (IGP) of MP where he distinguished himself for the next seven years reorganising the police forces of four states which, some months earlier, had been merged to form the composite state of MP. Within a short period he made a name for himself with the elimination of several notorious dacoits of the Chambal ravines, including Rupa and Laakhan, the two main lieutenants of the legendary Man Singh. Among the others eliminated were Amritlal and Gabbar Singh.

In August 1965, a few days prior to the Indo-Pak war, he was specially selected by Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to head the newly formed Border Security Force (BSF). Starting as a one man force, in a span of nine years, he made it what it is today.

He served as Special Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs from 1974-76, as member of the National Police Commission from 1978-83, as member, Police Research and Development Advisory Council in 1985 and member, National Integration Council in 1990. In recognition of the services rendered as DG, BSF during the Indo-Pak war in 1971, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan.

Rustamji was a prolific writer who wrote on various matters of topical interest affecting internal security and the police. His contributions after retirement from Service were recognised with the award of Padma Vibhushan in 1991.

The police icon, who became a legend in his lifetime, died on 2 March 2003 in Mumbai, leaving behind wife Naju, daughter Kerman, grand-daughter Zena, son Cyrus and daughter-in-law Namrita.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface to the Second Edition

Introduction

About My Diaries

1. Nehru’s Chief Security Officer

2. Nehru–The Man

3. Nehru’s Courage

4. Nehru’s Temper 92

5. Nehru–The Prime Minister

6. Nehru’s Security

7. Nehrumania

8. Nehru’s Foreign Relations

9. Nehru and the Congress

10. Nehru’s Faults

11. Nehru’s Musings

12. Nehru–A Final Good-bye

Index

Acknowledgements

The author of a book requires the help and cooperation of many. I am no exception. I also required the support of several friends, colleagues and relatives. It is difficult to mention the names of all those who have made it possible for me to edit the diaries of KF Rustamji, which were donated to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in Teen Murti House, New Delhi. I would like to express my grateful thanks:

􀁺 To NMML for facilitating to use the diaries. I would especially like to thank the persons in the manuscript section for their cooperation and assistance.

􀁺 To Dr AK Saxena, Reader, National Police Academy (NPA) for all the assistance provided right from the time I conceived the idea of writing the book.

􀁺 To Raghav, Satish, Prakash and Aditya of the computer section of the NPA for the help rendered in preparing the manuscript.

􀁺 To Bhanu Bhaskar IPS, SP CBI for going through the manuscript at the early stages and putting it on proper track.

􀁺 To Prof R Ravi Kumar of IIM, Bangalore for going through the manuscript and suggesting improvements.

􀁺 To Pavan Choudary, CEO, Vygon (India) Ltd for all the help and advice he rendered.

􀁺 To my brothers PV Ramdas and PV Narasayya and nephew Nyayapati Gautam for going through the manuscript and offering suggestions for improving the readability.

􀁺 To my nephew, Major PTR Jagannath and his wife for undertaking the arduous task of typing the manuscript.

􀁺 To the publisher, Wisdom Tree, for his cooperation in bringing out the book at short notice.

􀁺 And finally to my son Rajiv for the motivation, valuable assistance and encouragement provided without which this book would not have been possible.

Preface to

the Second Edition

When KF Rustamji agreed to hand over his papers to me, he seemed doubtful whether a biography based on his diaries and articles would be popular with the readers. However, he repeatedly exuded confidence in his diaries that they would interest people as they concern men and matters of his age and reflect the spirit of his times. I was sure that a book on Nehru, based on the writings of a person who was in the constant company of the Prime Minister as his Chief Security Officer for six long years and, who recorded faithfully his observations and experiences in minute detail, would be an invaluable addition to existing Nehruana.

The first edition of this unique narrative proved an instant hit. It was reviewed widely and also figured on the bestsellers’ list for some weeks.

This second edition has been brought out in paperback, in the hope that a wider section of the audience would get to read an authentic first-person account of one of India’s greatest sons.

List of Abbreviations

I have known Nehru as few people have known him—and few will ever know him. (An entry in Rustamji’s diary after leaving his post as Chief Security Officer to Prime Minister Nehru in May 1958.)

