Our new Deputy Commissioner seems to be getting to know the ropes that hold things together in our city. There is much good that he can do to keep the good work started by his predecessor going. He has started off by inspecting the Chamundi Vihar Sports Complex and has announced that it will soon be renovated, which is certainly very good and welcome news, especially to sports enthusiasts.

But very close by there is another spot, which should actually have become the pride of our city and has been allowed to become a lingering eyesore, thanks either to official ego or apathy. It is the Police Martyrs' Memorial that should have been inaugurated long ago.

Much has been written about it in the press and Star of Mysore even ran a full article by Vikram Muthanna about it a few months ago. Although many unchanging things change when attention is drawn to them in the press, nothing seems to be happening here. Although the official reason given for the delay was that the naming or “renaming” committee of the City Corporation had to ratify the decision to call the spot by its designated name, the unofficial version that has been doing the rounds ever since its conception, let alone its construction is quite different and is no secret.

It appears many Police officials who would have actually been happy to have a memorial dedicated to their departed colleagues are now unhappy that a memorial meant to honour all their dead brethren has been designed with the bust of only Harikrishna, the former SP of Mysore district. Although these sentiments of angst may seem a little uncharitable if not unfair to the memory of a brave officer and a wonderful man, who was also my close personal friend, they are not entirely misplaced.

Even as the design of this memorial was being discussed in Police circles I wrote in this very same column that it would end up generating much controversy but none of the Police officials responsible for its design thought it worthy of a second thought. Although men and women in uniform may be of different ranks in life, they are all equal in death.

I vaguely remember a poem in my old high school grammar book written by Wren and Martin which says; "Whether a hero perish or a sparrow fall, He sees with equal eye, as God of all." So, big or small, a martyr is a martyr, irrespective of whether he or she is a high ranking officer or an ordinary constable. This is the reason why it could be construed as unfair if not improper to build a martyrs’ memorial with the likeness of just one officer.

As it is impossible to install busts of all those who died in service, it would have been fine to call the place a Police Martyrs’ Memorial to honour all the dead without any suggestion of importance to any particular person. But since the memorial has already been built, obviously at great cost, it is time for us to forget the tiny flaws that might have crept in into its design and inaugurate it without any further delay.

What is most painful and unwarranted is the way Harikrishna's bust has been draped for ages in waste material as has been done now. It is an outright insult to all Police personnel, both dead and alive. Is this all the dignity a Policeman, let alone an officer, is entitled to after having donned the uniform that is held in such high respect and esteem? Have we thought of this outrage while thinking so much about whether the design of the monument is right or wrong? It is now time for our new DC to step in and end this ugly controversy immediately and see that some dignity is restored both to the place and to the memory of all our Police martyrs. Since it has been announced that the Corporation Naming Committee has now approved of this memorial, the excuse that the delay is because of this bureaucratic hurdle is now untenable.

If there is likely to be any further delay due to the non - availability of a suitable dignitary as it often happens in our bureaucracy, the best gesture would be to have a simple unveiling ceremony and ask the son or daughter of one of our Police martyrs to pull away the disgraceful shroud of packing material that now drapes the memorial and forever erase the dishonour that we have done to it for so long.

While inspecting the Chamundi Vihar Sports Complex I wonder if our DC noticed what I have been noticing there over the past few months and what you too can see in the picture along side; the grotesque shell of a ghost car that has been parked right in front of the huge indoor pavilion. I wonder who owned it and how it got there and why the officials in charge of the sports complex have allowed it to remain there for so long despite being an eyesore at a place that is frequented by many local and visiting dignitaries?

An interesting thing about it is that despite having lost its innards and wheels, it does move around quite a bit. In fact right now it has moved to a more prominent spot a little away from the rather obscure place where it was when I photographed it last week!

Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD
e-mail: kjnmysore@gmail.com
Courtesy: star of mysore