A dad’s surprise for a brave son
The President is pleased to award the President’s Police and Fire Service Medal for Gallantry to the under mentioned officers of the Central Reserve Police Force”, so read the President’s Secretariat’s Notification of 18 July 1975. It listed my name along with two others. Below the names were the statement of services for which the medal was awarded. The sequence of encounters with Naga insurgents and the role of each awardee was mentioned in brief. I was then a Deputy Superintendent of Police.
Due to the bullet injuries that I sustained in both legs in the encounter on 11 November 1974 in Tamenglong district of Manipur, I was posted to the CRPF Headquarters in New Delhi as Deputy Assistant Director (Operations) where I joined duties after seven months of recuperation.
As was the practice then, preparations began for the CRPF anniversary parade at Neemuch. Until 1984, October 31 was observed as the CRPF Day on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birthday, who was instrumental in the retention of the Crown Representative’s Police (CRP) and renamed it as the Central Reserve Police thereby retaining the acronym CRP.
Arrangements were made for the guests of medal recipients. My repeated missives to my Dad to witness the parade in Neemuch where I was to be awarded the highest police medal met with a cynical response. He was posted in the Vadodra Air Force Station.
In October 1975, I along with my sister and two brothers arrived in Neemuch. Despite the excruciating pain in my legs, I managed to attend the rehearsals. On 31 October, when I was to receive the Gallantry Medal from the then Minister of State for Home, Om Mehta, I arrived limping on the parade ground. My brothers and sister were there. No word from my Dad. I missed him terribly.
After the minister had pinned the medal on my starched tunic, I was being interviewed by an All India Radio correspondent, when I spotted my Dad among the few watching me speak to the correspondent. My excitement knew no bounds. I rushed to him. He hugged me. Congratulated me. He then informed me that he came just in time straight from the railway station and saw me receiving the medal. I was on top of the world.