Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 759

Chapter 759: Kiran’s surprise: (2/3)
Kiran’s meeting with Vijay is unknown to almost everyone in the empire.

In the meantime, the news about the separation of power in the military is further fermenting. The rumours are getting louder and louder, and the conspiracy theories are getting out of control.

Some smaller newspaper publications could not resist the allure of expanding their reader base and started writing provocative articles that attracted eyeballs.

“Military mutiny caused by the bill passed in the parliament.”

Surprisingly enough, the strategy worked because, in a matter of seven days, newspaper sales jumped from only a few thousand to tens of thousands.

The business owners’ eyes turned green with greed. The rumours and speculation only became more outrageous, causing even more sales. Mirroring these unscrupulous newspapers, some small publication newspapers from different states also started to take advantage of the situation and ruthlessly dug into the market of established media companies and their newspapers.

In a matter of a few weeks, major newspaper companies saw a decline of over 35% in their sales, cutting profits by almost half.

At first, most of the newspapers had the attitude of “let’s wait and see.” The liability on the owner of a newspaper company is very big. If something goes wrong in the newspaper company, the owner has to bear the full responsibility. Since the very beginning, when the constitution was set up almost half a decade ago, the Bharatiya Empire has strictly enacted a rule that newspaper and media companies focused on producing content for public consumption can only be sole proprietorships without any cross-holding.

Although no restrictions have been placed on them as to what they could say and what they could not say, the intensity of punishments had not been restricted either, and it is up to the court to decide how severely the business owner has to be punished in case he is found guilty.

No one wants to be the first bird to bear these consequences, so all the newspaper companies waited to see what would happen to the smaller companies. But as time passed, the situation became worse and worse since there had been no action from the government. Instead, their market was devoured little by little by the tiny pesky insects.

Finally, unable to resist, Jagannath Mahapatra, the owner and chief editor of Odia Prabha, finally took a step in the direction of clickbait and became a slave to the readers.

Jagannath was pleasantly surprised. The sales chart, which had been going all the way down for two weeks, suddenly rose—not by changing the newspaper drastically, but by only adding a slightly more provocative and sharper tone to the titles in a way that would make the readers want to read it at first glance.

He couldn’t help but laugh ear to ear.

This change was naturally noticed by the competitors. They suddenly fell into a dilemma—whether to join in the fun or wait until the dust settled.

“Director, the sales are down by two percent today as well. Are you sure you don’t want to rewrite the headline?” A young woman wearing professional office attire of the Bharatiya Empire, which was a traditional saree with a coat on top, suggested with some blame.

‘This old guy, why is he so stubborn? If it goes on like this, the company will soon be shut down. Where can I find such a well-paying job?’ she complained. Even though professionals in the journalism industry are sought after everywhere, core talent like her, whose position was only a single step lower than the owner, is a little awkward.

Even though she had the skills, if she left the company, she could not find the same position in other companies due to the issue of trust alone. She could only settle for smaller newspaper companies, but smaller newspaper companies required a lot more effort to run, as a lot more effort had to be put in personally to compensate for the lack of a good talent pool. What’s more, even the salary was not as lucrative as her older job.

SB Krishna Gowda, looking at his assistant editor, didn’t have any emotions on his face. “I’ve made my decision. There’ll be no changing it. Unless we have definitive evidence of the news, we will not publish any false information or conspiracy theories.”

The woman left disappointed.

Looking at her leaving back, Krishna Gowda did not feel anything. In fact, he did not reject the advice simply because he was being stubborn and his sense of integrity was too high. No, instead, it was because he noticed that the whole situation was very weird. ‘Both the government and the Emperor’s council have stayed silent on this matter. There has to be something fishy going on. No matter what, even if I suffer losses for a while, I cannot participate in this turmoil and join these muddy waters,’ he resolutely determined in his heart.

Unfortunately, in the coming days, not everyone was as determined as Krishna Gowda. They eventually succumbed to the beautiful fantasy and stepped onto a path of no return.

Uncontrolled, the news became so chaotic that it even started to affect the echelon of the military, namely the four commanders of the Bharatiya Empire.

—

Amid the sound of shouts from the marching soldiers, an officer bearing the badge of a lieutenant general stood beside Ramayya Senapati. “Commander, we have discovered several groups in the military secretly contacting each other.” His face looked worried.

Ramayya Senapati, who was going through the logistical expenses for the month, immediately stopped, and his brows furrowed. He was naturally aware of what was going on in the empire for several weeks, but being the loyal soldier of the Devaraya family, he did not have any thoughts of disobeying the decision taken by His Majesty. But it seemed like not everyone in the military under his command shared the same ideal.

‘Even I can feel the unusualness in the military. Wouldn’t His Majesty, being as wise and forward-thinking as he is, know it in much more detail? Maybe His Majesty is planning something.’ Thinking of this, he suddenly had a doubt. He looked at his lieutenant. “The unusual movements you have observed were in which regiments?”

The lieutenant general didn’t think for too long. “It’s the Lahore Regiment and Thatta Regiment, Your Excellency. And more recently, even the Larkhana Regiment and Narayan Kot Regiment have started to experience unusual movements.”

