By TJS George

All good things must come to an end.  This column started appearing as an Express feature in 1997. It has been going on without a break for a quarter century. That is a long run, a real long run.  A year’s 52 weeks multiplied by 25 means that a jaw-dropping 1,300 instalments of the column have appeared under the ‘Point of View’ title.

There were of course problems along the way. But they did not affect the flow. The call of duty always won. For those whose profession is writing, deadlines are deadlines. You ignore them at your peril. And peril is never an option for journalists who live on the goodwill of their readers.

I lived in Hong Kong for a while and there I had come across a Chinese-language Daily called the Hong Kong Economic (HKE) Journal. Lam Shan-muk was writing a column in the Journal for nearly 50 years without a break. Fifty years! But then, Lam was the Founder of the Journal. It was his life. He wrote in every issue.

There was no HKE Journal without Lam, and there was no Lam without the Journal.

Every columnist is not a Lam with his own Journal. Nor does every newspaper writer have to face the kind of restrictions Varavara Rao is facing. His publishers have removed words like Hindutva and Sangh Parivar and ‘Saffronisation’ from the book ‘Varavara Rao: A Revolutionary Poet.’ (imprisoned for long, Varavara Rao is currently out on medical bail.)

I have had a good run as a columnist, primarily due to the wide interests of Express readers, and the tradition of the Express to rise to its readers’ expectations. A selection of these columns was published in book form in 2003 under the title ‘The First Refuge of Scoundrels,’ a play on Samuel Johnson’s classic assertion that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” A blurb on the back cover said that the book was a candid look at why “Corruption is beautiful, elections are for fixing, religion is for exploiting.”

Some of us feel that we should not criticise our own country. Some feel exactly the other way — that a big country like ours need to be cautioned all the way about pitfalls. All arguments have their own supporters and their own critics, their own validities and their own drawbacks. But there is something not right if a country and its rulers start feeling that they should not be criticised at all — and especially by newspaperwallahs.

Fortunately we have not reached the stage where criticism is considered anti-national.  But sometimes we seem pretty close to that. Consider Home Minister Amit Shah’s thesis that India has seen a cultural revival since 2014 when Sri Modi took the top post. ‘Culture’ is a concept that can be seen and interpreted in any number of ways to suit the ‘culture’ of the individual who is interpreting it. So the cultural revival Shah talks about is the culture that he accepts as culture. Is that the same culture that Rahul Gandhi or Mamata Banerjee or M.K. Stalin, indeed the people in general, will recognise as culture?

India is a big country. There is no one-sided culture even a strong Home Minister can impose on the North and the East and the West and the South of India.

The inability to understand this truth about India — the inability to understand that the cultural diversity of India is its strength — is the reason why men like Amit Shah, will never find all-India acceptance. They can make people afraid of them, but they cannot make people see them as leaders the country can benefit from.

If anything is sure in this life, it is that India will go on being India with the richness of its heterogeneity.  Prime Ministers may come and go, Home Ministers may say this and that, but the essence of India will go on, unaffected by the manipulations of power-seekers. Ours is a truly great country. Ours is a truly great culture. We will remain great irrespective of small men who think that power will hide their smallness.

For me as a journalist, it was a proud achievement to keep a discourse going with discerning citizens of our great country.  After a quarter century, it’s time for a pause. It’s time to sit back and let others carry on. I must of course keep writing, but not according to a fixed schedule — fixed days and fixed spaces.  The fight must go on.

Shubham…

The post Now is the time to say goodbye appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

Some of our regional languages have a wisdom saying that goes: “Dad, don’t keep beating me.  I won’t improve.” The current equivalent of that wisdom is: “Fellow citizens, don’t prefer this party over that.  All are stuck in the same rut of opportunism.”  For a democracy, this is a tragic situation. But facts are facts, tragic or otherwise.

Prashant Kishore thinks he can change this. Out of a scenario of cynicism, this man has emerged as a game-changer.  He has changed the game here and there, adding to his rather mystic appeal.  Whether it is good for the country or  not, there are political groups that thinks that this is an operator who can spring a magic or two for them.

He does look different from the run-of-the-mill politician.  In fact, he doesn’t look like a politician at all, although politics is his basic game.  He has worked enough magic to ask for what has always been considered impossible, namely, freedom to do things on his own.  How can a BJP man do things without the approval of Modiji?  How can a Congressman do things without the approval of Rahulji?

Everybody knows that the Congress needs updating. It is condemned to the historical reality that it was founded, not by Gandhi or Nehru or Patel or Bose, but by a British ICS Officer named A.O. Hume.  This Englishman stayed as the General Secretary of the Congress for its first 22 years.

With a background like that, the Congress probably has a built-in capacity to absorb strength from unexpected sources. Prashant Kishore could have been one such source.  But Congressmen are suspicious of “outsiders.”  After all, who is this guy and why is he showing unusual interest in the Congress? Good Congressmen felt that he had ulterior motives that were not honourable.

