Articles Published in The Hans India

Upadhyayula Narayana Das Contents

Title Page No.

1. It is all about charisma ...2 2. The versatile genius 5 3. Will Indians Against Corruption win? 8 4. How to tackle black money menace 11 5. Big brother wants to watch 14 6. Memoirs of a man of letters! 17 7. Indo-Pak relations Lessons from history 19 8. The first three estates 22 9. Historical dilemmas 24 10. Democracy, free speech and secession 26 11. Between black and white! 29 12. War speech cost Gandhi his Nobel? 31

It is all about charisma

Have we as a nation properly understood the theory of charisma as originally proposed by Max Weber (1864-1920) in his The theory of social and economic organisations or are we merely confused between charm and charisma. *** The [Congress] party which considers the nation a family heirloom never hesitated to destroy democratic institutions to cling on to power. Jawarhalal Nehru had the constitution amended to circumscribe the inconvenient freedom of speech. His daughter Indira wished to do away with the fundamental rights including the right to life. For the current crop ruling the nation by proxy, the constitution appears to be a mere nuisance. Its more important objective is coronation of its prince in 2014, banking on the premise of charisma. *** The following article, entitled, It is all about charisma, appeared in The Hans India of January 17, 2012. (Emphasis added.) .......................................................................................................... Thomas Jefferson, the third president of America is credited with the aphorism: A politician looks forward only to the next election; a statesman looks forward to the next generation.One of the founding fathers of the American nation, he played a major role in its expansion and consolidation beginning with the acquisition of Louisiana. The wise men who drafted the Indian constitution envisaged the concept of affirmative action to bring certain disadvantaged sections of the society on par with the rest. The provision of reservations in legislative bodies, employment and education was to be a temporary measure even in the case of the most disadvantaged classes such as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The original Article 334 of the constitution limits the provision of reservation of seats for SCs and STs in legislative bodies to sixty years. Additionally, the first part of Article 335 has a curious proviso. It states that the claims of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts Unfortunately, India has been condemned to be ruled by politicians - not statesmen - for whom the next election has always been more important than the next generation. Compelled by the politics of competitive populism they have not only been extending the provision of reservations thus negating the original sunset
Upadhyayula Narayana Das Articles Published in The Hans India 2

clause but have been bringing in more and more sections into the ambit of reservations. As an ideologically bankrupt Congress party falls back on the family charisma to return it to power in UP in 2012 and eventually at the centre in 2014, it has come up with another round of reservations as an electoral sop. The party which considers the nation a family heirloom never hesitated to destroy democratic institutions to cling on to power. Jawarhalal Nehru had the constitution amended to circumscribe the inconvenient freedom of speech. His daughter Indira wished to do away with the fundamental rights including the right to life. For the current crop ruling the nation by proxy, the constitution appears to be a mere nuisance. Its more important objective is coronation of its prince in 2014, banking on the premise of charisma. Have we as a nation properly understood the theory of charisma or are we merely confused between charm and charisma? The theory of Charismatic Leadership evolved from ideas originally proposed by Max Weber (1864-1920) in his The theory of social and economic organisations. Weber, known as an economist and historian in his time may be said to be the father modern sociology. He was the first to use the word charisma to describe leadership that emerges in crisis situations. In Greek, the word Charisma means divinely inspired gift. Charismatic leadership is neither traditional nor based on formal authority but based on followers perception that the leader is gifted with exceptional qualities. A charismatic leader, as conceptualised by Weber is gifted with a radical vision that offers solutions to crisis situations. He attracts followers who believe in his vision. The followers experience success that makes them trust their leaders vision as attainable. This makes them perceive the leader as extraordinary. What then are the traits of a charismatic leader? Literature on leadership defines precisely the attributes, traits and behaviours of charismatic leaders. Thus charismatic leaders have a strong need for power, high self-confidence and conviction in their own beliefs and ideals and are able to influence the attitudes and behaviours of their followers. But first a charismatic leader must have a vision that is both ennobling and appealing. The leader must be able to make his followers visualise the ennobling vision by expressive language and communication. The leader must be able to take exceptional personal risks and make self-sacrifices to attain the vision. The leader must consistently communicate his confidence in and high expectations from his followers. The leader must consistently ensure that both he and his followers observe rolemodelling consistent with the vision.
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The leader must be able to build identification with the vision and finally he must be able to empower the followers to achieve the vision. So what is the ennobling vision that a charismatic leader should have had and communicated to the people of a newly liberated nation? Why, it is the vision of a strong and resurgent nation, for the building of which the leader takes personal risks and makes sacrifices. A strong and resurgent nation, the concept of which every citizen identifies with and believes in. In order to be labelled charismatic did any of our leaders since independence believe in and communicate such ennobling vision? Did any of them take personal risks and make sacrifices for realising such ennobling vision? Does every citizen identify with and believe in such ennobling vision? TAILPIECE: Malcolm Gladwell calls the misconception of charisma, the Warren Harding Error (Blink, 2006. Penguin Books, New Delhi). Warren Harding was elected president because his electors could not distinguish between charisma in its popular misconception and charismatic leadership. The 29th US President (19211923) was tall, broad-shouldered and perfectly proportioned, had a bronzed complexion and a resonant masculine voice. Harding came to be described a Roman for his good looks. He was affable and had an implacable desire to please. His father once told him that it was good he hadnt been born a girl because, You would be in the family way all the time. You cant say no. During his presidency, he busied himself with golf, poker and his mistresses while his cronies looted the exchequer in a variety of creative ways. Harding had the dubious distinction of being the second of ten Worst Presidents. Jay Tolson says that he was an ineffectual and indecisive leader and his claim to infamy rests on spectacular ineptitude. (US News & World Report, February 16, 2007. Worst Presidents: Warren Harding, accessible from http://bit.ly/a3bRER).

