Operation Blue Star hero becomes sadhu

If rage drove CISF Constable Raj Namdeo to kill his superior, it was postings in troubled zones like Kashmir, Punjab and Assam that made CRP...

If rage drove CISF Constable Raj Namdeo to kill his superior, it was postings in troubled zones like Kashmir, Punjab and Assam that made CRPF constable Shankar Rathod end his ties with the material world.

Attached to the 34 Battalion, Rathod was with the CRPF for almost 12 years. He even received an award for his role in Operation Blue Star. But seven years ago, he gave it all up and returned to his hometown, where he is now known by villagers as Sitaram Bapa.

Rathod is yet to sport saffron but he often observes maun vrat. Last week, he ended his 41-day tapasya on the banks of the Chandrabhaga river, about 40 km from Ahmedabad, where he stood on one leg beneath a tree in support of his resolve to start a ram roti annakshetra (free food for the poor). The tapasya may have left the middle-aged sadhu sick but has also created a ‘‘myth’’ around him.

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Rajesh Sonara, a neighbour, says, ‘‘He became a sadhu because he shot an innocent woman.’’

‘‘Bhootkaal ke baare me mujhe kuchh nahi poochhna, jo baat gayi so beet gayi, (don’t ask me anything regarding my past, let bygones be bygones),’’ Rathod writes in reply to a question, nursing an ulcer in a vein that burst due to prolonged standing.

He shakes his head vigorously when asked if he was filled with remorse after the killing. ‘‘He never tells us anything, his past in the Force is still unclear to us. All we know is that he was very pious and always wanted to choose the path of bhakti,’’ says elder brother Aaljibhai, who also retired as a CRPF jawan.

‘‘Hum sadhu hai, sirf vartaman samay ko bhajte hai, (I am a saint, I believe only in the present),’’ Rathod writes in reply to another question.

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‘‘He was not interested in anything else but God. We tried everything before letting him take this path,’’ says Trikambhai Rathod, an elderly farmer. Rathod did not even honour his engagement and broke it off after two years, a step that convinced his parents not to pressure him anymore.

Manubhai Chavada, another neighbour, says Rathod is now working for communal harmony. Yet another person claims he confronted a mob of 500 people from another community and asked them ‘‘not to attack villagers’’.

His octogenarian father says Rathod started taking only one meal a day seven years ago. When he undertook the tapasya, even residents of neighbouring villages started visiting him in droves. Rathod, who survived on two boiled potatoes for 41 days, vows to continue with his diet.

During the tapasya, he claims to have stood all the while, using only a sling made of rope and a wooden plank to rest when he felt sleepy.