Introduction

KF Rustamji was a prolific writer who contributed articles with unfailing regularity to newspapers and magazines on various police related and other subjects. In his writings, he brought out succinctly the ills prevailing in the police administration, the judiciary, the society and the political set-up. Few people are aware that he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan mainly for his exposes, which included the plight of the undertrials languishing in jails, which resulted in the filing of the first Public Interest Litigation, (PIL) apart from the services rendered by him after retirement as DG, BSF. It therefore surprised me why even a talented writer like him did not publish his autobiography, unlike the large number of Indian Civil Service (ICS) officers and British members of the IP who have written about their lives and times.

On one of his visits to the National Police Academy where I was the Director, I asked him in 1999 why he never thought of writing his autobiography after such an illustrious career and his acknowledged gift of writing. His wry answer was, Who is going to read it? I ventured to ask him if he would permit me to write his biography. Rustamji instantly agreed. What struck me very vividly was that he appeared immensely delighted that somebody had volunteered to do so.

Rustamji informed me that in 1938 he had started making a record in the form of a diary, when he was posted to a police station for training as a Station House Officer (SHO). He continued that journal, writing intermittently for all the years, and after retirement wrote on various subjects in the form of Tour Notes and also contributed articles to newspapers and magazines. He said that he gave all his diaries to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in New Delhi, at their request.

To my question as to why he had given away his private papers to the NMML, Rustamji replied that he was introduced to some office-bearers of the Nehru Museum. When he said that he had written articles on Pandit Nehru in his off moments, they asked him to gift them to the NMML. He gave the diaries with a condition that they should not be shown to anyone without his permission. He was also interviewed for a number of days and a transcript made in 1993.

I visited the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi in March 1999 and found there were six cartons containing 3,500 pages of his writings written over a period of more than 30 years in service. I browsed through a few of them and was amazed at the wealth of information available. All the diaries written on foolscap size papers were in his handwriting. His Tour Notes and his articles in several newspapers and magazines (which were not in the NMML) ran into over 6,000 typed/printed pages. I felt that there was enough material available for an illuminating biography.

I started off by sending him a questionnaire to which he gave detailed replies. Twice I went over to his flat in Bombay in 1999 and had long interviews with him, which I recorded on my Walkman. He volunteered information about his life and gave lengthy replies to my questions.

During the course of the interviews, he specified certain points for me to adhere to—the first being that his biography should be based solely on his writings. Secondly, the writings should be in chronological order so that the reader knows what was the thinking at that time. Lastly, the profits from the book should be given to a welfare fund of the National Police Academy.

With so much of material at my disposal and his condition that his biography should be based solely on his writings, I felt it would not be fair on my part to write a book in the form of a biography and take credit. No other person I know of has written about himself, the events in his life, his thoughts and ideas in such detail and with such regularity and for such a prolonged period. I therefore decided to edit his writings and bring out a book as a first person account.

Out of the 3,500 pages of Rustamji’s diaries, nearly 1,600 pages relate to the period he spent as Chief Security Officer to the Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. In the boxes were small notebooks, chits of paper, tour programmes of the PM issued by the state governments and the police and on which he jotted down points for writing his diary later in the day. He also made a great contribution to posterity by preserving in his files the points noted down by Pandit Nehru for delivering speeches at important meetings. These give an authentic insight into Nehru’s thinking. Rustamji also took pains to make clippings of newspaper reports of important events and paste them in his journal.

During the course of the interview, Rustamji stated, Once again I must say, once I give my papers to you, I lose all rights on them. It’s your problem what you do, what you like and what you make of them. Taking advantage of this carte blanche statement, I decided to first bring out a separate book on his years with Nehru. What reinforced my decision was first, an entry in Rustamji’s diaries: I have known Nehru as few people have known him; and few will ever know him. Secondly, I myself have been a great fan of Nehru. I had seen him thrice. Once it was from close quarters. In December 1954, early in the morning, he drove past our Cantonment Road bungalow in Cuttack. He was wearing a brownish coloured achkan and was looking fresh and radiant. He smiled a dazzling smile and waved at us, brother and sisters, as if he knew us for a long time.

