Security breach on the beach

Subbu looked troubled. 'I don't like it,' he said. 'I need to get to the bottom of it.'

'What?' I asked.

'The mystery of this Jeyaraj,' said Subbu.

'Who is Jeyaraj?' I asked.

'You haven't heard of Jeyaraj?' scoffed Subbu. 'I can't make up my mind if he is a national hero or a villain.'

'But who is he?' I asked, unable to bear the suspense anymore.

'He was the one who was with the Prime Minister on his plogging trip recently at Mamallapuram,' explained Subbu. 'He was the one to whom the PM handed over his beach collections after 30 minutes of cleaning up the beach.'

'Oh,' I said. 'I saw that video. But is Jeyaraj featuring in that video? I only saw the Prime Minister walking alone and cleaning up the beach.'

'Yes, that's why I am worried about this Jeyaraj,' said Subbu. 'Why was our PM walking alone? Where was his security? Was security goofing off for 30 minutes? Did Jeyaraj have something to do with it?'

'Hmm,' I said. 'I never thought of that.'

'It's a major security breach on the beach,' said Subbu. 'How could they leave the PM unguarded? That too with all those Chinese around? And with this mysterious Jeyaraj for company who could also be a Chinese for all we know. And to add to all this, the State of Tamil Nadu does not even clean up the beaches before the PM came. As everyone on the planet knows our PM does not like all this trash and garbage lying around. There could have been anything in those bottles and stuff that the PM picked up.'

'Yes indeed,' I said. 'But why didn't our PM tell Jeyaraj or whoever to clean it up? Or at least help him clean it up so it could have been easier and quicker. The entire video would have been over in one minute instead of three minutes. Also, 'sabka saath' and 'sabka vikas'.

'Our PM is not like other leaders, who tell others to do what he himself will not do,' said Subbu. 'So, he decided to clean it up by himself. On his own!'

'What do you think is Jeyaraj's role in this episode?' I asked.

'That's what I want to know,' said Subbu. 'One possibility is that Jeyaraj, an employee of the hotel where the PM was staying, perhaps messed up the beach knowing the PM does not like it and supplied plastic bags to the PM in the hope of making a quick buck. Alternately he could be the one who shot the video. But since he also appears in the video collecting the PM's beach collection there might have been a third person involved. Unless Jeyaraj has a long third arm, which makes it even more sinister.'

'Hmm,' I said. 'Is he a villain then?'

'But considering that Jeyaraj was the only guy around to help the PM in the absence of security forces and shot and shared the video with the public I feel we can rule out any mischief from Jeyaraj,' said Subbu. 'He's a national hero and not a villain. He deserves an award.'

'Why?' I asked.

'He may not have helped the PM clean the beach, but he shot the video and shared it with the world,' said Subbu. 'Thanks to him the world knows about plogging and an additional word of Swedish too. And the leaders of all countries can take a cue from our PM and clean up their respective messes.'

'True, I only wish Jeyaraj had given the PM some non-plastic bags,' I said. 'Perhaps next time.'