Hearing the specifics, Ramayya remained calm, his body completely relaxed, but in his heart, he was startled. ‘Just as I guessed, the problems are majorly from regiments with the most Balochi and Rajputh origin people. Does His Majesty want to root out these scum?’ Reaching this conclusion, his eyes immediately brightened, and he understood what His Majesty wanted to do.

“Your Excellency,” the lieutenant general called multiple times, only to receive no response. So he called a little louder this time, after which Ramayya was jolted awake.

He quickly recounted what he thought in his mind and replied, “You don’t have to worry too much about this issue. I have got it under control.” It was actually His Majesty, but he didn’t want to tell others about his guess regarding what His Majesty was planning.

‘The Lieutenant General saluted and went back, but his expression was filled with uncertainty and doubt—this is a very big issue. Can this be taken care of by His Excellency the Commander alone? Doesn’t he have to report it to the headquarters?’

But he is a soldier at heart, and he will follow the orders even if he doesn’t agree with them.

Yogendra Singh and Narasimha Nayak, both seasoned military commanders, as well as Gangadhar, the only admiral of the Bharatiya Empire, all had some guesses in their minds as to what His Majesty was plotting. So, for the next two days, they acted like they were blind and couldn’t see anything.

—

March 15th, 1662

All eyes were focused on the happenings in the parliament. This was the day when the Ministry of Defence would be established, and the legislative powers of the military would be taken away.

All the MPs, CMs, cabinet ministers, and the prime minister all waited with bated breath to see how the whole thing would unfold.

Everyone were kept in the dark about what His Excellency Kiran Poojary would do. Some speculated he would directly tear up the agreement, while others speculated that he would sign the document and completely retire with a broken heart. But what happened next was out of everyone’s expectations.

Kiran Poojary, in front of all the members of the parliament, signed the bill without any regret or nostalgia. What’s even more amazing was that if one carefully observed the face of the marshal, one could see even a bit of joy.

‘What the **** happened?’ Everyone, including Narasimha Modi, were left dumbfounded. The person who should have put up the most resistance and the strongest fight—enough to shake the foundations of the Bharatiya Empire—just simply signed away his powers like it was a 10 Varaha he was giving away for charity.

“Clap” “clap” “clap” “clap”

Although it remained a mystery how His Excellency the Marshal directly gave up his powers without fighting back, since Vinod’s cabinet and the ministers wanted this to happen, a deafening applause was heard throughout the parliament.

Consciously or unconsciously, everyone looked up at the balcony, their expressions showing awe and respect. They completely understood that the reason why His Excellency Kiran did not put up a fight was definitely related to His Majesty.

Vijay could feel the admiring gazes that were being cast at him, but he was already used to it, so he shook his head and ignored it.

Kiran Poojary, looking at the ministers clapping, finally let out a chuckle and replied in a humorous tone, “After being a soldier for most of my life, I would have never expected that I would be a politician like you guys.”

“Looks like all of us will be contacting each other more in the future. I will be officially taking the post as the Minister of the Ministry of Defence, appointed by His Majesty.”

“It’ll be my honour serving with all of you, and I hope we will have a pleasant cooperation in the government as well.”

Jagannath Mohan Immediately stood up, “Definitely, Sir, the pleasure is all ours,”

“Yes, it is our honour to be working with a person like you.”

“Agreed.”

The ministers responded one by one and added a hint of flattery along the way.

Narasimha Modi’s mouth was wide open. ‘Theoretically, if the Marshal remains in his position, even if His Majesty appoints a new minister, his position cannot be shaken due to his firm grip on the Empire’s military. But to think that he would give up the position and come to politics—is it related to any benefits His Majesty has promised the Marshal?’ he guessed.

He always knew His Majesty had some sort of a trump card, or else he wouldn’t be able to convince so many people to give up their benefits for seemingly simple things.

For example, His Highness Aditya Bosley sold the rights to the Maratha throne to His Majesty for a kingship without any inheritance rights. Although, in hindsight, it is a very wise choice since the existence of a king in the Bharatiya Empire is currently a transcendental mediating power to check and balance the government and judiciary, being second to none. But when the exchange happened, it was definitely not so.

Putting aside His Excellency Aditya, who might have lost against the negotiation with His Majesty due to his weak opposition and status at that time, why did His Highness Jaya Dwaj Singha agree to merge the Kingdom of Ahom with the Bharatiya Empire just to become a king? Modi doesn’t think so. Even now, with all the riches a king in the Bharatiya Empire can enjoy, exchanging a kingdom for it is not worth it. So he always thought His Majesty had an ace up his sleeve that could convince a lot of people.

Now, looking at Kiran Poojari and seeing how happy he is to lose his power, Narasimha Modi couldn’t be any more sure about it.

Finally, at the end of the parliamentary session, a swearing-in ceremony was held where Marshal Kiran Poojari officially stepped down from his post and took the post of the Minister of Defence of the Bharatiya Empire without any election, since Vijay has the right to elect the first cabinet minister of any new ministry without elections. And the next day, Gangadhar was sworn in as the new Marshal of the Empire, with Commanders Ramayya Senapati and Narasimha Nayak assisting him in the affairs of the army.