Sentinels of our democracy

Way back in May 1996, as I was watching television in the evening with my family, a knock on the door sent my son scrambling to see who it was. I was then commanding a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Battalion in Churachandpur district of Manipur in the far north eastern corner of our country. An Inspector of Signals platoon had come with an urgent message from my headquarters.

The message was a forewarning to keep my battalion ready to move to Kashmir to conduct Parliamentary elections there. By noon the next day, the battalion was ready to move — about 700 men. The administrative staff was to stay back and man the security of the camp and even maintain law and order in the district.

Early morning the next day, two Companies with about 120 men in each were on their way to Imphal airport to board the IL-76 that had arrived there. By evening the two Companies had landed in Awantipore, to move on to Anantnag. Two more Companies followed the next morning and another two along with me the following day.

Flying across several States we landed at Awantipore in the evening. Amidst heavy rains, we boarded the vehicles and reached the temporary transit camp in Anantnag town. Though adequate number of tents had been erected, the slush of rain water all over made our night stay uncomfortable. After briefing by the local CRPF and police officials, we set out for our destinations in different parts of the district the next morning.

Amidst intelligence inputs that militants could attack, I put my men on high alert and carried out frequent checks and thus averted any mishap. Area domination by Army patrols proved conducive to the smooth conduct of elections in the district.

Moving from there to Pulwama and Doda where elections were conducted amidst attacks on security forces, we returned to Imphal by train after a month, heaving a sigh of relief that we were instrumental as part of the security forces in smooth conduct of elections in the state after seven years. Most satisfying was the fact that
we suffered no casualty.