BOOK REVIEW

‘Bullet for Bullet’

AUTHOR – Julio Ribeiro

SUDHIR KUMAR, 76 RR

‘Force would be met with force’

Hindustan times correspondent mentioned “Bullet for bullet” which was never mentioned by Julio
Ribeiro. His statement was ‘force would be met with force’ to deal the terrorists in Punjab. He had
never imagined that ‘bullet for bullet’ will return to his life in the form of bullet itself causing two
attempts of his assassinations. Amidst of terror and power pressure, a cop who took the task and
responsibility given to him to lead the state as a DGP, a position which no one dared to occupy. Yes,
the supercop was Julio Ribeiro.

The book starts with the life of Ribeiro when he was selected for Indian police service and transcends
through his multiple assignments of from managing districts in Maharashtra, to become joint
commissioner of Mumbai to commissioner of Mumbai and then holding the post of additional home
secretary. He was the chosen one to become DGP of Punjab and later entrusted with Diplomatic
assignment.

Julio belief was that an officer should never beg for a particular post. He always stood for this.
Policing is often construed as confluence of crime and politicians. The way Julio conducted for his
assignment to control smuggling as First commissioner of newly constructed Thane
Commissionerate. He also throws light on power tussle between All India Services. But he always
navigated through the tussle by giving the due respect as per the responsibility given to the post. He
never hesitated to attend meetings with the Collector even when later was 10 years junior to him. He
along with DCP Raj Khilani directly attacked the anti-social elements, boot leggers and gamblers in
big way resulting to making these activities underground.

He directly worked on reducing corruption in the lower ranks of police. He guides young policemen
by being an example of “broken glass window” theory. He always believed that crime will never
vanish but police action in partial manner free from politicians and corruption will not only improve
the image of police among citizens but also will improve the morale of the police when results are
seen fructifying on ground. He once directly interacts with MLA of Thane when he was asked to stop
action against petty criminals, to which his reply was “if you want to stop the action, work for
changing the law in assembly”. This reply shows his courage and conviction to his duty.

Two gifts when he received while departing from Thane were one from Police staff itself and other
was from public. He had never expected the kind of felicitation that he received. His excellent
management of thane set him to take over as commissioner of police of Bombay on 25 February
1982. He took steps against rise of power of unions in Bombay. “Whenever an officer is transferred
from one district to another, his reputation precedes him”.

All the policemen in country can rightly learn from his way of prioritizing the life over work. He knew
that if he did not accept the post of Commissioner of Delhi immediately, someone else will take over.
But still he stayed for a month for his mother who was fighting with cancer and for her daughters. He
never was running behind the bigger posts though his political masters had different opinion which
he never cared.
He recollects how he was appointed as DG CRPF. CRPF according to him was the force with which he
had experience of working in Punjab. When he joined DG CRPF, crpf officers filled with all the joy and
expectation that they thought will be brought by him.

His experience in Punjab gave the reflection that always command under one man is worse than
command under multiple people. When they emerged victorious during Operation Blue star, NSG
was the force which never came under direct command of DGP Punjab. And this move itself
minimized the escalation of matter while handling Golden temple situation. His operation came
handy when he was given charge of DGP Punjab to counter terrorism and ultimately operation Black
Thunder. Operation Black thunder according to him saw minimal casualty due to apt and on time
coordination between security forces and striking balance between religious sentiments and
patience of police.

His work was also praised when he worked on improving the quality of training given to newly
recruited IPS officers and selectively chose seniors and upright IPS officers for imparting training at
National Police Academy. He did marvelous job in selecting DGP of Bihar and conduction of election
at Assam.

He was all set to become Governor of Mizoram in 1989 when he was also demanded as Governor of
Jammu and Kashmir. But the fate had different path assigned for him and then Rajiv Gandhi chose
him to go to a good country Romania as an ambassadorship. He and his wife were searched on the
doubt of being terrorist shows the Irony of world being accommodative of human rights. From 22
December to 29 December 1989, Bucharest was resounding with Gunfire and life as an ambassador
was not rosy as it sounds, and even he had to retreat when he encountered Gunmen while he was
out to buy milk. Revolution subsided and Romania got new leader as Ion Iliescu representing the
intellectuals and professionals. Prof. Busulenga also praised the communist system to Julio which
Julio couldn’t relate when Romanians didn’t have permission to have passports and money to buy air
tickets. Julio also met with Amita Bose who had done a lot to promote Indian culture in Romania.

Romania also had second assassination attempt in the store for him, when 6 Sikh extremists attacked
him and his wife while walking on the road. Though Indian intel had already warned of these attacks.
They were attacked by AK47, one of the bullet did pass through his Urethra causing serious injury
while his wife was largely safe. He was provided best of the medical service in Romania and even
when he was asked to move to Britain, he chose to be with his newly befriended doctor Dr Gabriel
Gluck. This shows Julio always valued for the relationships over his own comfort.

At the fag end of his career as Ambassador, he also visited Albania and Maldova. He returned to India
after 3.5 years. PV Narasimha Rao and his conversations about taking governorship of Manipur never
saw the day of light, which was blessing in disguise for him as he continued with the consultancies
with corporate houses and his social work in Mumbai.

Criticism: His way of policing though worked but require modification in current era. He had joined
IPS in 1953, since then policing has changed manifold in our country.

All in all, the book “Bullet for Bullet” perfectly reflects all the facets of policing in INDIA and gives us
detailed insights of loving the work and then enjoying the work against all odds.