But there were other Congressmen who believed that good advice should be accepted even if it came from the devil.  They went to the extent of inviting him to join the party’s Empowered Committee and look after its preparation to fight the elections.  This was in defiance of the group of leaders who tried to keep Kishore away from the party.

Speculations centred round Kishore’s desire to be a power centre in his own right and the unwillingness of other leaders to agree to this. Given the circumstances in which Kishore become a centre of attraction, it was unlikely that he would agree to be just a member of the crowd.  He had gained a measure of credibility as a strategist and he achieved it as a solitary operator. It was unrealistic to expect him to give up that “distinction” and become just another camp follower.

More than half a dozen times, Congress leaders had held serious discussions with Kishore.  Apparently he demanded the position of Congress President’s Political Secretary or that of a Vice-President of the party.  This must have been one reason for his not making any progress inside the party.  Rahul Gandhi was on record from early on that Kishore would not join his party.

A plan to rejuvenate the Congress was said to have been drawn up by Kishore and this was believed to be the basis on which the party was talking to him. As any re-building plan for the Congress would involve questions about Rahul Gandhi’s ultra-super position in the party, the Gandhi family was not terribly enthusiastic.  When the Gandhis are not terribly enthusiastic, what can non-Gandhis do?

Several Congress leaders were of the opinion that Kishore’s proposals should be seriously discussed.  But Congress as a body chose to ignore the whole thing.  Kishore became The Odd Man Out.              Indeed, it can be said that Kishore achieved his unusual position as a policy thinker by making proposals that ignored the holy status Congressmen usually give to the Gandhi family.  That also explained why he got nowhere.

Ultimately, it is that holy status of the premier family that is weakening the Congress.  Sonia and Rahul should have noticed that when the G-23 sent them a “Letter of Dissent” two years ago. These were completely loyal Congressmen such as Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari and they asked for “sweeping changes” within the party for survival’s sake.  Nothing more was heard of it; ignoring the veterans was typical Congress tactic.  So is leaving unsolved issues unsolved.

Don’t dismiss it lightly if you hear someone saying that the Congress is working for the BJP.  Nothing is impossible when politicians lose their sense of direction and act like characters in “The Wizard of Oz” —  Tin Man looking for a heart and a Cowardly Lion looking for some courage.

The post Can Congress stop working for Bjp? appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

What a tragedy Sri Lanka has become.  All school examinations have been cancelled because there is no paper.  There is no paper because there is no money to import it.  There is no fuel for cooking.  A thousand bakeries are closed.  Many power plants have shut down leading to extensive power cuts. Some 50,000 gas cylinders used to be supplied in a month. It’s down to 2,000 now; the impact on households can be imagined. One citizen put it bluntly: “We can’t even afford a headache; there’s no medicine.”

Sri Lanka was a fun country not long ago. People liked to enjoy life, and most of them could. Lanka was also dreaded by many countries because when Muttiah Muralitharan started bowling, shivers went down the spines of his targeted batsmen. Sanath Jayasuriya invented new techniques of hard-hitting the ball, which became the standard for all ambitious players. 

Cherished names from that era of Lankan glory are still remembered with pride.  Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Kumaratunga proved the power of women in a field usually seen as the preserve of men.  Ranil Wikremesinghe and Ranasinghe Premadasa fought democracy’s wars regardless of the costs.  Sarath Fonseka became a Field Marshal, the country’s first.

This great and wonderful country turned into a tragedy for reasons not noticed when it happened. Soon enough the reason became obvious: A proud and creative country had become the private preserve of a single family, the Rajapaksas.

How this happened will one day be chronicled with academic clarity.  What we know now is that Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected Prime Minister in 2004, became President in 2005 and stayed in that chair for ten long years.  That stint in power was used by his brother Gotabaya, a scheming politician, to change the system in favour of his family.  He succeeded so well that he became known even among his supporters as “The Terminator.”

How many people were terminated in that period is not yet public knowledge, but there were reports of people being picked up by the Police, never to be seen again. Gotabaya became famous for his short temper and widespread corruption, but no one would say a word against him. 

In 2019, he became President of the country, enjoying special privileges and immunity against legal proceedings.  Basil Rajapaksa, considered the economic genius of the family, ensured that Government contracts fetched him commissions suiting his status.  He became known as “Mr. Ten Percent.”  That showed his modesty because he could easily have become “Mr. Twenty-five Percent.” He faced many prosecutions but they meant nothing because (a) no charge was proved against him, and (b) he had dual citizenship, Sri Lankan and American.

The family’s influence kept growing. Namal Rajapaksa, son of Mahinda, entered Parliament when he was only 24.  He held no Ministerial post, but his backing was essential for any project to go ahead in the country.  He faced charges of money laundering, but he rolled on from one successful post to another.  Mahinda is said to be grooming him to become President of the country.

