4th March 1657
Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Imperial Capital-Bengaluru, Simhasana Bhavana
Vijay, sitting in his office, received the report about Rajesh taking action and starting the nationwide product quality assessment this morning.
"Your Majesty, Director Selvan from the Bharatiya Internal Pragya has arrived," Ganesh informed.
"Bring him in," Vijay said.
Ganesh nodded his head and left. A few minutes later, he returned with Selvan. Selvan respectfully saluted Vijay and sat down in his seat while Ganesh left the room, carefully closing the door to avoid making any noise.
Vijay, closing the ledger he was inspecting, inquired with a smile on his face, "How is your daughter? Is she well?"
Selvan had a proud smile on his face as he replied, "She is doing very well, Your Majesty. She just graduated middle school and is now in high school." There was a hint of tenderness in his eyes.
Vijay let out a chuckle and decided to get to the main topic. "Selvan, I have a task for you."
"Please convey your orders, Your Majesty. I will definitely get it done," Selvan said.
"For the next few days, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce will send all of its staff on a quality inspection campaign across the empire, and I need you to Infiltrate this campaign and prepare a list of all the civil servants who are corrupt," Vijay said.
"Your majesty, You mean I have to prepare a list of all the civil servants in the Ministry of Trade Commerce and Industry who are under the payroll of the state-owned factory directors?" Selvan asked to confirm.
"Yes, that’s right. Here is the permit," Vijay said as he handed him an imperial permit to legitimise his operation.
Selvan resolutely nodded but then asked, "Your Majesty, do you want me to cooperate with the police and have those within the civil service who are caught be arrested for fraud and espionage?"
" Hmm, No need. I have alternative plans for them."
After getting his objectives and the range in which he had to act, Selvan simply saluted, got up, and left.
Vijay looked at his departing figure for a while, then resumed his work.
---
An hour passed, and Ganesh re-entered the room, informing, "Your Majesty, Mr. Jalandhar from the Bharatiya External Pragya is here."
"Bring him in."
Jalandhar, who was abruptly called to the Emperor’s office, did not know why he was summoned. Even though he is the deputy of the Bharatiya External Pragya and his rank is only lower than Director Roshan, he still felt nervous when meeting the Emperor.
His movements were a little stiff as he entered the office, saluted His Majesty, and sat down after receiving the gesture.
Vijay did not engage in small talk and ordered, "In two hours, the Bharatiya Internal Pragya is going to start an operation throughout the empire. Now, I want you to use your double agents to collect information on all the suspicious agents within the Bharatiya Internal Pragya."
"For further details, take this," Vijay said as he handed over the document.
Jalandhar, after reading the document, finally understood his operational task in detail. Without any hesitation, he saluted and left.
A few minutes later, Aditya also arrived.
"Aditya, here, take this. This is the list of double agents within both the Bharatiya External Pragya and Bharatiya Internal Pragya."
Aditya, looking at the list of names, was confused as he did not understand what this had to do with him. After all, he was only responsible for military intelligence.
Vijay did not mind the questioning expression as he continued, "These two intelligence agencies have important tasks to fulfil. The Bharatiya Internal Pragya has the task of monitoring the Ministry of Trade Commerce and Industry, as well as its officials. The Bharatiya External Pragya has the task of monitoring the Bharatiya Internal Pragya.
Your job is to monitor the double agents in both agencies to ensure their loyalties are straight."
Aditya finally understood that His Majesty wanted him to be the one to catch the most hidden rats in the intelligence department, given that his agency normally does not come into contact with civilian affairs and is suspected to have the fewest infiltrators, since cooperating with the agents of Bharatiya Sainik Pragya was of little use to both the rats in the ministry and the corrupt directors in various state-owned industries.
----
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
4th March 1657, early in the morning at 8:00 AM
The Ministry of Trade, Commerce, and Industries unexpectedly launched a large-scale quality inspection campaign for all industrial factories in the empire. Most of the factory directors were caught off guard by the sudden inspection.
In an industrial zone in Vijayanagara,
"Hey! The defective rate of products in your factory for a sample size of 10 has reached 4. What the hell are you doing?" an officer yelled at the factory director and wrote down his name.
In an industrial zone in Cholapuri,
"Congratulations, Mr. Director! The defective rate of products in your factory is very low. I believe the empire will not ignore your contributions," an officer said, congratulating a factory director who continued to maintain the same standards as during the war.
In an industrial zone in Cheranadu,
"What is this? Why are you using subpar quality steel for the hinges here?" an officer with a livid face questioned the factory director.
The factory director, whose face was pale and not looking good, desperately tried to explain, "Sir, using such hinges will save resources for the empire. You see, by using this hinge, although the life expectancy of the product will be reduced by a few years, the cost required to produce the product is also decreased by 30%. So, you see, I am doing this for the profitability of the empire."
The officer had a sneer on his face as he asked, "Oh, is that so? Then where are the so-called profits?"
The director immediately choked on his saliva. "Ah... That..."
The officer didn’t say anything and directly handed the man over to the police for fraud and embezzlement.
Such cases, although rare, happened all over the empire.
Rajesh, getting regular updates, had never expected that a random quality inspection campaign would reveal so many problems within the industrial system of the empire. He was extremely angry. If he were to find out that there are even more rats in his own organization, I don’t know how he would feel.