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

The versatile genius

If intimacy with Islamic scholars stimulated him to learn Arabic and Persian, kinship with Hindustani classical singers made him cultivate their style. The cultivation of the Hindustani style added a rare and unique hybrid timbre to his music not usually found in the rendering of Carnatic singers and won him many accolades including those from the Maharajah of Mysore and Rabindranath Tagore. This is because it was unusual for Carnatic singers to be able to sing Hindustani and vice versa. The hybrid style he developed left an indelible stamp on the progress of Carnatic music. It was adopted by later musicians including some of the greats of Carnatic music, marking it as the sui generis of Vizianagaram music. Eventually when Narayana Das became the first principal of Sri Vijayarama Gana Pathasala (the first music college in South India) it became part of the curriculum. The Maharajah of Vizianagaram established the Music College in 1919 to honour the Pandit and enable enthusiasts to learn music from him. The college produced many great musicians. Pandit Narayana Das inducted violin maestro Dwaram Venkata Swamy Naidu as a lecturer in the college. Dwaram succeeded Pandit Narayana Das as principal after the latter relinquished office in 1936. The following article on Pandit Srimadajjada Adibhatla Narayana Das appeared in The Hans India of January 8, 2012. The original may be seen here: The versatile genius Sir Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy, eminent litterateur, educationist and founder Vice Chancellor of Andhra University described Srimadajjada Adibhatla Narayana Das (1864-1945) as a university. Sir Ramalinga Reddy was not exaggerating, for Narayana Das was a linguist with proficiency in as many as eight languages, poet, philosopher, writer, composer, dancer, actor and the creator of the unique art form, Hari Katha. It is well nigh impossible to find a parallel for him in the history of Indian literature. Adibhatla Narayana Das was the only scholar who had mastery over four classical languages (Samskrit, Telugu, Arabic and Persian) and translated from Persian and English into Samskrit and Telugu; the only litterateur who wrote a comparative treatise on the works of Kalidas and Shakespeare; the only writer-composer who translated into Telugu and set to music Rig Vedic hymns and the only writer-composer who composed a geetamalika comprising 90 Carnatic ragas. As a writer-composer who composed music in all the 72 Carnatic ragas he was next only to Saint Thyagaraja. His literary output was voluminous. He wrote original Kavyas and Prabandhas that reflect a rare creative genius, erudition and great felicity of expression. He wrote
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over fifty books in Telugu, Samskrit and Atcha-Telugu (Desyandhramu or Telugu unmixed of Samskrit). His works included original story-poems (Kavyas and Prabndhas), Harikathas, prose works, musical works, dramas, translations, treatises in philosophy and Vedic studies and childrens literature. For want of space, only a few of his works are introduced here: NAVARASATARANGINI (1922): A study that compares, contrasts and critiques the treatment of the nine rasas or moods in the plays of Shakespeare and Kalidas. A voluminous work, with a lengthy preface, it vetted the entire of body of dramatic literature of the two writers. Shakespeare was translated into Telugu but Kalidas was translated into Atcha-Telugu in keeping with Narayana Das self-proclaimed principle that while translating from one language into another it would be inappropriate to use terms of the original language. RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAIYAM (1932): Narayana Das felt that Edward Fitzgeralds English renderings of Omar Khaiyams Rubaiyat were not literal and did not do justice to the spirit of the Persian poets philosophy. In order to demonstrate his thesis, Narayana Das translated both the original Persian and the English renderings into Samskrit and Atcha-Telugu. Hyderabad Bulletin, a prominent newspaper of the time felt the book merited a review in the form of an editorial. Here are a some excerpts from the editorial entitled, A Monument of Scholarship: [...] a careful perusal of the book fills us with admiration at the astounding scholarship of the learned Pandit [] In these degenerate days when scholarship has fallen on evil times, it is incredible to learn that a Hindu, with Telugu as his mother tongue, should have been so filled with admiration for a Persian poet that, after he had passed his sixtieth year, he took the trouble to master so alien a language, and translate the masterpiece not only into Telugu but into another classical language, Samskrit. [] We are certainly unaware of any recent instance in India where so much learning has been brought to bear on what is no less certainly a labour of love, for it is evident that there are few persons familiar with the Samskrit language who are anxious to have a rendering of the Persian original. JAGAJJYOTHI (1942-43): It was his magnum opus was in which he analysed, discussed and critiqued ancient Vedic lore and tried to apply his theories to everyday life. It contains the quintessence of Narayana Das philosophy and outlook towards life. In this he was at once heretical and traditional, rational and religious. He distilled all that is good in all Indian philosophies and brought about a synthesis and propounded a new philosophy of humanism. DASAVIDHARAGANAVATIKUSUMAMANJARI (1938): An outstanding musical work of unparalleled erudition, it is a Devi stotram comprising 90 Carnatik ragas. The first half is in Samskrit and the second half in Telugu. The Vizianagarm of the late nineteenth century was a haven of literary and artistic talent and was - to borrow a phrase from renaissance literature - in a state of
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intellectual ferment. It was the perfect ambience for the muses in the soul of a burgeoning artiste, fluttering wings to break free and find expression in his work. It was in the company of virtuosos like Durvasula Suryanarayana Somayajulu, Kaligotla Kamaraju, Mohabat Khan, Pappu Venkanna and Veena Venkataramana Dasu that Narayana Das innate artistry blossomed and flourished. Narayana Das used to absorb knowledge the way sponge absorbs water. If intimacy with Islamic scholars stimulated him to learn Arabic and Persian, kinship with Hindustani classical singers made him cultivate their style. The cultivation of the Hindustani style added a rare and unique hybrid timbre to his music not usually found in the rendering of Carnatic singers and won him many accolades including those from the Maharajah of Mysore and Rabindranath Tagore. This is because it was unusual for Carnatic singers to be able to sing Hindustani and vice versa. The hybrid style he developed left an indelible stamp on the progress of Carnatic music. It was adopted by later musicians including some of the greats of Carnatic music, marking it as the sui generis of Vizianagaram music. Eventually when Narayana Das became the first principal of Sri Vijayarama Gana Pathasala (the first music college in South India) it became part of the curriculum. The Maharajah of Vizianagaram established the Music College in 1919 to honour the Pandit and enable enthusiasts to learn music from him. The college produced many great musicians. Pandit Narayana Das inducted violin maestro Dwaram Venkata Swamy Naidu as a lecturer in the college. Dwaram succeeded Pandit Narayana Das as principal after the latter relinquished office in 1936. Pandit Narayana Das literary and musical accomplishments left him peerless in his time. The literary and musical elite of his time joined to honour him with the title of SANGITHA SAHITYA SARVABHAUMA. The musical maestros of his time honoured him with titles like LAYA BRAHMA and PANCHAMUKHI PARAMESWARA for his ability to sing to five talas, beat with two arms, two feet and head. Five musicians used to keep time with him when he performed PANCHAMUKHI.

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

Will Indians Against Corruption win?

