Assassination Of Indian PM

3rd April, 2019, Raisina Hill

The PM secretly met with her Deputy PM and the Director of RAW in her private chamber at Raisina Hill. The room was clear of any electronic devices. She told them that she had made up her mind and the date, for the nuclear disarmament conference had to be finalized within the next six months, and announced by the beginning of the next week. They both nodded. Knowing her, she was using the inevitable to put her country at a vantage position. While the deputy PM was in charge of the conference, Director, RAW was in charge of the security arrangements for the inevitable.

By the next week, Deputy PM had managed to find two successive days, when the calendar was free for most of the leaders in the world. He had also consulted the SAARC leaders about the two-day event. He proceeded to announce the event to be held on 3rd and 4th October in Bhopal. Director, RAW noted this on her calendar.

Deputy PM too had a huge task in his hand. He called for his secretary who was a master in organizing such events irrespective of scale and size, and broke the news to him. His secretary Srinivasan was overjoyed. His adrenaline started flowing the moment he heard the news from his boss. He immediately understood the significance of the event for this country and the new world order that this event would bring about. The land of the Buddha and Mahatma would finally live up to her innate calling, he thought to himself. He opened a new excel sheet and created a file series called the 'Disarmament Conference'. He then cut and pasted the “logistics” into this file and began his task immediately.

Somewhere Jackal too noted the dates and began operations. There were some six months to execute the plan.

The PM in her private chamber took the first shot of the day and carefully wrapped up the disposable syringe. She was drifting into a semi-conscious state. Her mind went back…

27 years ago…

Malini was an ardent student. She was the school leader in the final year of the school. Academics was not her forte but she was best at organizing events. During her tenure as the school leader, there were many firsts for the school. All events organized were for a beneficial social purpose - be it the blood donation camp, collection of clothes, protest against cutting of trees in the famous park of the city, clean neighborhood campaign and so on. Her teachers and the school principal were pleased with her and so were her parents. When she said that she wanted to become the Prime Minister of India, when she grows up, students and the class teacher laughed at her. The class teacher had told her parents about this in the parents-teacher meeting. Since then, it became a good joke at her home, among her parents and close family friends.

She was clear about taking up political science and public policy for graduation. She went on to complete her masters with the same subjects. Along with her academics, she organized activities that brought her fame and good will. Many of her events were focussed on the sprawling slum in the neighborhood. The slum became a model for any urban slum in the cities. Unlike others, this slum had good sanitation, clean water supply, vibrant school, decent clinic and a slew of enterprise flourishing in the slum. She was famously known as Malakka and many political parties approached her for support. She remained aloof from party politics but was committed to social development. As her fame grew, she became more capable of mobilizing resources for the development of the poor. With corporate and NGO support, she had organised training program for women, men including youth on the subjects covering tailoring, housekeeping, elderly care, basics of nursing, driving and others with a focus on gainful employment for the trainees. In a sense, the development model became unique with slum and rest of the society dependent on each other. Police praised her work for peace and harmony which was a unique feature in this part of the city.

When she was 25, she became eligible for standing for MLA election. She joyfully announced her candidature and the entire constituency erupted in joy. For token sake, one of the national party candidate contested and lost his deposit. The other national party supported her candidature. Not only she became the youngest MLA but also participated in the proceedings of the assembly. Both the opposition and the ruling party members sought her opinion. She showed a certain vigor in reading up and assimilating documents, which was not seen during her academic days.

It so happened when the ruling party developed internal dissent and the numbers became an issue, her support was sought and she provided. The chief minister was insistent that she took up a ministerial posting and gave her Urban development, an important portfolio directly under him. He wanted to groom her as he saw immense potential in her and her integrity deeply impressed him, for he himself was from a political family since the pre-independence time, and his grandfather was a Gandhian himself. During her two and a half year tenure as the Minister for Urban development, city showed signs of transformation: basic sanitation, water supply, parks and nature trails, green belt, pollution - all improved remarkably. She had also managed to develop a vision document for the city in consultation with citizen groups and was under consideration of the Japanese urban development agency for both funding and technical support for implementation of the plan.

In the next round she stood for the Member of Parliament in a wider constituency. There was no opposition. She had by now became the talk of the nation and had an international following as well. Well educated, urbane, articulate, high in integrity, good looking there was none like ever before. By then she decided that she will not marry. She was a celebrity politician yet she ensured that all this attention never went into her head. She continued to be down to earth.