At the political level, it has been a story of opportunism all the way. For a long time, Sri Lanka tried not to depend on India. This was when China took unusual interest in the island’s affairs. They built a major port at Hambantota, a strategic point along the east-west shipping routes.  This was in addition to a new port developed in Colombo itself. Sri Lankan Parliament passed laws that turned 600 acres near the existing Colombo Port into Chinese sovereign territory.

For some reason, the weather changed. China seemed uninterested in asserting its rights and Colombo suddenly turned to India for help.  A $100 crore loan happened, and was followed by another $100 crore loan. It was explained that the money from India was to ensure imports of day to day necessities that had become locally unavailable — rice, sugar, wheat, medicines.  How did such essentials become unavailable?  How did corruption go deep enough to devour the country?

Facing a survival crisis, Sri Lankan central bank had printed currency notes in excess of prudent limits.  They added up to 1.2 lakh crore in value (about 26,000 crore rupees in Indian money).  That does not seem to have solved problems of everyday existence.  Where do they go now?  Where is China?  All we know is where is Mahinda, and Gotabaya, and Basil, and Chamal, the eldest of the brothers, and also Namal, Mahinda’s son.  We know where they are today and how well they are doing.  But tomorrow?

The post Learn from the decline of Sri Lanka appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

Lata Mangeshkar was, after all, just a playback singer — one who played in the background while actors took the limelight.  Yet, when she passed away, India paused.  Linguistic and regional sentiments disappeared as all of India felt the loss of a national asset.  The Government ordered a two-day national mourning and the final salute at Shivaji Park in Bombay saw dignitaries from all over the country in attendance, with Police and military personnel controlling the crowds.  It was obvious that Lata had evolved into an all-India emblem.

Popular demand rose for a permanent Lata memorial at Shivaji Park, traditionally a beehive of sporting facilities.  The 28-acre expanse of the maidan had become a cradle of cricketers who evolved into international celebrities.  Since the Park is already identified with sports, the idea of a Lata memorial there did not appeal to sports enthusiasts.  A PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court seeking directions not to use the Park for funerals and other such activities. The plea said: “Once an area is declared a playground, it cannot be used for any other purpose.”

Those who supported that campaign had valid reasons to back them.  But the dispute over location did not spoil the logic of a Lata memorial.  It can of course be argued that nothing can be a better memorial for the singer than a song like Aayega aanewala (‘Mahal’ 1949). An additional three-dimensional memorial may someday come up somewhere, for Lata will remain a strong presence in the imagination of Indians for many years to come.

Among the many characteristics that make Lata Mangeshkar special, one that stood out was her down-to-earth practicality.  She was aware of how singers were exploited in the film industry.  When she realised that her songs were “owned” by publishing companies, she began questioning the propriety of it all.  “What do I get from this?” she asked. It was that question that led to singers receiving royalty in Indian films.  It must have made a big difference to her considering her output.  She once said: “I recorded two songs in the morning, two in the afternoon, two in the evening, and two at night.”

Life had given her some tough lessons.  She was only 13 when her father died.  At that age she was forced to earn a living.  She got a stipend of Rs. 80 a month in the early 1940s.  The fee for a song was Rs. 400 of which 300 was paid in advance.

The times were tough, but life had its compensations.  One of them was that artistes found inspiration in one another.  This was clear in an “extremely rare” photograph Facebook featured not long ago.  It was a group photo with some 20 famous personalities posing together.  Among them were Amirbai Karnataki, Geeta Dutt, Zohra Jan, Meena Kapoor, Sailesh Mukherjee, Talat Mahmood, Mohammed Rafi, G. M. Durrani, Kishore Kumar, Shamshad Begum, Hemant Kumar, Mukesh along with Lata.  Truly, a nest of singing birds.

Lata’s primacy in her field was accepted by fellow artistes with a naturalness that testified to the quality of her art.  Things like jealousy and back-biting never seemed to collect around her.  Perhaps this was a characteristic of her generation.  Stars like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Nargis enjoyed a level of admiration from the masses that was a mark of their era.  It was qualitatively different from the acceptance level enjoyed by Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai.  Raj Kapoor was a selfish person and had no qualms about using others for his individual gain.  But that did not in any way cut into the mass adulation he attracted.

Lata belonged to the Raj Kapoor era when heroes looked like heroes and were treated as such by the masses.  She also had a distinct personality profile of her own, holding her up as more than just a playback singer.  As one profile noted: “Lata liked photography, enjoyed Formula One races, took interest in Ferraris and watched foreign films.  She had a fantastic collection of professional cameras.  Cricket was another passion.  Yash Chopra gave her an E-Class Mercedes Benz for what she did in Veer Zaara, a 2004 musical about an Indian pilot and Pakistani girl.  The song Tere Liye was one of its hits.”