Will Indians Against Corruption win? appeared in The Hans India on December 29, 2011 ............................................................................................ As a tumultuous year winds down to become history, the one issue that seems to resonate with the common folk is that of corruption and the governments insouciance to combat it. The year opened with the unravelling of the 2G scam and the fall of the high and mighty. There were other scandals, such as the CWG and Adarsh Society scam, as venal as the telecom swindle, but it was the magnitude of perceived corruption and the nexus between politics, big business and the media involved in 2G scam that shocked the nation. The clamour for democracy in the Arab street was a distant thunder. The Occupy Wall Street movement energised the anti-capitalists and perhaps briefly the communist ethos in its death pangs. But it was Anna Hazares first hunger strike that struck a chord and truly awakened the citizenry of this country. The groundswell of public anger against corruption fuelled the movement that was reminiscent of Mahatma Gandhis mass Satyagrahas. The most redeeming feature of Hazares movement is that the youth of our country have been at its vanguard, giving the lie to the popular perception that todays youth are self centred and uninterested in political movements. Taking a cue from Hazares campsite in Delhi, hunger strike camps across the nation displayed pictures of Bharat Mata in the background. This was because todays youth is proud of our rich and ancient culture, history, philosophy and spirituality. Unlike their counterparts of a few generations ago, they are not burdened by the tugs and challenges of intellectual fashions, which demanded disavowal, denial, denigration and negation of anything remotely connected with Indias glorious past. However, this was where the first sign of discord in the coalition against corruption surfaced. The nave Gandhian that Hazare was, he did not understand the importance of symbolism and nuances in Indias secular political discourse. Hazare was advised by the secular members (it is needless to point out that the secular members in any civil society group are more equal than others) of his entourage that displaying Bharat Mata at the campsite would offend the secular ethic of the nation as it amounted to crass majoritarianism. He meekly obeyed and banished Bharat Mata. Be that as it may, Hazare was successful to the extent that he forced the government to bring in a bill that had eluded political consensus for over 60 years. As this piece is being written, the Bill as conceived the UPA was passed by the Lok Sabha, though many feel that it was not a strong weapon to fight corruption. However, the UPA
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failed to provide a constitutional status to the proposed Lokpal as it failed to garner the required number of votes. And it is yet to pass the test in the Rajya Sabha. It would be unwise to assume that corruption, so deeply ingrained in the body-politic, could be excised with a single movement, howsoever popular the movement might have been. A small battle has been won but the major war is still ahead. The demon, so long used to feasting on the common weal of the populace like a gigantic parasite, is not going to give in easily. It is going to fight back with magnified virulence, which can take many shapes and forms. We can already see the dogs-of-war let loose by the principal Opposition - in this case, the ruling clique - attacking the fight against corruption on many fronts. These include smear campaigns against the movements principal protagonists and dilatory tactics like calling for reservations in the Lokpal, something which was unheard of in the constitution of Constitutional bodies. Even if the government gets the Bill passed through the Rajya Sabha, the reservation part might yet come under judicial scrutiny. TAILPIECE: The kickbacks involved in the Bofors scam were peanuts compared to the magnitude of todays scams. But the subject of corruption in third-world countries inspired Geoffrey Archer enough to include it in his anthology of short stories, A Twist in the Tale, published in the aftermath of Bofors. Here are two snippets from it: The finance minister of a third-world country approaches a Swiss bank, ostensibly to investigate the account one of his countrys politicians had with the bank. The senior official of the bank whom the minister approaches refuses to confirm or give any details of the account. The ministers pleas in the name of ethics, morality, humanity and what have you and threats to close down all his countrys accounts with the bank were of no avail. Even his threat to kill the official drew a blank. The minister walks out but suddenly hoists his brief case on to the table and says how about opening an account? Two third-world government ministers meet in an international conference held in one of their capitals. They become friends and the minister of the host country invites the other minister to his mansion for dinner. The guest was amazed to see the opulence of his hosts mansion and wonders how he could build such a mansion in so poor a country. The host takes him to the top of the building and shows him a nearby river and a dam on it. He asks him do you see the dam? The guest replies he does. Well! Ten percent of it, he says. The next conference was held in the guests national capital and naturally the earlier guest now plays host and invites his friend to dinner. It was the turn of the other to marvel at the opulence of his friends palace. So the host takes him to the top of the building and points at the panoramic expanse of the nearby river. See the dam
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there? he asks. But I do not see anything there! replies his guest. Precisely! says the host, Ten per cent of it!

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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How to tackle black money menace