In a tete-a-tete the then PM had offered a state ministerial position in foreign affairs. He was persuasive and was known to be close to the chief minister under whom she had served. She could not refuse. She particularly studied the SAARC initiative and understood the underlying problem. It was functioning well below its capacity. She then labored and developed a plan to revive SAARC and make it a vibrant entity. But the Indo-Pak antagonism with its ups and swings meant her plan remained a non-starter. She understood that the Kashmir problem had to be resolved somehow. She took to studying the problem deeply whenever she found time amidst her hectic schedule. Some preliminary ideas emerged in her mind which she put them down in her diary.

The then PM was losing ground. Allegations of corruption and scams kept coming up like an open can of worms. Right wing party was gaining formidable ground. World over, forces of nationalism was gaining in many countries. The scion of the grand old party was not ready for leadership mantle and his mother’s foreign roots stood against her taking on any leadership role. It was then in a dramatic move, Malini was invited for a private meeting with the PM, the scion and his mother. She was offered the mantle to lead the party in the next elections. The trio felt she had the capacity to rejuvenate the party and his cadre as her record was impeccable. The trio said they would manage the internal tensions and get seniors and others to support her. It was a do or die decision for the party as the trio felt that there was no one within to lead the party from its current quagmire.

Her ambition was dangling in front of her. She had spoken to the ex-Chief Minister who had become some sort of a mentor. He said that there was no choice either for the party or for her. This was her calling. Better she bites the bullet.

Her announcement as the party leader by the trio was an epiphanic moment for the party, the nation and her people. The wind had gone out of sails for the right- wing party. The cadre of grand old party got energized. Media and intellectuals were stunned by the choice of the grand old party. All were in an agreement that it was a master stroke. The stock market went on a bullish run. The leaders of both friendly and unfriendly countries welcomed the announcement. The psephologists predicted a land slide victory for the grand old party. As a leader she was way ahead of any rivals within and outside the party. The man from the western state was following a distant second, who until then was the fore runner for the next PM. He had blood stains in his hand unlike her who was blemish less, although he had a stint as a Chief Minister of a prosperous state. Arithmetic showed that with minority, plus Dalits votes, she started with a huge advantage. Pundits expected a split in middle class votes which until then was seen to be in the right- wing party’s bad. Nobody was sure how the rural lobby would vote and they gave the right- wing party an advantage. The grand old party cleverly fine-tuned its manifesto to address the rural voter and the campaign focused on rural issues.

Elections saw a close enough battle with the grand old party garnering the maximum votes but yet not getting a majority for itself. Several opposition parties alarmed by the inroads made by the right- wing party supported without conditions. So did a handful of independents. For the time being nationalism based on certain religious forces had been checkmated. Malini herself won with a huge margin unprecedented for any PM candidate from her old constituency in her native city, where she first made it into the parliament.

Among the number of things, she accomplished in the first 100 days in the office the following were noteworthy: CBI and the Police were given more autonomy; the Director was briefed by her one to one and told to hunt down the corrupt irrespective of party affiliations. She announced her grand plans for revival of SAARC, which the respective leaders greatly welcomed. She went on a quiet diplomacy with her counter part in Pakistan and cooled down the tensions. No incident was reported in Kashmir in her first hundred days. She addressed agrarian distress by allocating additional funds and inducted professional institutions, corporates and NGOs to work with the government. No new scandals or scam emerged. Transparency characterized the functioning of her government. Her critics and opposition grudgingly ticked right to most of the boxes.

She pulled off a big coup of sorts towards the end of 3rd year when the PMs of Pakistan and India jointly announced an independent Kashmir under the benign oversight of SAARC. Western hegemony was totally nipped; China and Russia were kept out of the scene; the entire world was taken aback. She had arrived at the scene big time. Her ratings sky rocketed and she called for an early election which was a walkover for the party. She had also announced that only candidates with an accountable income and property would be given the ticket. At one stroke the party was cleaned up.

Her second term was less eventful but SAARC had blossomed. Peace was established in the region big time and an all-round development flourished. She created a deputy PM position and asked the scion to take the post. It was during the second term she appointed Pram as the Director, RAW. The base of the right- wing party was dwindling. There were no takers for their hard line based on religious sentiments. With development reaching every nook and corner violence protests and movements based on leftist ideologies found their base deeply eroded. Information technology was used extensively and provided ease of operation to both the bureaucracy and the people. Transparency got primacy over corruption. She believed in democracy in a deep way and hence regional parties survived and flourished in their own way. But at the national level there were no rivals.