As years passed by, I read books by and about Pandit Nehru and my admiration for him grew. I thought I should also author a book on India’s first Prime Minister with the vast treasure-trove of documentation on Nehru available with me, particularly that which have been penned by a person who acted as his Boswell for a period of nearly six years, from 1952 to 1958, on almost a day-to-day basis. The competent recorder and reporter of these writings was a person about whom Nehru himself admitted, I know Rustamji very well and after a pause and an enigmatic smile added, "Rustamji also knows me very well."

Books on Nehru keep coming out at regular intervals. However, most of them are based on secondary sources and are thus, in some measure, formal and impersonal. Nehru himself, in his autobiography, has naturally tended to omit what he regarded as matters of no importance and has been unable to say how he had impacted on other people and in what way he had affected others’ lives. The portrait of Nehru painted by Rustamji is different. With his keen power of observation, small happenings of each day have not escaped his attention and with his happy gift for recording them in an interesting and realistic manner, one finds something peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the very strangeness and, to our eyes, the eccentricity of the man, Nehru. Never have the small events of the great statesman’s daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of Pandit Nehru been set down with so minute a fidelity. Rustamji’s accounts alternate between weighty matters and an unfamiliar kind of humour, while all the while displaying an undercurrent of reverent love for his master—Pandit Nehru.

Rustamji acted as Nehru’s shadow during the period when Nehru was a human dynamo of energy and was constantly on the move, not only within the country but abroad as well, actively pursuing India’s foreign relations. I felt that a book on Nehru based on Rustamji’s diaries of those eventful years would not only make interesting reading but also portray a candid close-up of an illustrious Indian recorded on almost a day to day basis.

I have faithfully excerpted entries contained in Rustamji’s diaries even to the extent of retaining the way he spelt the names of places. I have also made use of the articles published by him, the transcript made by JS Nahal of the NMML after interviewing Rustamji and my own two interviews with him. After going through the voluminous material, I have divided it into 12 broad chapters and selected entries relevant to the chapters from the diaries of different days and arranged them to form a seamless narrative. The only additions and alterations I have made from my side, at some places, are some phrases or clauses to join two sentences or a sentence to join two paragraphs picked up from diaries of different dates. I also had to change the tense at places.

The excerpts from the diaries have been carefully selected to serve as a delightful biographical document on Pandit Nehru and at the same time, unwittingly, as an excellent autobiographical sketch of Rustamji himself, who joined the Prime Minister’s services at the young age of 36. I do not think there would have been any person in those days who could angrily order a Prime Minister of the stature of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mr Prime Minister, you must come back to the rostrum.

My only regret is that I could not bring out the book before Rustamji expired on 2 March 2003, due to my own preoccupation with my job till 2001 and thereafter with other matters. He would have been able to fill in some blanks that I came up against while editing the journal. He would also have been delighted to see in print the first instalment of his journal, which he was so immensely proud of; as the entry in his diary states that it was his fondest hope that his journal, which he calls his truest friend, should be edited and made available for reading. However, I feel satisfied that I have been able to fulfil a promise made to a man for whom my respect and regards increased manifold after going through his highly readable and illuminating journal.

The first page of Rustamji’s diary dated 8 November 1938. Rustamji joined service on 7 March 1938 and, as was the practice in those days, he was posted for training directly to Saugor district in Madhya Pradesh. He was sent for his rural police training in November of that year. He began to write the dairy on his first day in police station, Garhakota. Rustamji did not write his diaries on a daily basis. They were written usually after a gap of two or three days. The gaps became bigger as he grew in seniority. The entries were event-based; each entry was given a title.

About My Diaries

I joined the IP in March 1938 and was posted for training to Saugor district of the then Central Provinces.¹ In November of that year I was sent for training as a Station House Officer to a police station. I started making a record in the form of a journal from the first day in the police station and continued writing intermittently for more than three decades.²

I began it in order to keep myself busy and learn to be observant. I kept it up for all the years of my service because I knew I was living in stirring times and had the good fortune to meet interesting people and