The following article, How to tackle black money menace appeared in The Hans India on December 22, 2011 ............................................................................................ In its report released in November 2010, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) a global watchdog of corruption and illegal money flows across nations estimated that India lost US$ 213 billion between 1948 and 2008 due to illegal outflows. If interest accruals are added, the figure rises to US$ 462 billion, twice the size of Indias external debt @ US$ 230 billion for the same period. GFI agrees that in all likelihood the figures could be understated. Additionally, the figures did not take into account smuggling, mispricing and gaps in available statistics. If these are added Indias losses due to illegal money flows in the sixty-one years between 1948 and 2008 could cross the half a trillion mark. The story does not end there. The estimated US$ 462 billion stashed abroad represents only 72% of Indias black economy, the remaining 28% being held within India. With that Indias underground economy reaches US$ 640 billion (till end of 2008) and represents 50% of her GDP! The more worrying aspect of the report is that economic liberalization did neither halt nor reduce illegal outflows. On the other hand it accelerated them with increased number of high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and companies brazenly resorting to stashing money abroad. We might inch closer to the truth when Julian Assange (of WikiLeaks fame) makes his promised sensational revelations about Indian black money hoarders abroad in early 2012. According to media reports Assange warned that sensitive information relating Indias illegal wealth is being intercepted both by China and the West. It must be noted here that although Switzerland has earned notoriety as a secret haven for parking illegal funds there are many others including Austria, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein (a small town in Germany) which offer the same services. GFI identified 70 such havens. Corruption and black money may be said to be two different manifestations of the same disease. While corruption affects populations within a country, moneylaundering may have more pernicious effects on a global scale. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General found a cause and effect relationship between the two. In his foreword to the 2004 report on United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Annan said, Corruption is an insidious plague that undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights erodes the quality of life. While conceding that it is a global phenomenon, however, Annan felt its destructive effects were more harmful to developing nations as it was a major obstacle to poverty alleviation and development. But it was Annans observation relating to transnational money-laundering that was more significant from a global perspective.
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He said that it aided and abetted organized crime and terrorism and allowed other threats to human security to flourish. Recognizing this pernicious aspect of transnational money-laundering, the UNGAs report to the Secretary General (Uniting against terrorism: recommendations for a global counter-terrorism - Sixtieth session, Agenda items 46 and 120 of April 27 2006) ratified the nine recommendations of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on terrorist financing. The most important of these is the one relating to denying financial support to terrorism. It demands that [e]ach country should criminalise the financing of terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist organisations. And that Countries should ensure that such offences are designated as money-laundering predicate offences. The US Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of New York WTC bombing on September 11, 2001 has a specific section for International Moneylaundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism. Other nations of the developed world made similar legislations to deny financial support to terrorism. Till recently it had been impossible to make the Swiss or other tax havens divulge information relating to money stashed in their banks. Even legal measures did not help. Suing a Swiss bank in a Swiss court had been no-go in a nation obsessed with protecting customer anonymity in its banking transactions. But thanks to the American and other nations legislations cited above to discourage financial support to terrorism and the pressure they have been exerting, the tax havens began seeing illegal money flows in a different light, much as they contributed to their national economies. As a result the US was able to pressurise Swiss bank UBS not only to agree to provide information about American citizens illegally hoarding money in it but also pay a fine of US$ 780 million being loss to the US exchequer. Even small countries like Ireland were able to collect back moneys illegally deposited by their citizens abroad. The Indian government has been saying that it has been taking active measures to bring back illegally stashed money abroad by signing double taxation treaties (DTT) with various countries. This only amounts to sidetracking the issue. The ideal course would be to make stashing money abroad a criminal offence not just tax evasion. The government is also guilty of being not fully transparent even in signing the DTTs. For example, the revised Indo-Swiss double taxation treaty enables India to seek information on black money and tax evasion only from January 2011 and has no retroactive effect. Therefore we can kiss goodbye to the US$ 462 billion already lost! The GFI report mentioned above makes two pertinent points: one that the illicit financial flows from India pose a grave challenge to national security. It cites the FATF report to say that the anti-money-laundering (AML) / combating terrorism regime in India is weak as a result of which the country faces many risks. Secondly it says that countries with strong governance (e.g. Norway) have smaller illicit financial outflows whereas countries with weak governance (e.g. Nigeria) have larger outflows. The key to the conundrum lies in making tax compliance easy and tax
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evasion costly and attracting exemplary punishment. Only confiscating the culprits whole property and sending him/her into long imprisonment would meet the case of exemplary punishment. Why is the government baulking to do so? Whom does it want to protect?

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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Big brother wants to watch!

The governments stand on the issue of freedom of expression may be termed as ambivalent and dependent on political considerations from time to time. Thus while functionaries of the government joined the votaries of free speech in defending M. F. Hussains freedom of expression to paint Hindu gods and goddesses in the nude, the ruling party at the centre had no hesitation in forestalling the publication of The Red Sari, Spanish writerJavier Moro's biography of Sonia Gandhi. Isnt Sonia more sacred than Bharat Mata, Sarawati or Sita? *** *** *** Internet as an open democratic medium has earned the wrath of both the politicians and media persons for obvious reasons. If the politicians hated it because it does not respect their more equal status, it has become bete noir for the media persons as it did away with their monopoly over dissemination of news. Now they not only have competition but the easily accessed, 24/7 medium subjected their conduct to relentless scrutiny. 'Big Brother' wants to watch! appeared in The Hans India of December 12, 2011. .......................................................................................................... Kapil Sibal has certainly set the cat among the pigeons when he demanded executives ofGoogle, Yahoo and Microsoft to screen content posted on social networking sites. The Information Technology (Electronic Service Delivery) Rules, 2011, the government notified earlier this year in April, are considered to be the most stringent compared to those in any democratic country. The rules require the intermediaries (like Facebook, Google, Orkut etc) that provide a platform to users to post comments and create their own content to remove offensive content based on an e-mailed complaint from an aggrieved person. The immediate provocation for Kapil Sibals demand appears to be a cartoon posted on Facebook lampooning Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Sibal termed it unacceptable. In a party that lays great store by loyalty to the family, Kapil Sibal, as Information Technology Minister cannot be seen to be deficient. In addition to loyalty Sibal has another reason to be chagrined with the internet, especially the role played by Facebook and Twitter in bringing the government to heel in the recent Indians Against Corruption (IAC) movement. The governments stand on the issue of freedom of expression may be termed as ambivalent and dependent on political considerations from time to time. Thus while functionaries of the government joined the votaries of free speech in defending M. F. Hussains freedom of expression to paint Hindu gods and goddesses in the nude,
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the ruling party at the centre had no hesitation in forestalling the publication of The Red Sari, Spanish writer Javier Moro's biography of Sonia Gandhi. Isnt Sonia more sacred than Bharat Mata, Sarawati or Sita? Indian politicians, who strongly believe in the dictum some animals are more equal than others, have rarely taken kindly to criticism. They certainly could do with eulogy, thank you. Like Kapil Sibal in 2011, in 1987, M. G. Ramachandrans government wanted to teach a lesson to irreverent journalists. S. M. Balasubramanian the editor of Ananda Vikatan was summoned by the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly on April 4, 1987 to tender an apology for a cartoon the magazine published in its issue dated March 29, 1987. The Editor refused to do so because he was not given an opportunity to explain his stand in the matter. The assembly passed a motion by voice vote to award three months rigorous imprisonment to Balasubramanian. The sentence elicited strong reactions from the press and other quarters. Known for hunting with the hound and running with the hare, the Congress party played a curious role in the affair. After supporting the motion in the state assembly, its Home Minister at the centre, P. Chidambaram wished to defuse the crisis by offering an apology to the assembly - on behalf of Balasubramanian! The issue was resolved after M. G. Ramachandran appealed to the assembly to rescind the sentence. Balasubramanian was released after spending two nights in prison. A similar drama was enacted in Andhra Pradesh during the reign of N. T. Rama Rao as Chief Minister. In 1985 the state legislative Council summoned Ramoji Rao, Editor of Eenaadu over the caption of an editorial the paper published criticizing a ruckus in the Council. Ramoji Rao approached the Supreme Court for redress and the issue would have blown into a legislature-judiciary spat. N. T. Rama Rao, already unhappy with the Councils intransigence over legislative business, resolved the crisis by abolishing the Council. Internet as an open democratic medium has earned the wrath of both the politicians and media persons for obvious reasons. If the politicians hated it because it does not respect their more equal status, it has become bete noir for the media persons as it did away with their monopoly over dissemination of news. Now they not only have competition but the easily accessed, 24/7 medium subjected their conduct to relentless scrutiny. Much as Kapil Sibal and his government would wish to govern the internet to ensure ordinary folk show due respect to the politicians at all times, it is easier said than done. There are an estimated 100 million netizens in India. We are the third most populous netizen country in the world after China and the US. But how does the Indian government police content posted outside India? If every article, cartoon, video and comment posted on the internet had to be screened and cleared before publishing, the process would simply crash the system.

