One of the lead India

[M Lal Dhondiyal]

Abha Singh

The mission of my life is to make passion against corruption much more than passion for cricket and film stars. This is how will I able to fight against forces which obstruct our development, and the delivery of justice – social, economic and political. For me, to have such a feeling is but natural. I grew living amidst honesty and high values in the seventies when my father, RB Singh, a Gallantry-Medal-holder IPS officer, was leading a battle against dacoits. Later, I saw my father escape an assassination attempt in the militant-infested Terai region of UP, when terror in Punjab was at its peak.

A topper throughout, a UGC scholarship holder, and an M. Phil on child rights from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, I joined the civil services in the year 1991. In my stormy three-year old stint in the Mumbai customs, I was aghast seeing mind-boggling corruption. Yet I remained steadfast in that milieu so hostile to fervently honest officers. Thereafter, I joined the Indian Postal Service in early 1995.             Then arrived, a ten-year-long bitter struggle against the high and mighty, when my crusader husband, YP Singh, an IPS officer from Maharashtra Cadre, while in the CBI and later in the State Police, had launched an all-out battle against corruption of high-level politicians, bureaucrats and corporate entities. With great valour, amidst terrible adversities, we resisted the formidable onslaughts. Though at last, YP had to quit the coveted IPS to intensify his anti-corruption crusade, through legal activism and by collaboration with the NGOs.             It were in those testing days that I starting equipping myself with the desire to do something for the country and to not to give in to the machinations of the wicked. In those dismal years, I did my LLB. I started getting in touch with NGOs to know more about them and their activities. A plan to infuse morality amidst the people thus started getting in place.             As a token for the work I had been doing, I was honoured as a 'woman of substance' by the Padmini Samiti, Mumbai.             Notwithstanding such hardships in life, my dedication to my own organisation, i.e. the postal department, remained unflinching.             When I joined as Director, Postal Services, U.P. I was warned of the difficult charge. Yet, I took-up the challenge. I did two major recruitments in the most transparent manner when scams were sweeping similar recruitments in U.P. Police.             I did pioneering and innovative work in setting-up solar-powered, fully computerised, village post offices in several districts of U.P. In a State where women were still behind purdah, I took the unconventional step to appoint post-women for the delivery of door-to-door mail. A male bastion thus fell first, where logically, it should have fallen at the last.             The 2007 Independence Day list of gallantry award had two unusual names.   Unusual because they were not from the Army, but were from the Postal Department.  The Government of India had decided to honour two postal employees with Kirti Chakra for their bravery who had lost their lives protecting government property.   Not only did I take the initiative to process their children's case for postal jobs, but I also took the initiative to prepare and send their bravery citations to ensure that their sacrifice becomes a beacon to all.             The aggregate effect of these progressive changes, brought about through my initiative and devotion to duty, stand out as a harbinger of social change in an otherwise conservative state.             As a mother, my greatest success has been to infuse moral values in my children. My 18-year-old son is an idealist and is studying law and seeks to work for social and economic justice. My 12-year-old daughter is still young, but my effort to inculcate high values in her have been abiding.             To further my cause against corruption, I want to make a feature film based on our novel 'Carnage by Angels' which gives gory details of corruption in Mumbai Police. In this way, people would get the real and emotional feel as to what corruption in police means.             My mission in life is to see that the sacrifices I, my father and my family have done, not for themselves but for others, to bear fruit. We have inflicted pain onto ourselves so that the pain of others may be lessened. And I do hope to redeem this someday, somewhere.