Courage under fire

One of 2008′s best Hindi movies was arguably A Wednesday. The story of a common man’s response to living in fear on a daily basis captured the imagination of a country fed up of government’s lame duck responses to the acts of terrorism unleashed upon the common people.

One of the key protagonists in the movie, the character of Mumbai Police Commissioner Prakash Rathod (played by Anupam Kher), was widely appreciated. The reason being that in Comm. Rathod, the people saw their ideal police chief – one who was firm, intelligent and brook no interference from the political class. It was, to some extent, like the “Harrison Ford for President” feeling that rippled through the US after his portrayal of President James Marshall in the 1997 movie Air Force One.

So when I heard a story about NSG Director-General J.K. Dutta from the 3 days of terror after 26/11, I thought we need not look for fictional heroes. Real life heroes like the reel-life Comm. Prakash Rathod do exist.

Please be aware that this is a story based on a third-hand account and could well be embellished a little. But at least I can overlook any embellishments, if at all, and help carry this story into folklore which enhances the aura around the National Security Guard (NSG).

It was a tense time as a city, country and indeed the whole world watched with bated breath as a handful of determined terrorists sneaked into Mumbai and wrought havoc at various points in South Mumbai killing hundreds. As the elite NSG was called in from Delhi, Hotel Taj became the nerve center of the NSG ops in response to the terror attacks. So much of the media coverage was concentrated around the iconic hotel just across the road from the Gateway of India. The key correspondents from various local, national and international media houses set up base there. The key reason being that NSG chief J.K. Dutta was right there in the hotel managing the ops. That’s right, the man was in the hotel as the action erupted all around him.

J.K. Dutta had camped in the hotel where he sat at a table with three walkie talkies, a mobile phone and a notepad with a pen. As the bullets rattled throughout the hotel, as the terrorists set fire to the roof and other rooms, as the grenades boomed every now and then, the NSG Chief plotted operations Black Tornado and Black Cyclone on the notepad, with the inputs from the three locations being fed to him over the walkie talkies. Hotel staff talked of how the hotel walls shuddered as the grenades exploded and the sickening rat-a-tat of the bullet fire echoed in the tomb-like silence of the empty hotel. But J.K. Dutta continued managing the ops disregarding the mayhem around him. On his instructions, the brave NSG commandos fought the terrorists in the dark, alien landscape of the hotel rooms. Almost incessantly his mobile phone buzzed as politicians and media called in to seek updates on the situation. But the mobile phone went largely unanswered, even when Union cabinet ministers (from what I heard, even the Prime Minister’s calls went unanswered at times… but I cannot confirm) were on the line. This guy clearly wanted to deal with media and politicians on his own terms. Which is why we saw him occasionally walk out of the hotel to address the media from time to time, giving updates on the progress. And his job only ended not when the last shots were fired in the morning on November 29, but after the NSG commandos had

At a time when many of our guardians are merely political appointees rather than deserving candidates, NSG DG J.K. Dutta’s ability to lead from the front, right in the midst of the action along with his men, much like the courage shown by Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar, comes as a reminder to us that the real life too throws up men of honour and courage so that we need not cling on to fictional Prakash Rathods to give us the assurance of safety.