Salute to Sanjiv Bhatt

A poem by Prof. Badri Raina in New Delhi, honouring Sanjiv Bhatt, the IPS officer (Gujarat Intelligence) “who spilled the beans on Modi, revealing how at the meeting of Feb.,27, 2002 Modi had instructed the police to let the Hindus vent their anger; you can imagine what travails he is facing, having now even written an open letter to Modi on the subject of the riots.”
Sanjiv Bhatt’s response to Badri Raina: “Thank you very much for writing to me. Your poem has truly humbled me and further strengthened my resolve to ensure that Gujarat Riots of 2002 is never repeated anywhere in this country.”
Thank you Sanjiv Bhatt. We need officers like you in Pakistan also. There are some mob violence murders disguised as ‘religious riots’ that could do with some whistle-blowing too. Here’s the poem:
Sanjeev Bhatt

May I salute you, officer Bhatt,
For feckless citizen that I am,
However well-meaning,
Your Promethean metal
Fires my feebleness to a blaze;
You are to our home-grown tyrants
As Bhagat Singh was to the Angrez.
Like the Amazon, Setalvad,
On the worst of day
You teach the lesson that
The poet of old taught—
When the sensible-terrified
Slink from your side,
Then `ekla chalo re.’
As to success, success is not
Merely the end of things;
Success is in the soul that
Man, woman, or child brings
To what is with mortal dangers fraught.
The success you already have
Is not for a season or two;
It is a flavour that generations
Will savour,
A rod of steel that the fallen
Spine will raise, giving to cruelty
And cunning their due.
– Badri Raina, New Delhi