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Secondly, regulating information flow had never worked. The erstwhile Soviet Union did It for 70 years deluding itself that the workers paradise was really popular with the masses. Nearer home, though Indira Gandhi bowed to international pressure and ended the infamous emergency in 1977, she called for elections with the smug satisfaction that her regime was popular, which was the impression fed to her by her own propaganda machinery. For it was she who disbanded four private news agencies and created her hand-maiden Samachar! TAIL PIECE: There are many iron curtain jokes but this one on the popularity of Russias mouth piece PRAVDA, though seemingly apocryphal, has a tell-tale lesson for the Kapil Sibals of this world: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a citizen of Moscow went to his favourite coffee shop and asked a waiter to bring him a cup of the brew and the days PRAVDA. The waiter politely informed him, Sir, I will bring you your coffee, but I am afraid I cant bring PRAVDAbecause it was closed down. As the waiter deposited his coffee cup, the man asked him again to bring the days PRAVDA. The waiter politely replied again that the PRAVDA was closed down. However the man continued to ask for PRAVDA every five minutes. Finally, the exasperated waiter lost his cool and shouted, How many times do I have to tell you Sir that PRAVDA was closed down? The man replied with obvious relish, I want to hear it again and again and again!

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Articles Published in The Hans India

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Memoirs of a man of letters!

This toungue-in-cheek take on memoirs appeared in The Hans India on November 25, 2011. ........................................................................................ Guruji, I need your help, gushed a breathless Subbu. He has this habit of barging in on me with news of earth-shaking events or momentous requests. Subbu is a decent sort of chap, helpful to others and eager to learn but when he gets a bee in his bonnet he is quite a bother. Considering his nature, it would perhaps be a little unkind to say he is exasperating at times. Whats it? I asked politely, adding sotto voce, this time with a silent sigh. Guruji, I want to publish my memoirs, said he eagerly. I understood. This is the season for publishing memoirs. Everyone who is anyone is up to publishing them. Some do this to get it off their chest; some because they want to bitch on their colleagues and others with whom they want to settle scores. And some do it to make a quick buck by cashing in on salacious tidbits they are privy to, before signing off. But Subbu? I couldnt imagine the editors of Penguin, Harper-Collins or other publishing houses queuing up before Subbus residence to buy off his memoirs. Why do you want to publish your memoirs? I asked politely hoping that I might be able to dissuade him. I have so many memorable events in my life, which I want to share with the world. Of course, everyone thinks so. Only the cynics call it human weakness or vanity. OK, I said, lets begin with your childhood. Why does everyone who writes a memoir include a chapter about childhood? As a child, I and my friends used to play in the dusty and muddy by lanes of a small village in the outback of rural Bihar.I used to walk four miles every day to school.Our class teacher was a tyrant and he used to make us stand in the hot sun all day as a punishment. This will help the reader understand, (a) the writer was a poor boy; (b) his heart is in the right place because he did not forget his humble beginnings and is not ashamed of speaking about them; and (c) he made it big in life although he came from a very humble beginning. Subbu said, As a boy, I used to steal my fathers cigarettes to smoke with my friends. I forbore to say, show me any boy who didn't do it, for it would kill his enthusiasm. I told him, we will make it cigars in the memoirs; but not the country variety. Havana or Cheroot would look classy. He considered it a moment, and then nodded. What else did you do as a boy? I continued. He said, I kissed Meena. I exclaimed, who but then added, she would be old enough to be your grandmother. Oh no, I didnt mean Meena Kumari. This girl was our neighbour in Tamil Nadu. You
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couldnt have done it, I said, because Meena is young enough to be your daughter now. Guruji, you are mistaken, Subbu said with a little impatience, I was not referring to either the Hindi tragedienne or the Telugu movie queen; I was referring to a sweet little girl, my friends younger sister. Then his kiss would not excite readers, sending their pulses racing. However, I did not want to dampen his enthusiasm, so I continued. What made you do it? He said, I saw my uncle, my fathers younger brother kissing our maid behind the haystack and thought I would do it too. Freud might be able to explain this impulse, or is it Jung? Anyway it was not up to me. What next? I asked. I would like to devote a chapter deriding the editor of He named prominent English daily. Privately I was a little disappointed. I thought he would have more of the kissing Meena stuff. There would be no queer men or naked women, which would go down well with readers and, more importantly, reviewers. For instance, no reviewer who reviewed the memoirs of a celebrity (I do not remember whose memoirs it was) left out this bit: and then she removed her clothes and lay completely naked before me on the carpet. The reviewers did not tell us what happened afterwards. What do you have against the editor? I asked. Subbu nonchalantly replied, He never published my letters. You know, I regularly write letters to the editors of various newspapers, mostly on topics of national importance. But the editor of that newspaper doesnt even get to see your letters, I explained. The letters are vetted by the junior most trainee sub-editor. He is directed to choose letters that broadly follow the papers editorial policy. His job is to correct spelling and grammar and slash the letters to make them concise.

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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Indo-Pak relations - Lessons from history