Lata’s high-pitched soprano voice became “a hallmark of Hind film music.”  You didn’t have to know Hindi to enjoy the beauty of her song and the warmth of the romantic sentiments the lyrics often conveyed.  Will there ever be another Lata Mangeshkar?  Many more than the 140 crore Indians will hope so, but know better.

The post The musical phenomenon we lost appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

In a matter of weeks, Uttar Pradeshians will be lining up to vote.  This election will be of considerable significance to all of India. Yogi Adityanath, the politician dressed in saffron, is well-known for his ambition to replace Narendra Modi as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial nominee.  In such situations, Modi develops ten eyes and twenty ears. This internal yudh makes the UP elections a historical tug of war.

Election time is the time — the only time — when ordinary citizens get extraordinary attention as voters. To get those votes, parties and politicians go to any length. Once upon a time they could directly bribe voters; actually give cash. That’s not done now because now things are a bit more sophisticated. Politicians recognise that and rise to the occasion.

A few days ago the Prime Minister transferred Rs. 476 crore to the accounts of 53,000 women Self Help Groups (SHGs) in UP.  What are these SHGs and who benefits from them?  We are free to form our own impressions from the few available facts. They are groups said to be functioning under the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Mission.  This was part of a capitalisation fund of Rs. 1,625 crore that was disbursed to more than four lakh SHGs.  Plenty of money which means plenty of opportunities to win the support of voters because officially the control buttons are at the Prime Minister’s Office — and the PMO is at your fingertips.

These are days when fingertips can work wonders. SHGs are not the only akshaya patras responding to VIP fingertips.  There are other wonderful-sounding initiatives. For example, the Kanya Sumangala Scheme. What a noble concept, arranging sumangala for Kanyas. It gets nobler when we realise that it enables the Government to transfer Rs. 20 crores to the accounts of approved groups.

“Approved groups.” Ah, there’s the key. It is irrelevant to ask where this kind of money is coming from.  But it is relevant to look at what such munificence has meant to the national exchequer.  Since 2014, when the Modi Government came to power, the rupee has fallen quite noticeably.  The rate was 63 rupees to the dollar that year.  In 2020, just six years later, it became 76 to the dollar.  This was when the Prime Minister was saying publicly that he would take the rupee high and make it 40 to a dollar.  Economic growth rate in this period has been zero in automobile and residential property sales.  So 60 percent of the population were surviving on free grain.

The Prime Minister’s response was to rely on his oratory.  He spoke of how Aurangazeb tried to change civilisation with the sword, but Shivaji rose to protect India’s culture.  Justice Fali Nariman wondered why Babar or Akbar was not cited instead of Aurangazeb.  “Akbar was famous as one of the most secular rulers that any nation ever knew at any point in time,” he said.  He quoted Babar’s letter to his son Humayun asking that justice be delivered as per the tenets of each community.

Tenets in today’s India have scant regard for secular ideas, or for free speech. Although the prevailing notion is that free speech is truly free in India, British-period sedition laws are used against even “youngsters, students and comedians” who criticise the Government.  “It is time,” said Justice Nariman, “to do away completely with the sedition laws and allow free speech so long as, ultimately, it does not extort somebody to violence.”

But people in power, especially when they have an insecurity complex, tend to hear the voices of only their followers.  A few days ago Madhya Pradesh Minister Kamal Patel claimed that Modi was born to save India, that he was an avatar of God, like Rama and Krishna.  His reasoning was that, when crisis develops in a country and dictators rise, God appears in human form.  Like Rama appeared to end the misrule of Ravana.  Similarly, when the misdeeds of the Congress increased, God appeared as Modi to save the country.  He has come as Viswaguru of India, leading the nation along the right tracks.  When we have Ministers who see God’s actions with such certainty, what scope is there for those who do not have such easy access to God?

Some of our official patriots get angry at the very mention of “hate speech.”  Keshav Prasad Maurya, UP’s BJP stalwart, got furious when the subject was raised at a recent interview.  He snatched the reporter’s mask and forced the crew to delete the footage, as the BBC said later.  “We don’t need to prove ourselves,” he said.  Lesson to learn: BJP leaders do not know what is hate.  Love is their guiding light.  Damn the people who have to prove themselves.

The post In UP, BJP’s leaders know only love appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

A remarkable anthology has come out.  It is misleadingly titled as “Two hundred years of English prose.”  The main title of the book is just as erroneous: “The Book of Indian Essays.”

This book is more than just “English prose” and “Indian essays.”  It is an assertive history of India, outlined by some of the best thinkers of our time — from Aubrey Menen and G.V. Desani to Santha Rama Rau and Nissim Ezekiel.  A statement in the blurb puts it in perspective: “A literary anthology also works as an alternative history.  This volume resembles a map of middle class India’s social life and aesthetic sensibilities from hybrid perspectives… The essays amuse, surprise, edify.”

