Remarkable Rustamji

The 100th birth anniversary of Khusro Faramurz Rustamji, the man who set up the Border Security Force (BSF) in 1965 and laid the ground for the first public interest litigation case was observed at a BSF Investiture Ceremony at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on May 20, 2016. Rustamji’s Toronto based businessman son Cyrus had been invited to attend the occasion at which home minister Rajnath Singh was chief guest. Medals were awarded to BSF personnel for bravery, etc, notes an email from Rustamji’s niece Dolat Kotwal.

Khusro Rustamji’s portrait garlanded at BSF event (right) on his birth centenary

The celebrated police officer, born on May 22, 1916 in Kamptee, near Nagpur, had chosen to be cremated after his death in March 2003. According to a report in the Daily Pioneer of May 24, 2016, Rustamji was a passionate nationalist who also wrote extensively on minority rights. He often rued the fact that his writings were not acknowledged. These are, however, finally being appreciated along with his remarkable leadership in the police and BSF.
According to Wikipedia, by the time Rustamji retired the BSF had grown to 60,000 men. "The BSF played a significant part in the Indo-Pak War of 1971 and in the Liberation of Bangladesh. After retirement from the BSF, he was made special secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and headed a committee which submitted the report for the formation of the Indian Coast Guard, an organization to patrol the maritime border. He was responsible for the setting up of the National Police Commission and later became its member from 1978 to 1983.
"In 1978 he visited the jails in Bihar and wrote about the conditions of the under-trials languishing in the jails for long periods without a trial. His two articles in The Indian Express formed the basis for the first public interest litigation (Hussainara Khatoon vs State of Bihar). As a consequence of the judgment in this case, 40,000 under-trials were released all over India.”
For his outstanding contribution to Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971, the Bangladesh government conferred on Rustamji and some others the Muktijuddho Moitri Sammanana (Friends of Liberation War Honour) at the Bonga- bandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka on December 15, 2012. On the invitation of the Bangladesh Government, Cyrus had gone to Dhaka to receive the posthumous award conferred on his father (see "Beckoned to Bangladesh,” Parsiana, March 21, 2013). Rustamji had also played a significant role in forming the Bangladesh provisional government, framing its constitution and selecting a national flag and national anthem.