Tell It to the Birds

SOMETHING MOMENTOUS happened in the world of espio­nage on January 30. A story that began as bleak as a Delhi winter day with more smog than air, suddenly saw the sun burst out in all its glory with a lesson in tow that no matter how desperate one’s circumstances, there is always hope. A pigeon that had been languishing in custody in Mumbai for eight months on charges of being a spy for the Chinese government finally saw its ordeal come to an end. It was released from its confines and headlines of national newspapers proclaimed the joyous news that justice exists.

The bird had first come into the notice of the Mumbai police after being appre­hended with two mysterious rings in its legs and words that looked like Chinese script below its wings. The cops immedi­ately swung into action because it was a question of national security. In a world of mobile phones, satellite phones, email, encrypted WhatsApp texts and a million messaging apps, if the Chinese still used pigeons to send messages to spies in India, then the local police would not be found wanting either.

It becomes a little hazy from here on. We know that the police having caught it, sent the two rings for foren­sic investigation. As to the bird, after finding themselves ill-quipped to keep such a mastermind in custody and no self-respecting jail willing to take it, a veterinary hospital was found where it occupied a cage that rightfully belonged to some other ailing bird. And there it remained because, well, everyone just forgot about it. When a newspaper did a follow-up story a couple of weeks ago, the police said that they were surprised that the hospital still had the pigeon. Their investigations had found that it was from Taiwan and wasn’t actually a spy, but a racing pigeon. According to one news article, it flew to India by mistake. In another, the police are quoted as saying it came by ship though one wonders how such a claim can be made with such confidence by anyone less than Sherlock Holmes. Fortunately, for the Border Security Force, the police didn’t say the pigeon walked into India.

The veterinary hospital said that they hadn’t released the bird since the police had entrusted it. They considered the pigeon to be formally in police custody and couldn’t let it go unless the police said so. Now that a reporter badly in need for a story had decided to enquire about the status of the alleged spy, the police finally communicated to the hos­pital that the pigeon could go free. The two rings, we can be certain, were not returned to it. Quite possibly, the pigeon is now hovering outside the gate of the Taiwanese consulate for permission to return home and to tell other pigeons there never to drift by mistake to India.

The moral of the story is that the pigeon was lucky. It doesn’t take much to imagine what a system that can put a bird under arrest for eight months suspecting it to be a spy can do to innocent human beings who fall under its black hole.

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