How can it not?  Basic human nature urges people to listen to what they should not. A western source quoted approvingly by editor Arvind Krishna Mehrotra says: “Stare; pry; listen; eavesdrop.  Die knowing something.”  It is more likely that you will live a lively life “knowing something.”

The thinkers included in this anthology are among this century’s most irrepressible  provocateurs.  Consider for example Aubrey Menen, whose second name Menen is not far removed from Menon.  (Salvator Aubrey Clarence Menen was born in London and died in Trivandrum in 1989.)  The Ramayana as told by Aubrey Menen was published in 1954 and remains banned in India to this day.  The ban is because the unorthodox depictions of Dasaratha, of Sita-Ravana relations and of Lakshmana are considered unacceptable to the average Indian. C. Rajagopalachari described the book as “nonsense, but of the unreadable kind, that is, pure nonsense.”

If ultra-conventional ideas find their space, so do unorthodox ones. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay examines how “English Civilisation has pulled down the 330 million deities of Hinduism, and set up its own tutelary deities, Comfort and his brother Respectability.”  Some precious points are made by Rabindranath Tagore.  Such as: “We find men more and more convinced of the superior claims of Christianity, merely because Christian nations are in possession of the greater part of the world.”

That has been a point of discussion in India ever since colonisation began.  The “India Gazette” of February 1830 showed how the Pope, sitting in Vatican in Rome, was a virtual ruler of the world.  He was in a position to order that, should the natives of newly discovered colonies were ready to embrace Christianity, all would be well.  “Otherwise new settlers were authorised to extinguish a whole race totally barbarous and unchristian.”  Imagine The Pope with the power to kill a whole race in its entirety.

Other “essays” in the collection may not be as provocative but that does not stop them from being stimulating.  There is Salim Ali explaining how “the Crow is a born opportunist.”  There is the inimitable G. V. Desani describing how “I learned in Varanasi to be buried underground for half an hour. It is a trick.  The non-breathing condition is achieved by concentrating upon a fixed image.  I concentrated on the image of a former girl friend.  The guru, in the next pit, was concentrating on ‘God’, he said.”

Desani, famous for All About H. Hatterr and Hali, is described as “a British Indian novelist, poet and social commentator, born in Kenya, reared in India and came of age in Britain.”  And also as one who “had only basic schooling, no college and never married.”

In the 1950s he moved to Bombay, perhaps with plans to make something of his Indian identity.  Nothing came of that.  Those were my Bombay days and we became close friends.  I remember arranging a luncheon meeting for him with a bunch of Bombay celebrities.  Govind Desani didn’t click in Bombay.  He merely got accepted as an erratic genius.  He celebrated Varanasi by saying things like: “There are experts living in this city who can guarantee to murder anyone unseen, and within the stipulated period, for so much down payment and the balance on conclusion.”

Aubrey Menen is delightful when he describes how his grandmother in Kerala received people formally, “that is to say, with her breasts completely bare. In her view, a wife who dressed herself above her waist could only be aiming at adultery.” 

Menen put it bluntly when he said: “The simple idea that first led monks to turn their backs on civilisation was Heaven.  Heaven was a place much   better than Rome.”

Mehrotra has included quite a galaxy of irresistibles in his anthology.  Mukul Kesavan on The Ugliness of the Indian Male, Dom Moraes on God, M. Krishnan on the Jallikattu, Francis Newton Souza on Nirvana of a Maggot.  In all,  440 pages of pure delight.  Will Mehrotra come out with another volume?

Material, quite rich, is waiting.

The post A Welcome Book of Assertive History appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

The lawyer’s name is Electron.  That is right, a practising lawyer whose name is Electron.  If any confirmation is required, please meet his brothers, Proton and Neutron.  These are real names of real people.  Of course, they are in Kerala, a place where impossible things turn possible.

It was not an eccentric desire to be different that made K. Arjunachari name his sons in unconventional style.  He had two reasons, both noble in nature.  He knew the way atoms bonded together to form molecules.  Stick an oxygen atom between two hydrogen atoms and you get H2O, also known as water.  He wanted his boys to stick together like atoms.

The other reason was nationalistic in nature.  He had worked in paramilitary forces and developed clear ideas about a strong and progressive India.  He saw caste as a curse.  The names he gave his children mocked at caste.  Would anyone ask whether Proton was a Brahmin?  If some assumed that Electron was SC/ST, who would bother?

What is reassuring is that Arjunachari was not an exception.  In Salem, Tamil Nadu, V.A. Mohan was guided by similar ideals. He was the Communist Party’s Jilla Secretary there.  He found it proper to name his sons A.M. Socialism, A.M. Communism and A.M. Leninism. 

