Pages of the land’s long history reveal episodes of trusted persons betraying the trust vested in them by the rulers of their times enabling the unwelcome marauders making inroads into the territory first, conquering next, destroying exquisitely carved sculptures in places of worship and finally setting shop to rule over the locals for long periods. While Afghans came, looted wealth and then left leaving a trail of destruction, Moghuls and British made India’s major regions come under their fiefdom in a major way, in the august company of Portuguese (Goa) and French (Pondicherry, now Puducherry) lording over smaller territories. Calling those who betrayed their masters for short-term gain and disrupting life in society as rogue elements would be an under-statement. Even the years preceding the end of colonial rule in India, the sordid drama of betrayal might have witnessed an encore, given the dilly-dallying by some of the rulers of smaller territories but for the monumental achievement of India’s iconic Iron Man who wrapped up nearly 560 Kings accede to the Indian Union. The nipping in the bud of the then militant outfit Razakars by Police action was his masterstroke.
The nation badly misses its first Home Minister at present while successive Governments are all at seas in reining in two anti-society and anti-national outfits, namely Naxalites and Maoists, setting off explosives and planting mines making martyrs of the security personnel in well-marked locations, one of them raising its head now and then in one of the districts of Karnataka too.