When Scion's mother first suggested that they consider Malini to lead the party, his initial reaction was disappointment with his own mother. Later when speaking to the then PM he realized that he did not have the charisma or the maturity to lead the party. He was perceived as a novice within the party and outside and just came to accept the view. Pappu had become his nick name. Malini was a good choice. There was no turning back once she took over. Malini was magnanimous enough to appoint him as the Deputy Prime Minister which meant he was being groomed for the position. By the second term the party had a new look. Old wood and corruption by then had been weeded out. Professionals from all walks of life had joined the party attracted by the magnet of Malini. It was certain that she had brought unprecedented transformation to the country’s governance and willing to groom him. Of course, she had made it clear to him in a private conversation, the democracy still remains supreme and the party had to accept him as their leader once she relinquished. It was through Malini he had met Pram. Romance blossomed between them and eventually they got married.

Director, RAW

It was during one of the top-class defence demonstrations, an annual but a highly secretive affair she had met Parameswari, Pram in short. Pram came from a family with military back ground from Coorg, the region which had produced exemplary soldiers like Field Marshall General Cariappa. Pram was a physically strong child and developed extraordinary combative skills at her young age. Apart from the 4th degree black belt in Karate, she had undergone extensive modern weapon training during her stint at National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and subsequently trained with MOSSAD and US Navy Seals. She was deemed to be the best sharp shooter in the country at her young age of 25 and became a Major in the National Security Agency. Malini hand-picked her after studying her profile to become the Officer on Special Duty to protect the PM. Within few years, she was promoted and assigned the special assignments officer in RAW equivalent to the Deputy Director position. Malini believed that in such sensitive organisations, merit alone should be the criteria for occupying the top position. Experts studying defense and related organisations believed that it was a matter of time Pram would become the Director of RAW, considering both her skills, intellectual ability and her proximity to the PM herself. It was also fortuitous that Pram and the scion of the grand old party had got along very well and eventually married each other during the second term of Malini.

When Pram became Director, RAW at the age of 40, it was Malini’s second term and her briefing was clear. Bring down terrorist activity in the SAARC region. SAARC was the region of her focus and in cooperation with ISI and other intelligence agency she had to ensure that total intelligence was maintained in all security operations. Politically SAARC, the regional federation became powerful in the world scenario within a decade with the people in the SAARC region making up 20% of world’s population. SAARC was made up of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Burma. It was a master stroke of Malini and her total commitment for development of SAARC region had started paying rich dividends. Visa restrictions were removed; bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade and economic cooperation became easy; travel and tourism among the citizens started flourishing bringing the region even closer. Many cultural events were held reinforcing the cultural ties of the past and bringing the people even closer. Combined with closely guarded intelligence operations which was beefed up, SAARC region became a no-go region for terrorists and war lords. It was as if an invisible wall had arisen against evil forces. What was otherwise a huge and unaffordable budget, for nations in the region for defense and fighting anti-terrorist operations were unlocked for total development. Soon SAARC region became the fastest growing region in the world and its leaders were becoming influential in the world’s stage.

3rd March, 2019

It was at her private chamber Malini met with her Dy PM and Pram. By then they had become close confidante of her. She had talked to her about the next initiative of nuclear disarmament. SAARC now had a voice in the world stage and she wanted to lever it to bring peace. Nations must destroy the nuclear pile and maintain only a deterrent stock pile. She had said the American President was her biggest opposition, for she had become a puppet of armament industry. She had proposed to organise the disarmament conference and bring upon a moral pressure upon the world leaders to sign the disarmament treaty. It was then she had also disclosed that she did not want to continue as PM for a third term. She wanted to prepare both the scion and party to accept him. Of course, if any other meritorious candidate stepped up with majority support, she would not stand in anybody’s way.

3rd April, 2019

There was a sense of urgency in Malini not seen before as if her patience was running out. She wanted the disarmament conference organised within the next six months.

The conference was announced for the 3rd and 4th October following Gandhi Jayanti as a tribute to the Mahatma.

Somewhere, the jackal too noted the event in his phone and began operations. There was this six-month deadline over all the other commitments. The jackal made a checklist: the venue, security arrangements, selection of weapon, satellite phone, several local sim cards, different passports with identities.