It is possible that the sons could have felt embarrassed by their names. But the records show they were in fact proud of them.  In due course A.M. Leninism named his son A.L. Marxism.  The family was waiting for a new-generation daughter they could name Cubaism.

In June last year Socialism got married. The bride was from a Congress family.  That did not affect the flow of history.  When a daughter was born to Socialism, they took a detour and named her Mamata Banerjee.  Others in the family had names like Moscow, Vietnam and Czechoslovakia.  The original Mamata Banerjee said nothing about the naming phenomenon.  She could not have objected to her name being used the way legends such as Vietnam and Moscow were being used.

Internet is full of names that are listed as favourites among Indians.  According to one, the hottest names for boys are Arjun, Aum and Ishan.  A separate list credited to Pop Culture has Ari, Dev and Jaiden as top favourites.  (Dev?  Good old Dev Anand had made that single syllable a household favourite not long ago.)

Names can sometimes convey wrong impressions, leading to their bearers having a tough time. I am myself an example.  That my name is obviously foreign in origin is bad enough.  It is worse that the name puts a religious brand on my forehead. I practise no religion.  Indeed, I happen to believe that all religions have become commercial enterprises.  God is merely a commodity to be traded.  It is a high-value commodity and can lead to enormous profits.  Look around and you can see outstanding examples of God-traders and their successes.

But it does not matter that I have these different viewpoints.  To the casual onlooker, I am simply a follower of the religion my name represents, restricted to the boundaries of that religion and incapable of seeing beyond.  How prejudices shape our lives.  How much easier life would have been if I was named Priyadarshan or Santosh or Jnanadesinganacharyadas?

The reality is that a good deal of surface appearances have a determining effect on our opinions and our lives.  The influence of religion is superimposed over these. Despite all the educational and cultural advances made by our country, religion plays a decisive role in our everyday lives, not to mention our politics.  It cannot be otherwise when religions and anointed religious leaders are accepted as legitimate authorities in political affairs.

Time was when “modern” European countries were under the thumbs of Bishops and Cardinals.  It was worse in Japan.  For more than 18 centuries, Shintoism has played a central role in that country’s public life.  In 1997, the  Supreme Court there ruled that religion and politics should remain separate as decreed in the 1947 Constitution. The good thing is that in India, although the influence of religion is strong and widespread, its hold on politics has not been strong enough to influence the affairs of the State. Even where the BJP is in power, there are limits it cannot cross.

Clearly the likes of Electron, Proton and Neutron have won their case. Religion is contained; it is unable to change the course of history in any substantive manner.  And that enables all citizens to join in saying Jai Hind.

The post Listen to Electron and his brothers appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

Why do so many of our VIPs die in accidents? No one will say that murderous groups are plotting behind the scenes.  Almost all the accidents that killed our leaders were truly accidents. Could it be that our planes and choppers suffer from poor maintenance? They are said to be in the best of conditions, maintained by the best of experts.  Are there other factors unbeknown to the general public?

Security experts have practices and conventions based on what they have learned from experience. The manual they are asked to follow has several chapters. One of them, Chapter XXVI, deals with security arrangements for VIPs.  It covers all possible problems.  A typical section deals with plans “to ensure that terrorist/extremist/

fundamentalist elements do not gain access to the VIP.” Tactical wisdom is underlined. The manual emphasises that “the best arrangements are those where there is the least show of Police force in uniform and yet full protection to the VIP is ensured… and there is no resentment of any kind in the public regarding the arrangements made by the authorities.”

The best laid strategies could not save Sanjay Gandhi or the popular Mohan Kumaramangalam.  Sanjay perhaps invited the tragedy with his love for mid-air stunts going all wrong.  The crash that killed Kumaramangalam was so devastating that his body could be identified only by the Parker pen and a hearing aid he wore. 

Very different was the case of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy whose helicopter crashed into a forest in 2009.  (On hearing the news, 122 people in the State died, most of them by suicide and some by the shock leading to heart attacks.)  A month after the disaster, investigations could not unearth any clue as to what happened.  Simultaneous inquiries were ordered by the State and Central Governments, but they too failed to find any pointers.

Perhaps the most sensational air disaster involving VIPs was the one that killed Madhavrao Scindia in 2001.  It was a small (10-seater) private plane. It was raining heavily that day and experts had advised Scindia not to take to the skies. The royal scion trusted his own judgment — and perished, along with the seven others in the plane, four of them journalists.

Putting several VIPs in the same flight is not done, as per security manuals.  The tragedy that killed Armed Forces Chief Bipin Rawat had his wife and some other top officials in the chopper. Technically this was a security lapse.  That must be why efforts were made to explain that Rawat’s wife had an official status as well; she was President of the Army Wives Welfare Association, the largest NGO in the country.  She was described as “a catalyst in empowering army wives.”  The defence forces will miss her as much as they miss General Rawat.

