• Harekrishna Deka
Death is a leveller. A man who never lowered his head before any authoritarian imposition, had to bow before it when Death came. When as a young IPS probationer I first came across him, I felt that here was a live wire of a personality that could dominate any gathering and yet could create a camaraderie of the warmest kind. Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya was confident and held his head high in front of superior authority, departmental and political, on all issues that needed conviction. He would place his views fearlessly even if it differed from a palatable compromise arrived at by those superiors. Diligent, committed to duties, he, however, did not make life a dull routine like many of his contemporaries and pursued his hobbies with a joyful spirit. He was an avid angler and undertook daring adventures with his friends, some of which he described in a delightful book.
Late Bhattacharyya’s sound knowledge of professional matters, his tactfulness, and his ability to judge criminal behaviour made him professionally very successful. As the Superintendent of Police of a district, he would visit every corner of his district and would familiarize himself with the key issues of his district and would make it a point to know the people. In those days, there was no concept of community policing but what he did was the best mode of similar policing.
In social gathering, he was a live wire, his humour and his camaraderie were infectious – I mean infectious in a positive sense; in professional matters, he was a clear-headed, sure-footed confident officer dealing with situations with uncompromising professionalism. To younger officers, he was warm and receptive and he was supportive of them if they were sincere even though they might have committed some mistakes due to inexperience. In front of superiors, he showed proper deference but would not hesitate to put up his views born of conviction, even if such views did not agree with the superior’s opinions.
I did not have an opportunity to work directly under or with him but in my young days, I had an opportunity to work under his command in a tricky situation of public disorder. In 1972, Assam witnessed large-scale disturbances in course of an agitation on the issue of medium of instruction in higher education, and the district of Nagaon became an epicentre of the disturbance. Inept handling by the then SP, Nagaon aggravated the matter. Bhattacharyya was holding an important post in police headquarters at the time and the Government, realizing that he was the man of the moment, sent him to effectively handle the law and order in that district with overarching command over the district police machinery sidestepping the SP. It was an unusual directive but it points to his ability to handle tricky situations with success. I was at that time a greenhorn assistant commandant of a nearby battalion and like many others, I was also deputed to assist the district police machinery. Bhattacharyya met me twice before but did not know much about my capability and yet seemed to feel some trust in me. He asked me to handle the most disturbed area of Dhing-Moirabari as its sector commander. Besides giving me necessary advice about handling tricky law-and-order situations, he told me that he would stand by me even if I committed some mistakes due to inexperience. He was satisfied with my work and I later learnt that he gave a glowing report about my handling of the situation. I have been told that in his memoir he mentioned about this incident with words of praise for my effort.
But there was an irony waiting for me. During the Assam Movement, he was in charge of the Border Branch of Assam Police and despite his success, the incumbent Government of the State, motivated by vote-bank politics, took an adverse view of his actions. But Bhattacharyya, as I said, was a man of his own conviction and he felt responsible for the people of the State more than obeying political directions that he felt wrong. It was then a conspiracy was hatched to remove him from service and unfortunately, some police officers became a tool of this conspiracy. They prepared false charges on the basis of imaginary source reports and became political instruments in sending him into preventive detention, thus ensuring his removal from service.
How did I know that these were false charges? A few months before this happened, I was serving as a middle-ranked officer in the Special Branch and was responsible for preparing the daily situation reports and maintaining records of extremist groups. Because of my responsibility of preparing such reports, I was required to work late. One evening, when I was alone in my office, two very senior officers (I would not name them since they have been long dead) asked me to prepare a source report implicating Bhattacharyya as hobnobbing with extremist groups and encouraging them in anti-national activities. I had the moral courage to refuse to do so. Both the officers were unhappy with me but I least cared. I thought that the issue ended there. Only much later I found that the conspiracy to remove him from service was successfully carried out.
During these days of his adversity, Bhattacharyya did not lose his courage. His legal battle was long-drawn and eventually the preposterous charges against him were disproved. He got back his service and rank but his superannuation intervened and deprived him of becoming the chief of police, which he immensely deserved.
He was a good writer too and had his own style. Like the man, his language was spirited and forthright. His prison-diary, Kararuddha Jibanar Baakruddha Kahini, written in purple prose, depicted his courageous struggle, and the book became very popular. With his thorough knowledge of the infiltration problem, he wrote a book on the subject and it was published by an international publishing house.
Upright, both physically and character-wise; an uncompromising fighter for the causes he championed; a torch-bearer of Assamese nationalism – he had a heart of gold, but unfortunately his sacrifice was hardly recognized by the people for whom he put his career in stake.
(Published on the occasion of late Bhattacharyya’s adya shraddha today.)