The following article, Indo-Pak relations Lessons from history appeared in, The Hans India, an up and coming English daily published from Hyderabad and other centres in its issue of November 15, 2011. .......................................................................................................... Dr. Manmohan Singhs conduct certificate to his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, as a man of peace last week is one of a piece with the series of diplomatic blunders India committed in its engagement with Pakistan during the last sixty years. We fought three major wars and a comparatively minor one over Kashmir during the last sixty years. These conflicts were all at the behest of Pakistan and not India. Some analysts believe that at least a part of the genesis of the Kashmir conflict was due perhaps to Nehrus flawed Kashmir policy. They argue his reluctance to take the 1948 war to its logical conclusion, his approaching the UN for a resolution, his offer of a plebiscite and finally his according the state a special status within the Indian union were inexplicable in terms of realpolitik. The more uncharitable ones attribute his approach to an overweening ambition to win a Nobel peace prize. But that was history and so much water had flowed under the Jhelum. The real tragedy has been Indias inability to convince the world community of its point of view or correct misperceptions which amounts to a monumental diplomatic and PR failure. For instance, writing in 2010, Stanley Wolpert says that J. K. Galbraith, then US ambassador to India confided in him that he failed to persuade Nehru to agree to an UN-sponsored plebiscite . Wolpert adds that a plebiscite was Pakistans preferred solution! (India and Pakistan - Continued Conflict or Cooperation? University of California Press, London. p.4 ) However, this contrasts with Indian accounts of the conflict, many of which suggest that it was Nehru who took the matter to the UN and offered a plebiscite. As a result the UNSC passed its Resolution 47 of April 21, 1948, which called for an UN-supervised plebiscite in Kashmir. The resolution laid down certain preconditions to be observed by both sides. For example, it said that Pakistan should secure the withdrawal from the State of Jammu and Kashmir of tribesmen and Pakistani nationals not normally resident therein who have entered the State for the purposes of fighting, and to prevent any intrusion into the State of such elements and any furnishing of material aid to those fighting in the State Further on December 22, 1949, Gen. A. G. L. McNaughton, the President of the UNSC proposed that Pakistan should not only agree to demilitarization of occupied Kashmir but also in the Northern Area[s] as Gilgit and Baltistan are referred to. This proposal was ratified by the UNSC Resolution 80 of March 14. 1950. The UNSCs call for a plebiscite fell through because Pakistan never fulfilled the most basic UNSC precondition, viz. demilitarization of occupied Kashmir and Northern Areas.
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Both Lal Bhadur Shastry and Indira Gandhi fell to Pakistani wiles and agreed to unconditional withdrawal from territories occupied in the 1965 and 1971 wars. Indira Gandhi agreed to not only returning 5000 square kilometres of territory but also release of 93000 prisoners following the signing of the illusive Simla Accord. They had failed to recognize the bargaining power of holding on to them. But it was Inder Kumar Gujral, who reigned as prime minister for a brief while, who did the maximum damage to Indias security efforts. Giving effect to his infamous Gujral doctrine he had Indias entire intelligence apparatus in Pakistan dismantled and burnt assets cultivated in that country which it took decades of hard work to put in place. The Pakistanis would certainly have captured and killed Indias assets after prolonged torture. Manmohan Singhs gaffe at Sharm-el-Sheikh about Indian spying in Baluchistan ranks next only to Gujarals horrific blunder. Every sophomore knows that in international relations, diplomacy and spying go hand in hand, sometimes even in friendly countries. But no nation openly admits it. Diplomats when caught spying are declared persona non grata and expelled. The other nation retaliates in kind by expelling a similarly placed diplomat of the first nation. This tit for tat is standard operating procedure in international diplomacy. How the good doctor who is not only a heir to the legacy of the original Chanakya but also a disciple of the modern day Chanakya, P. V. Narasimha Rao committed such a gaffe beats anyones imagination. In another gaffe Singh empathized that Pakistan is as much a victim of terrorism as India. One can only hope Hillary Clintons admonition to Pakistan that it would be foolish to nurture a snake expecting that it would only bite ones enemies, made Singh wiser! Left-lib romanticists who wing their way to international peace seminars to be wined and dined in five-star luxury might crib about electrified fences and high concrete walls erected to divide people but the situation on the ground defies a solution as long as Pakistan continues to harbour anti-India terrorists. M. C. Chagla, jurist, diplomat and then foreign minister eloquently rubbished the mischievous idea of self-determination for Kashmir. Addressing the UNSC on February 5, 1964 he said the self contemplated in the enunciation of this democratic principle is not, and cannot be, a constituent part of a country. It can be operative only when one is dealing with a nation as a whole and the context in which it can be applicable is the context of conquest or of foreign domination, or of colonial exploitation. Chagla argued that it would be disastrous to apply the principle to parts of a country or sections of population to enable them to secede. For when extended further it would only lead to fragmentation of the country. He cited the example of the United States of America which fought a bloody civil war to prevent not a small part, but the whole of the south of the United States from seceding and constituting itself into an independent country.
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The call for self-determination is heard in many nations. But the UN certainly doesnt expect Russia to cede Chechnya; Spain to consider the demand for a Basque Country; or Canada to forego Quebec. Mountbatten who was as much behind the genesis of the Kashmir problem as the Indian and Pakistani leaders who could not wait to enjoy the spoils of power, was killed in an IRA bombing but Britain did not concede the demand for an independent Ireland. The international community would certainly be receptive if India stood firm in its just demands for dismantling terror training camps in Pakistan aimed at destabilising India and conducting a fair trial to punish those who were responsible for murder and mayhem in this country. Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani may yet get their joint Nobel prize but Singh should not forget the sacrifice of the thousands of soldiers who had laid down their lives for the idea of India!

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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The first three estates