Our Armed Forces are a major element in disaster management.  The role they played when floods hit Kerala last year won popular applause in a big way.  As many as 11 lakh people were evacuated from Orissa’s coastal areas in less than 24 hours when a cyclone hit the region.  They have carried out similar save-and-rescue operations in neighbouring countries as well. They were there when floods hit Sri Lanka last year and an earthquake shook Nepal.  Their work when Tsunami hit the region in 2004 will never be forgotten.

Captain Narayana Murthy is a good example of the soldier’s spirit.  He was involved in some historic events like Goa Liberation in 1961 and the conflict with China the following year.  After retirement he joined the Airports Authority and played a central role in the evacuation of Indians from the Gulf region in 1990, still described as “the largest evacuation effort in the history of civil aviation.”  He is past 84 now.  But he can’t sit idle. So he is out in the busy streets working as a voluntary traffic warden.  “I am still fighting,” is how he puts it.

But the fighters who lost their lives fighting are in a class of their own. Far back in 1963, two Lieutenant-Generals, an Air Vice Marshal, a Major General, a Brigadier and a Flight Lieutenant were lost in a helicopter crash in Poonch district in Jammu.  Half a dozen helicopter crashes have occurred claiming precious lives.  There must be something in our chopper fleet that calls for attention.  Topics like military equipment and their management are, of course, out of bounds to the lay public.  But all citizens are concerned about our military’s strength as well as our men’s safety. And the feeling persists that accidents claiming military lives are unacceptably high. There’s something amiss somewhere.

The post Too many vip deaths. Something amiss ? appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

Must things go from bad to worse as civilisation progresses? Of course not. In civilised societies, everyday routines go from good to better.  New York’s subway system, one of the largest in the world, has coped very well with the city’s growth in population as well as in daily activities.  London’s underground, fondly called the Tube, is ever popular. Those who have lived even for a month in London will have a romantic feeling about stations like Piccadilly, King’s Cross and Victoria.  The Tube keeps pace with technological advancement. 

The Indian experience has been the opposite for reasons that deserve study by experts.  Things go from bad to worse in most spheres of activity.  Bombay’s suburban rail system was efficient enough to cope with the city’s advancement once upon a time.  It’s a mess today.  Similar is the experience of most of our urban centres.  The same way, holy places become unholy, revered locations turn into rowdy enclaves.

To understand the gravity of this tumble from what was our Golden Age, we only have to look at two of our most sanctified towns, Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, and Phulpur, the embedded constituency nursed by Jawaharlal Nehru.  They were symbols of moral power and political integrity.  Right before our eyes, they turned into dens of iniquity.  Most Indians do not even know about this historic turn-around.

Porbandar, a princely State when Mohandas Gandhi was born there, took on a halo as he evolved into a Mahatma.  The people of Porbandar were proud of their fellow citizen’s Mahatma image and developed an attitude of reverence to him.  When Gandhi was released from his last prison sentence in 1944, locals came up with the idea that his birthplace should have a suitable structure to honour him.  Thus rose the Kirti Mandir, Porbandar’s main tourist attraction today.  The State Government and the Central Government’s tourism campaigns such as “Incredible India” draw attention to Probandar in the Mahatma’s name.

Today Porbandar is a gangster town. From around the 1980s, feuding mafia groups took control of the area, combining crime with politics.  The queen of terror was Santokben Jadeja who took to killing and kidnapping after her husband, a retired gangster, was killed by a rival.  She was Janata Dal MLA from 1990 to 1995 and was immortalised by Shabana Azmi in Godmother. Her son Kandal Jadeja got involved in nine criminal cases, thus qualifying to become the Congress-NCP candidate in 2014.  The BJP put up Vittal Radadiya, a renegade from the Congress, who was caught on tape in 2012 threatening to shoot a toll booth operator in Vadodara; he crossed over to the BJP whereupon the case was withdrawn. Hindustan Times (December 11, 2012) quoted a former Porbandar Municipality Chairman as saying “the birthplace of the Mahatma is now a hotbed of dons.”

No less demoralising was the fall of Phulpur.  It was to the people of that UP Constituency that Jawaharlal Nehru went every election year for approval.  It was the people of Phulpur who were privileged to send Nehru to Parliament on behalf of the people of India.  But they, too, like the people of Porbandar, were vanquished by the generation that followed. As the Nehru era ended, Phulpur went through a mutation and fell into the sphere of influence of Atique Ahmed, a gentleman described in a DNA newspaper headline (December 7, 2013) as “Uttar Pradesh’s first gangster”.  He himself would put on record, in his election affidavit in 2014, that he had 42 cases pending against him, including six for murder, six for attempted murder and four for kidnapping.  He had fought several elections from jail and under different party flags.  In 2004, he stood as Samajwadi Party’s candidate from Phulpur and won.  But the Honourable Member could not complete his term; accused in a murder case, he went underground in 2007, was arrested in 2008 and stayed in jail intermittently thereafter.  He contested from inside jail, too, but not always successfully.