In an industrial zone in Kakatiya Puri state:
"Mr. Balram, thank you for your prior warning," a factory director with a big smile on his face profusely thanked the officer from the Ministry of Trade Commerce and Industry in front of him.
"Haha, don’t worry about it, Mr. Niranjan. You recruited my nephew as your chief technician, after all, so how could I not provide you with such a small favour in return?"
Niranjan still had a smile on his face. "But still, how can I not thank you?"
"Hey, come here, give him the lunch my Mrs. cooked," Niranjan ordered a boy carrying what looked like tiffin boxes.
Balram, as if he already knew what was in the box, received the boxes with a smile and left with his colleagues in a carriage.
Opening the lunch boxes, there were bundles of Varha notes within them. Balram, with a happy expression, shared some of the money with his colleagues, giving a single five-Varaha coin to the driver.
The driver, with a sincere expression, profusely thanked the man and took the coin as if he had gotten $1,000,000, but as soon as he turned around, his face became stern as he silently noted down the officer’s badge number and Balram’s name.
He is an agent of Bharatiya Internal Pragya, entrenched in society as a carriage driver.
In a similar way, hundreds of officers from the ministry were identified by The agents of BIP, who were playing the roles of drivers, coolies, assistants, and other menial jobs seen all over the empire.
This move by the internal intelligence agency of the empire almost swept up nearly 80 to 90% of all the corrupt officials within the Industrial Ministry of the empire. Unfortunately, just like Colgate, this operation could not fully eliminate the "germs." Some still remained, and these are the hardest to remove.
---
In a hidden bar, a high-level agent of the Bharatiya Internal Pragya met with a director of a large-scale military enterprise responsible for producing ammunition and a civil servant from the Ministry of Trade Commerce and Industry responsible for quality inspection in a certain part of the industrial zone in Godavari Bank industrial complex.
"Phew! Thankfully we got to know about the information from Manjunath, or else we would be in big trouble," the factory director said, wiping away the sweat on his forehead.
The officer from the ministry also nodded his head and replied, with fear still lingering in his heart, "I thought by informing you earlier, the danger could be avoided. But who would have thought His Majesty was so cunning and insidious to use the intelligence department to monitor us from the ministry?
This is an action of catching two birds with one stone." It could be seen that this officer was very scared, dread still lingering on his face.
Manjunath said, "Alright, keep that aside. Director, have you cleaned up the factory? This is the main thing that will determine the fate of you two gentlemen."
The director finally smiled and replied, "Haha, I sold off all the products overnight and immediately started manufacturing products with standard specifications. The problem should not be too big."
Saying that, he took out three gold bricks, handing two to the intelligence agent and one to the officer from the ministry.
"Please continue to look after my business. I have been preparing some funds to buy the shares in the factory when it is denationalized. After the denationalization, I will allocate some shares in the company to you two gentlemen."
Hearing the promise, the two people laughed, eager to become rich in one step.
However, unknown to these three people, a double agent, who was initially the junior under Manjunath, sneakily listened to the conversation with a stern expression on his face.
He was ordered to stay at the carriage when Manjunath arrived at this remote valley, but considering the orders he had received from BEP that he had not received for a long time Since he became a double agent, he became doubtful whether his immediate superior could be one of those scum and followed him.
Unexpectedly, He did not expect that his fears would come true and discover that his boss was indeed a traitor.
He immediately remembered all the details of the conversation, wrote them down in a book, and quickly left before Manjunath came back.
---
Although these things are rare, they are definitely happening in dozens of places in the empire. Vijay knew that the barbaric growth of the empire’s economy during the war, which had grown nearly 10 times, would undoubtedly pick up all the trash and garbage in society.
However, he previously never had a chance to clear out this mess. But now that his empire is in the midst of another huge economic expansion and on the brink of the Industrial Revolution, and the matter concerns the external image of Bharat in the minds of the global audience, he had to wipe out these pests.
Even if some immediate interests are lost, it is no big deal; he would just quicken the graduation and have the students graduate faster.
Although the work abilities of these students are doubtful, it is not entirely impossible. While there are many cockroaches and rats in the industrial sector, there are also dedicated and responsible people who are, in fact, the majority. These people will be promoted and tasked with bringing forth the new generation.
"Do it as soon as you think of it," Vijay thought to himself, and immediately sent an invitation letter to Kishore Balabadra.
---
At the end of the week-long operation, Vijay received a comprehensive list detailing:
1. Factory directors who were not serious about their tasks.
2. Directors who embezzled national resources.
3. Directors who colluded with the Industrial Ministry’s civil servants.
4. Directors who colluded with both the civil servants and intelligence department officers.
5. Civil servants who colluded with factory directors.
6. Civil servants who colluded with both factory directors and the intelligence department.
7. Intelligence agents who colluded with factory directors and ministry officers.
Surprisingly, the list revealed an unexpected network of corruption. It included a BEP double agent who was working with a corrupt agent from BIP. This BIP agent was also involved with a dishonest director from a large state-owned enterprise that made cannon shells for the military.
On top of that, a civil servant from the Ministry of Trade Commerce and Industry, who held the rank of deputy director in the Department of Industry, was also part of this corrupt group.
These four individuals were working together to cover up issues with the quality of cannon shells being produced for export. Vijay had only called in the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya as a precaution, not expecting to find such a major player in the corruption scheme.
Fortunately, the spider’s web he had woven within the empire had its first catch, and he had to say it was quite successful.