'The first three estates' appeared in The Hans India, published from Hyderabad and other centres, in its issue dated November 10, 2011. .. What are the first three estates? screamed the woman police officer in Tamilaccented Telugu, in a scene in a popular Telugu movie. For some inexplicable reason, the Telugu people seem to love it if their speech is disfigured. In movies, Telugu is often spoken by Tamil, Kannada, Marathi and north Indian actors in their own accents. Accented speech is used as a comic relief in movies in other languages, but in Telugu movies it appears to be de rigeur. If one goes by the movies made of and for the younger generation, Telugu is often spoken in them in anything but a Telugu accent. As Telugu movie script writers are not partial to any language they mutilate English too - and not just in pronunciation but also in meaning - in their Telugu dialogues. Then there is this Telugu television presenter who conducts interviews with film celebrities and politicians in English-accented Telugu. And why not? If English can be spoken with a Telugu accent, why not the other way round? I dont know madam, mumbled the cowering television journalist. The first three estates are legislature, executive and judiciary, the police officer pompously informed the journalist in a spirit of imparting wisdom, sweetly addressing him as scum. What she endearingly called him doesnt translate well into English, nor is very printable, but that was the gist of it. One might wonder whether in real life senior police officers treat television journalists with such contempt or whether general knowledge quizzes forms part of police interrogation. Does the scene reflect a dumbing down of values in the highly competitive movie industry? But these questions are besides the point. There was a time when movie scripts were well researched for accuracy. Therefore they were generally devoid of factual errors. Now everyone works to tight schedules and tighter deadlines. This is the electronic age; the age of SMSes and e-mails, and the need for instant gratification in everything. If anyone bothers to research at all, Google is the gospel and Wikipedia the Veda. There is of course nothing wrong in using the internet but only as a starting point. A factual error in a dialogue in a minor scene in a movie may not raise an eyebrow. But it certainly does if it is repeated by the editor of a national news magazine. The north Indian editor of an English magazine could not have picked it up from a Telugu movie. But he made the same error in a last page editorial. Watch out, for there may be many more such pearls of wisdom in his much publicised memoirs slated to be released this month. In another last page editorial he referred to P. V. Narasimha Raos autobiographical novel, The Insider as The Outsider. Deadlines, bloody deadlines! It is precisely for this reason, nowadays many newspapers run a Corrections column.
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All this confusion about the first three estates arose because of the use of the expression, the fourth estate. In the movie scene described earlier, the television journalist whimpers that he is from the fourth estate adding helpfully as we Indians do when groping for words, you know. The officer would have none of it. She had time only to imparting wisdom and mouthing obscenities. The coinage of the phrase the fourth estate is attributed to Edmund Burke. In his book, On Heroes and Hero Worship (1841) Thomas Carlyle says, Burke used it for the first time in a speech in the British House of Commons in 1787. Burkes speech marks a very important occasion, that of opening parliamentary proceedings to the press. Looking up at the press gallery he said, There are three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters Gallery yonder sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. The three estates Burke referred to were the Lords Spiritual (the 26 Bishops in the House of Lords), the Lords Temporal (the secular members of the House of Lords) and the House of Commons. There is some dispute however to the quote attributed to Burke but the definitions of the first three estates were well established. In any case the phrase the fourth estate connotes that the press is the fourth pillar of democracy, whose function is to provide checks and balances to the parliament and the executive. The first amendment to the US constitution specifically prohibits making any law that infringes on the freedom of the press. In India every time our rulers feel insecure because of some expose or other - the first thing they look askance is at freedom of the press. They seek to weaken the fourth pillar! The expression fourth pillar might have led to the misconception that the other three pillars nay estates were the legislature, executive and judiciary. Then there is a fifth estate with various meanings attributed to it but generally refers to a class that is none of the four estates.

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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Historical Dilemmas
Historical Dilemmas appeared in The Hans India, an up and coming English newspaper published from Hyderabad and other centres, in its issue dated November 5, 2011. Click here to see the original: Historical Dilemmas .......................................................................................................... Which one of us is an Aryan and which a Dravidian? whispered my cousin Krishna. He and I were together in the same class till Class VIII and in the same school till Class XII. Krishna was always inquisitive and used to question almost everything that was put to him. But it was difficult to dismiss his question out of hand. We were in the Social Studies class in Class VI at the time and our teacher was teaching us about Aryans and Dravidians. He explained, the Aryans were fair, tall and well-built and the Dravidians were dark, short and lean. Our confusion was because Krishna was fair, short and plump and I was dark, tall and lean. Additionally our community was known as Dravidian-Brahmin. Wasnt it an oxymoron if Brahmins were Aryan by origin? We owe the prefix Dravidian to our emigration from Tamil Nadu. History was therefore a dilemma to us then and the question are we Aryan or Dravidian continued to nag. My father who was a member of the Praja Socialist Party and an avid fan of the poet Sri Sri added to the confusion by making me read his Desa Charitralu (Histories of Nations) when I was ten. Werent these lines, An account of the amours of a queen or the expenditure on a siege does not make the essence of history confusing enough? For the history we were taught was full of incursions and battles: Ghazni and Ghori and Panipat and Plassey etc. If that were not enough we studied Tennysons The charge of the light brigade (Theirs not to reason why; theirs but to do and die!), as an English lesson. To be frank, we used to like History because it was easy from an examination point of view. All that we had to do was remember, had roads laid; trees planted along the roads; built rest houses for travellers and dug ponds for providing drinking water and irrigation. This generic statement was as applicable to the Mauryas and the Guptas as to Kanishka, Sri Harsha, Akbar or Sri Krishna Deva Raya. We had to pad it up a bit to suit individual emperors and we were done. The more the padding the more marks one got! Coming back to the confusion Sri Sri caused, he did not stop with his questions about the amours of queens and expenditures of sieges. He wanted to know, Who were the bearers of the Kings palanquin; who the coolies that carted the stones for building Taj Mahal?

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I could not question this as my father introduced the lyric to me. In those days, we never questioned our parents or other elders wisdom, much less a fathers. Ours not to reason why; ours but to do and lie! True, as children, we had to lie at times of what we did or what we did not do. In fact, recalling my childhood, I do not remember ever to have stood directly before my father to speak to him but did so only standing beside grandfather or grandmother. So I put it to my cousin Krishna. He could question Sri Sris lines. He could not have questioned his father nor my father in his presence but it was a different matter when neither of them was present. Krishna pondered over the question, who [were] the coolies that carted the stones for building Taj Mahal? He said introducing all those coolies into history would pose problems. Firstly, even if we had collected the names of all the 20,000 workers who toiled for twenty two years to build the Taj Mahal, which was well nigh impossible after four hundred years, publishing a book with all those names would make a four hundred page book, at fifty names a page. Secondly, we could not use the generic statement mentioned above to answer questions in history examinations. For whoever had heard of a coolie, who had roads laid; trees planted along the roads; built rest houses for travellers and dug ponds for providing drinking water and irrigation? It was a different matter with kings and emperors! Krishna and I separated when we finished school and joined college but the Aryan, Dravidian question continued to haunt me. This was much before the Aryan Invasion Theory (or Aryan Migration Theory) divided historians along ideological lines. It had nothing to do with whether some colonial or evangelical interests planted the AIT/AMT in our history text books. It had to do with the origins of our community as depicted by my great-grandfather in his incomplete auto-biography. According to him we fled from Saurastra at the first wave of Mohammedan invasions around the tenth century, traversed the west coast and entered Tamil Nadu through the Palghat gap in the Western ghats. We remained in the lush Tanjavaur delta for about five hundred years. However if the community felt that it was safely settled there it was mistaken. Five hundred years after it arrived there it had to be on the move again this time because nature intervened in the form of a famine. The community had to migrate again in search of greener pastures and to cut a long story short, moved north to settle in various places of Andhra. So, are we Aryan or Dravidian; Sanskrit speakers (which we presumably were in the distant past) or Gujaratis or Tamilians or Telugus? And to add to the muddle, are we now Telanganites or Andhras?