Jackal’s first move was site assessment and flew to Bhopal. Jackal felt that the selection of the site was indeed a smart move by the Director, RAW. The site had plenty of open spaces except one side where a hill range ended. Jackal had already prepared a profile of Director, RAW who was a formidable adversary. Jackal understood that this was going to be a kill or be killed kind of assignment. As Jackal did reconnaissance of the site, he understood that the only chance was from the hillock and decided to examine the hills under darkness. In the wee hours next morning Jackal was seen trekking the hill range. The hill had plenty of forest cover and movement within the hill was not an issue. Jackal used his powerful state of the art telescope to view the site and the proximate location of the podium. By some brief calculation estimated the distance to be in the vicinity of 1.5-2 km and sighed ruefully. Jackal knew of only one sniper rifle that can cover this range, but anybody having used the rifle for such a long shot was unheard of. A window of 5 minutes was available to take the shot. No wonder Jackal thought such a site was chosen for the one and only public appearance of the leaders during the conference. The weapon Jackal had in mind was L115A4 and it was made by Accuracy International. Procuring the weapon itself was a challenge but not something Jackal cannot accomplish through the warlord network. That evening Jackal had a brief international call and set the ball rolling. Jackal had to pay a mark-up of 100% for the rifle. The mark up paid ensured that there was no trace of the weapon to the Jackal. Jackal had visited Bhopal for target practice, using an American passport each time and remained outside the security radar, unseen even by the public, and grew in confidence. The initial scepticism had given way to new found confidence in the Jackal and was waiting for the day.

3rd October, Bhopal

Malini as she looked at the dressing mirror noted the effect of the drugs, she had been taking, on her neck and face. A special make up ensured that she was close to looking normal. Only the Dy PM and Pram apart from the physician knew of the changes in her body, side effects of the drugs. Of late she has restricted her movement and her personal physician had announced to the public she was undergoing some treatment without disclosing much.

Mercifully the day had arrived. A sort of pinnacle in her career. Even the US President after some dilly dallying had confirmed. All the nuclear power nations were there to participate and mull things over in the disarmament conference. The decisions to be made had far reaching consequences for the world and its people.

At the stroke of 10 am as Malini came on to the podium and she looked up at the hill. Jackal was waiting and located her on the cross piece. He then pulled the trigger. It took 8 seconds for the 8.6 mm bullet to enter her temple. Even before she could speak anything Malini collapsed.

The top leaders did not realize what happened. The Dy PM moved towards her collapsed body, checked her pulse and knew instantly she was dead. The physician who was closely standing by Malini, confirmed the same. The Dy PM took over the mike and announced that Malini had been shot dead. He made an impromptu speech. Later the critiques would say that the speech reminded of what his great grandfather had spoken when the Mahatma was shot down. He declared that the conference be adjourned for half a day to arrange for the funeral of the PM.

Jackal packed up and left the hill immediately. Only a discerning eye would have noted that Jackal left some tell tale signs as if to lead the investigators on to a trail. Jackal was last seen moving into a vehicle for an unknown destination.

Pram who was monitoring all these from the control center rushed to join her husband.

10th October

The disarmament conference was a total success. All the nuclear powers signed on dot. The American President had no choice. Malini by her death had turned the tide totally in favor of the signing the treaty.

The Dy PM had already taken over the mantle of the PM by way of a small swearing in ceremony. There was no murmur of protest as the nation was still reeling under the assassination of their beloved PM. He had announced that the preliminary investigation showed that the rifle used was American, the assassin unexpectedly was expected to be a female. Some tell tale evidence also pointed out that the perpetrator was from the American soil.

He also said that the preliminary investigation showed no apparent lapse in security arrangements and declined to accept the resignation of Director, RAW. He said it was unbelievable that such an assassin could exist and pull off an impossible long shot as the distance was estimated to be in the range of 1.5-2 Km.

Next to Rajghat, Malini’s ashes were buried in a copper urn and a memorial constructed for the one who was arguably the best PM the country had ever seen. Later in the night a man and a woman walked up to the memorial and offered the flowers as a homage. It was none other than the Dy PM and his wife. The Dy PM sobbed uncontrollably. Pram left him to sob and purge the deep sorrow. She could not bring herself to cry. The day she had shot the PM, not only her emotions but everything in herself had died.

PS: 3rd Aril, meeting at Raisina Hill

Malini had disclosed she was diagnosed with a colorectal cancer and the physician had given her a maximum of 9 months that too with heavy dose of medication.

She herself had hatched up the plot and left the details for Pram to work out. Pram refused point blank but persuaded by Malini as she characterized the act as mercy killing, but the nation and the world would benefit.

The only risk was if that shot could be taken from such a distance. As Director, RAW and the scion slated to become the PM no one would ever come to know the truth. As she had practiced, she grew in confidence that the shot could be taken. She had used an American woman as a decoy who, as the later investigations revealed, had frequented Bhopal in the last six months.

But Pram thought she had died the same instant Malini had died. That was the price she had to pay to fulfil Malini’s death wish.