By this time the presence of criminals in Parliament and State legislatures had become an accepted fixture despite occasional public interest litigation and periodic attempts by the Election Commission to find a way out.  The system got entrenched because all parties wanted thugs in their leadership ranks for one reason or another.  Some flaunted it, others showed some circumspection.  As political standards fell, mafia power rose.  Or perhaps it was the other way.  Either way, the shift from the Mahatma to the mafia recast India in a mould that was unimaginable when India won freedom.  It set a trend that continues to define Indian life.

The post Porbandar, Phulpur: Lessons to Learn appeared first on Star of Mysore.

By T.J.S. George

What is happening in the Congress Party?  The one-and-only Kanhaiya Kumar quits Communist ranks and joins the Congress. Amarinder Singh, who led the Punjab Government as though he was still the Maharaja of Patiala, finds himself summarily dismissed by a suddenly assertive Congress Party. Whereupon, without the slightest embarrassment, he drives into the residence of Amit Shah in search of new pastures. 

The Indian politician may have many weaknesses.  But a sense of shame is not one of them.  He walks into a party as per the convenience of the moment, and walks out when the conditions of convenience change.  Power is the ultimate justifier of every action.  This may be a universal fact.  But India stands out, thanks to the abandon with which politicians display their opportunistic loyalties. Lenin said compromises were inexcusable as “they are an expression of opportunism and treachery.” But Lenin is dead, isn’t he?

There have been attempts to “reform” the Congress Party.  The ever-loyal Kapil Sibal has been in the forefront of this crusade.  He has led the campaign for the Congress to have an elected President. Why this idea still remains a mere  idea is difficult to understand.  Kapil Sibal also deplores the practice of the High Command deciding who should be the party’s State leaders.  But that practice, too, continues.

The presence of the unseen, unexplained, unidentified High Command is unlikely to be affected in any way by the entry of Kanhaiya into the party.  The youthful hero, who stirred the country with his electrifying speech in 2016, has now taken a new stance which is as electrifying as his                                     remembered oratory.  No one but the Congress can effectively oppose the BJP, he says.  Of course Communist Party leaders have condemned his position. But Kanhaiya’s new viewpoint is rooted in realpolitik and therefore cannot be                                      dismissed lightly.

This can be seen with greater clarity in the light that came out of Rajasthan recently.  Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot pounced on his challenger with a fierceness that hurt him more than his intended victim.  He told the modernistic Sachin Pilot: “Being merely good-looking, speaking English and giving soundbites is not everything in politics.”  In those few words, Gehlot showed why the loser remains a loser. For people like him, yesterday was a day of victory.  So todays and tomorrows must yield place to yesterdays.  Live in the past, forgetting the present and the future.

The Gehlot mentality is what the Congress will have to overcome if it wants to become a serious player in a changing India.  The people of India, the voters, don’t want to be stuck in the self-serving aphorisms of yesterday’s leaders. The people want to more forward and they want to see their country moving forward, too.  That is why the Gehlot frame of mind must give way to the Kanhaiya mentality if the Congress is to remain a key player.

When the BJP’s Vijayvargiya described Kanhaiya’s move as one “from gutter to drain,” he was merely demonstrating his and his party’s/inability to see reality as reality.  Probably they see the political significance of Kanhaiya’s move and are trying to reduce its importance by ridiculing it. They must know that such a game has no chance of winning.  Given Kanhaiya’s record so far, his move carries weight.

The famous JNU leader’s entry gives the Congress a new vigour, but it cannot amount to much if confusion continues at the top levels of the party’s leadership. Why is Rahul Gandhi the assumed leader of the Congress instead of the elected one? He will easily win an election, so the refusal to get elected has to be linked with the ego of the Gandhis. Rahul must be thinking that he is the natural, automatic, unchallengeable leader of the Congress, so what is the relevance of an election?  That assumption is the Congress’ doom.

Shashi Tharoor, a loyal Congressman, valiantly asks the party to elect a President. The party does not seem to have heard him.

Leaders like Tharoor no doubt confront the “High Command,” on a daily basis.  They certainly realise that the High Command is nothing but Rahul Gandhi with the decorative add-on of his mother, the venerable Sonia.  When the High Command picks Rahul Gandhi, what it means is that Rahul Gandhi picks Rahul Gandhi.  The entry of credible leaders like Kanhaiya gives the Congress an opportunity to get out of this farcical situation and show that the party is not an instrument at the disposal of one man, Rahul Gandhi.  The Congress can make use of this opportunity, or let go of it.  Will it choose wisely?

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