Walk Alone

If they answer not to thy call, walk alone; If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,

O thou of evil luck, open thy mind and speak out alone.

If they turn away and desert you when crossing the wilderness,

O thou of evil luck, trample the thorns under thy tread, and along the blood-lined track travel alone.

If they do not hold up the lightwhen the night is troubled with storm,

O thou of evil luck,with the thunder-flame of pain ignite thine own heart and let it burn alone.”

Immortal words penned by the immortal Rabindranath Tagore. The words of Tagore’s haunting lament Aekla chalo re seem so prophetic, so appropriate today. Another person’s lament haunts me too, “Despite my efforts to protect Gir lions from illegal miners, people remained insensitive, and did not come forward for the cause. Since I have failed to evoke people’s response for protection of the environment, I am planning to take a break for two months.”

But the politician mafiosi, whom he challenged and battled had other plans for the young environment crusader of Junagadh — Amit Jethwa. On the evening of July 20, as Amit stepped out of a lawyer’s office near Gujarat High Court, Ahmedabad, he was gunned down. A young crusading life was snuffed out.

People, like always, will shed tears for Amit, light candles in his memory, but the last lament of Amit Jethwa is a severe indictment of our civil society. Amit is not the only martyr of modern India. Satyendra Dubey, Manjunath Shanmugham, Yogendra Pande, Satish Shetty and Navleen Kumar are a few true patriots who fought for the rights of the downtrodden, who took on foes more powerful than them and paid the ultimate price in their battle against the powerful criminals. They too waged a lone battle, a battle waged because of their belief in truth, morality and the rule of law. And we allowed it to happen. We remained spectators while they cried out for support.

Satyendra Dubey, 31, a civil engineer from IIT-Kanpur, worked for the National Highway Authority, on the then prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s favourite Golden Quadrilateral Project at Koderma in Jharkhand. He wrote to PM about the rampant corruption and substandard work, requesting PM not to disclose his identity. But the letter ended up in the hands of those Satyendra had condemned. On the night of November 27, Satyendra was murdered in Gaya, Bihar. A promising young life snuffed out.

Manjunath Shanmugham, an IIM-Lucknow alumni, sales manager for the Indian Oil Corporation in UP, discovered that adulterated diesel was being sold by the Mittal petrol pump in the Gola Gokaran area of Lakhimpur Kheri district of UP. He threatened to close down the pump. On November 19, Manjunath went to the pump to test the fuel being sold, the owner’s son Pawan Kumar Mittal alias Monu shot him dead. With the help of accomplices, Monu attempted to dispose of his body.

Yogendra Pande, an engineer with Bihar Road Works department, cancelled the contracts of road contractors whose work was below standards. He wasn’t deterred by their clout and power. After being roughed up and threatened several times, he made repeated pleas to the police for protection, but they ignored him. Yogendra was discovered murdered on June 18 at the collectorate’s premises in Sitamarhi.

Navleen Kumar had battled the land mafia active in Thane district. She took on the powerful politician mafia and thwarted their attempts to snatch the lands of the adivasi owners. On the morning of June 19, as she played with her pet dogs on the terrace of her modest home in Nalasopara, assassins struck. Navleen’s body was discovered with 19 stab wounds, she bled to death. No one has as yet been arrested for her murder.

Satish Shetty, 39, of Talegaon near Lonavala, had for years battled the powerful political mafia and had exposed their land scams. He too was threatened, it did not scare nor deter him. On the morning of January 13, as he took his morning walk in his neighbourhood, murderers struck. Satish was stabbed and slashed with swords and daggers and left to die.

Crusaders like Satyendra Dubey, Manjunath Shanmugham, Yogendra Pandey, Satish Shetty, Navleen Kumar and Amit Jethwa fight to safeguard our interests. But they stand alone. We become blind while they wage battle. We become deaf when they cry out to us for support. We gag our mouth when we should have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them and shouted out our defiance. Our silence and inaction isolates the crusaders and makes it easy for those they battle to do away with them. The hands of the killers are stained with the blood of these crusaders. Our souls are also splattered by the blood of these martyrs of modern India.

Jinhe naaz hai Hind par, Woh kahan hai?