For well over three years now, most of us who travel towards Chamundi Vihar Stadium would have noticed a Circle on which stands a statue all wrapped up. Actually, it’s not a statue but a pedestal on which a bust is placed. Of late, it has been covered by a discarded parking board which says “VVIP parking”. Earlier it was covered with another filthy cardboard box. This covered - up pedestal is the stark reflection of our ungratefulness to a man in uniform. It reflects the insensitivity of our administration and the people of this city. Because wrapped up in this dirty tarpaulin topped with a filthy cardboard cover is the bust of martyr Harikrishna.
Harikrishna was the Superintendent of Police in Mysore who along with Sub - Inspector Shakeel Ahmed led the task force assigned with the job of nabbing forest brigand Veerappan. On August 14th, 1992, both officers were ambushed and shot dead in Meenyam forest area in Tamil Nadu by Veerappan. Both these officers had caused Veerappan significant damage while leading the task force. They were hailed as martyrs who died in the line of duty.
About 13 years later when Kempaiah was the IGP, he wanted to install a bust of SP Harikrishna at the Circle in front of SP and IGP’s office and name it as Harikrishna Circle. Work began to this end and the roads were widened. The then Police Commissioner Praveen Sood had agreed to the idea and so had the then Mysore City Corporation (MCC) Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim and Mayor Bharathi. Soon Praveen Sood left and the new Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao brought Harikrishna’s bust and installed it. However, it never saw the light of the day as egos came into play.
The MCC administrator suddenly had an issue. He said that since the responsibility of naming the Circle comes under the purview of MCC, the MCC Naming Committee must approve the name and since the Committee had already decided to name the Circle as Kittur Rani Chennamma Circle, it was not possible to rename it! So martyr Harikrishna’s statue sat on the pedestal all covered up in rags and hay, reflecting our shamelessness and ungratefulness for the next three years.
Why was the MCC Committee quiet when the work was going on? If the Committee had decided on Rani Chennamma’s name, why did the MCC not install the statue or even officially name the Circle so? The Committee does not take too much time while naming Circles after living politicians, film stars or sportsmen but takes many years to name a Circle after a martyr.
Now after 5 years, we seem to have a solution. Well, at least that’s what the Mayor, the MCC Commissioner and the members of the Committee feel. The administration has come to a decision that now there will be not one but two Circles. How convenient. An “adjustment” that leaves no egos bruised. The Circle with the bust is to be named “Police Martyrs’ Circle” and another small Circle just 80 meters away within the same common area is to be named Kittur Rani Chennamma Circle. These two Circles are in an area with a length of just 115 meters and width of about 70 meters! Now is there is a need for two Circles so near to each other? Will this not cause confusion for the road users? To add, there is a barricade between the two Circles, so in reality these two Circles are actually one big and long Circle connected by a barricade with two statues at either end!
Since the area is rectangular with 6 roads converging, may be two small Circles will help but only if they don’t have barricades between them.
Now the question is, was it really necessary to name the Circle after Kittur Rani Chennamma? She has got enough memorials all over the State. We do understand that MCC’s Naming Committee had decided on Rani Chennamma but could they not let go and name it after Mysore’s very own officer? We must now closely scrutinise who gets the contract to build the statue of Kittur Rani astride a horse.
In fact, former IGP Kempaiah wanted to name the area Police Corner as it is surrounded by Police - related buildings — the SP and IGP’s office, Police Guest House, Police Quarters, Police Commissioner’s house, IGP’s house, Police Club and Karnataka Police Academy. So it is only appropriate to call it the Police Corner.
What would be even better is to have two small Circles — one with Harikrishna’s bust and another with Sub - Inspector Shakeel Ahmed’s bust — and open the barricade between the two Circles. It will be much more than just a Martyr’s Circle. After all, both these Mysore officers died together for a common cause. These two good officers, one a Hindu and the other a Muslim, who died side by side for us would be a perfect symbol of harmony, perfect symbol of unity in diversity, a symbol we Mysoreans can be proud of.
What is disappointing is that we tend to forget our people in uniform very easily. We never hesitate to curse them saying they are corrupt and ruthless but when the good ones die serving us, we keep their bust wrapped up in dirty rags for years. Why did not the citizen groups take up this inexcusable show of disrespect towards our officers? If this is the respect we show to our men in khaki, then we seriously doubt if any more officers will come forward to do their duty sincerely.
The MCC Commissioner and the newly - elected Mayor will do this city proud if only they can put both Shakeel Ahmed’s bust and Harikrishna’s next to each other as a symbol of brotherhood. This Circle will be a symbol that all peace - loving Mysoreans can be proud of. Since Kittur Rani Chennamma has many memorials dedicated to her, we are sure she wouldn’t mind leaving her seat for the two officers. After all, these two officers symbolise a value system that even Kittur Rani Chennamma would be proud of.
