Julio Francis Ribeiro is a near legendary police officer from the days of the Punjab insurgency. He was sent there in 1980s as DGP to curb the militancy, which had pretty much spiralled out of control. He began a massive and vicious crackdown on the militants, quite literally taking the war to their doorsteps and matching them "bullet for bullet".
(His memoirs are titled 'Bullet For Bullet: My Life As A Police Officer').
He also survived two assassination attempts, being wounded both times. At the time, he was known as India's 'Super Cop'. Vajpayee personally asked him to become the governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Ribeiro declined. He has since his retirement been a crusader against corruption.
No one can deny Ribeiro's commitment to secularism, his deep religious faith or his patriotism to the country, which he served with honour for nearly four decades. So his plaintive plea that he felt like a stranger in India has raised quite a few eyebrows.
In a stinging criticism in the Indian Express titled '
I feel I am on a hit list', Ribeiro denounced recent attacks on Christians in the country and the Modi government's Hindu fanaticism. The 86-year-old said that he felt "threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country". Going back to his service record, he says there was a time when Hindus especially felt safe under his protection. However, he laments, now they are attacking people like him for their faith.
In a interesting point, much like the RSS, Ribeiro firmly states his Indian DNA that goes back "5000 years". Calling the conversion of his ancestors an "accident of history", Ribeiro said he was pained to be attacked over it.
Stating that Christians have consistently punched above their weight, making massive contributions in the fields of education and medicine especially, Ribeiro questions whether only Hindus were now allowed to do humanitarian work, to prevent the off-chance of one or two converts.
In a direct attack against the RSS' claims that all non-Hindus were not Indians, Ribeiro also pointed out that Christians had led the Indian Army and Navy and fought and died for this country, despite being only two percent of the population.
In the end, Ribeiro ends hoping that "ordinary Hindu men and women will not be swayed by an ideology that seeks to spread distrust and hate with consequences that must be avoided at all cost".
While most have come out in support to Ribeiro's words, there has been, predictably, some backlash as well. Here are a few reactions from Twitter.
src:sify.com