A mother’s question on her murdered son, Kalam’s answer and their meeting

It wasn’t so easy.

For, today, Manjunath would have been spending the day with his mother in the Kolar Gold Field where his father works. She would have cooked for him, she said, like all mothers do. His 20-day leave had been sanctioned starting December 3. In fact, when he was murdered, his train ticket home, to Bangalore from Lakhimpur Kheri—the town in Uttar Pradesh where a petrol pump owner allegedly killed him—was in his pocket.

Manjunath’s father, a contributor to the India Empowered series in The Indian Express, and mother Pramila were in the city today as very special guests at the India Empowered conclave.

For them, though, the event was more than an event. “I feel empowered when I see so many people here sharing my grief,” Shanmugam told The Indian Express. “At home, I have spent the whole of this month crying. He would not have liked to see me like this, hence I decided to come to this large gathering.’’

His wife, in fact, launched the open session after the President’s address.

To her anguished cry for help, the President answered: “Manjunath was a righteous man…I have great respect for you. Honest citizens will be protected and definitely it will be done because of your son’s sacrifice…Young Manjunath was a righteous boy who came from a righteous family.’’

After the public meeting, the parents submitted a petition to the President which prompted him to invite them for an exclusive meeting in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Besides asking the President to ensure adequate punishment for the killers, the parents’ petition asked for help in providing a job for Manjunath’s brother and a gas agency for the mother. “We are middle-class people. The murderers are rich people. They can use their might to come out of jail,’’ said the father. “I have heard what they had to say. I will do whatever is possible and speedily,’’ said Kalam speaking to The Indian Express after the meeting. He got his secretary P M Nair to ensure that his assurances get translated into action.

In that 15-minute meeting, Kalam had one question for the mother: ‘‘How have you managed to bring up your son in this manner?’’

For the Shanmugams, it was an easy answer: “Strong family values. We only stressed on one thing: good education. The rest took care of itself.’’

Manjunath’s voice echoed beyond his parents. Ambika Soni, Congress general secretary, asked the President: “What about other Satyendra Dubeys and Manjunaths who are in the pipeline? How do you ensure that one million of them do not die to be known?’’ Satyendra Dubey’s brother Dhananjay, a special invitee, made no reference to his brother’s murder after he blew the whistle on corruption but underlined his question as well. “Sir, you talk about knowledge in the villages. But what happens when a role model in the village, someone who does well and goes to work gets killed (just as his brother was), what do you tell the young children in the village then?”

For a moment, the President paused, visibly moved by the despair and the grief, and then showed a possible roadmap for tomorrow: “We are all concerned…transparency has to become a way of life. Honest people’s lives need to be protected. When such a sacrifice takes place, we have to change. You can’t let the problem become your master, your captain. You have to become the captain of your problem and defeat it,’’ he said. “And you will succeed.”