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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Democracy, free speech & secession

Democracy is a funny thing which is more coveted in its absence. India enacted the first amendment to its Constitution barely eighteen months after it was adapted. It was intended to - among other things place reasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression. Surprisingly, it was piloted by Jawaharlal Nehru who is considered to be an epitome of democratic values. It was enacted not to ward of anything as serious as secession or external aggression but because Nehru felt that 'free speech' was an impediment to something as mundane as abolition of the Zamindari system! Contrast this with the first amendment to the American Constitution. It prohibits the making of any law that abridges the freedom of speech, infringes upon the freedom of the press, interferes with the right to peaceable assembly, or prohibiting petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. However it must be noted that the American Supreme Court did not recognise obscenity as a part of freedom of speech and generally refused to give obscenity any protection under the first amendment. The following article entitled, Democracy, free speech and session appeared in The Hans India, published from Hyderabad and other centres, in its issue dated November 3, 2011. .......................................................................................................... For the middle classes who toasted Prashant Bhushan as a champion against corruption till only a few days ago, he suddenly became a villain. They were able to willy-nilly excuse his demeanours in defending certain elements in court room battles, because of his association with Anna Hazare and his movement against corruption. The reason for the disenchantment of the middle classes with Prashant Bhushan is quite obvious. He uttered the social and political equivalent of a fourletter word by calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir. In his defence, Bhushan of course says, that he did not actually call for a plebiscite but only opined that the people of Jammu & Kashmir had a right to it. It makes no difference to middle India: he crossed the Rubicon or in Indian idiom, crossed the Lakshman Rekha, as Kashmir is a sensitive issue with a bloody history attached to it. This is not the first time that someone openly took a position against Indias historical stand on Kashmir. Other bleeding-heart liberals spoke about the occupation army and human rights violations in Kashmir. Pakistan could not have asked for more. It is because of the sixty-four year bloody history since the states accession to the Indian union, voices like Prashant Bhushan rankle the majority of Indians. To the majority, it appears, these people are oblivious to the sufferings of one section of the states populace. Have they forgotten the half a million Kashmiri Hindus who were
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exiled in their own country? Have they forgotten the thousands of soldiers and policemen killed in defending the state since 1947? Have they forgotten the thousands of crores of rupees that were spent as aid on Kashmir? Kashmiri separatist leaders like Mirwaiz Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Jeelani have been openly advocating secession from India. In the perception of a majority of Indians, Prashant Bhushan is taking sides with the separatists, by talking of a plebiscite in Kashmir. Bhushan being an erudite advocate practising in the highest court of the land could not have been unaware that a plebiscite in Kashmir is untenable in view of the UN preconditions attached to it. Even Pakistan, the other party to the dispute, had abandoned this position long ago. From all indications, Pakistan would be happy to agree to recognise the de facto border between J&K and PoK as de jure international border. When asked a hypothetical question, Prashant Bhushan could have apprised the questioner of the situation on the ground and the position of the UN and more importantly that of Pakistan. It might be argued that free speech is the essence of democracy and hence Prashant Bhushan has a right to voice his opinion. But then, democracy is a funny thing. When you dont have it you yearn for it. When you have it you are not happy with it. True. We had fought for nearly six decades to attain independence from the British. Yet, ask anyone who was born at about the time of independence and they would remember their elders yearning for the good old British days when things were better. In 1975 when Indira imposed an internal emergency, for reasons that have nothing to do with any internal disturbance, there were sections of the populace not affected by midnight knocks and summary arrests who welcomed it, at least in its initial stages. Their reasoning was, there was discipline in government offices and trains were running on time. It could not be dismissed out of hand as silly, for trains used to run so late, if a train ran two to three hours behind schedule, it raised no eyebrows. In my home town, we used to joke that if the Bokaro Express (running between Bokaro in Jharkhand and Madras) was on time, it was probably the previous days train! There was an instance, when a gentleman was asked if his train was on time, he replied yes it was on time; just twenty minutes late. Funnily enough, trains running on time, was also one of the reasons officially adduced to justify the emergency. During the nineteen-month emergency Indiras government used to issue large advertisements in newspapers, with the caption, Let us consolidate the gains of emergency, whatever it meant. Coming back to democracy, in essence, it is rule by consensus. In Indias case the consensus wascodified into a constitution, to draft which, many wise men expended hundreds of hours; each clause of which was then debated and finally adopted. The process took nearly three years, and produced the longest written constitution in the world, which accommodates the divergence and plurality of the constituents of the nation.

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However, codifying principles of governance is one thing and following it in letter and spirit, is another. Leaders, however democratically minded they are, do not like to be tied down to a code of conduct however sacrosanct it may be, not necessarily because they are selfish or venal but because they have such immense confidence in their wisdom and their ability to determine what is good for their constituents. Therefore no sooner than the ink on the draft was dry we began amending it. The constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949 and the first amendment was enforced on June 18, 1951 barely eighteen months later. It was, incidentally, moved in the parliament by Jawaharlal Nehru, the epitome of democratic values and was intended to, among other things, place reasonable restrictions on the citizens right to freedom of speech and expression! Jawaharlal Nehru resorted to the amendment for nothing serious like session or external aggression. He did it because he felt that freedom of speech was impeding something as mundane as the abolition of the Zamindari system! TAIL PIECE: During the American Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, a member moved a motion that the standing army of the United States should not exceed 5000 men at any given time. As George Washington was presiding over the convention, he could not move an amendment. So he turned to another member and whispered, move an amendment that no foreign power should attack the United States at any time with more than 3000 troops. Does this anecdote from the life of George Washington have a message for our bleeding-heart liberals and Prashant Bhushan?

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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Between black and white...!

There is a third India between the India of the rich and the other India that is the darling of the prophets of doom, the raison d etre of our bleeding heart liberals. Between the black India that can stow away cash on the black in those famed Swiss banks and the white or the other India that sets hearts racing to bleed there are a myriad shades of grey. 'Between black and white...!' appeared in The Hans India, published from Hyderabad and other centres, in its issue dated October 26, 2011 .......................................................................................................... To those who are familiar with the ways of working class women in the north coastal Andhra districts, it is no surprise to see them carrying their cash, notes and coins in a small cloth bag tucked into the sari at the waist. The small bag that can be closed with a draw string, tucked into the waist is safer than a mans pocket. Also to those familiar with the area it is no surprise to see cigars smoked with the burning end held in the mouth. Perhaps the nicotine intake provides the necessary physiological relaxation from back-breaking manual labour under a blazing sun but nobody could ever explain how the weird habit of smoking with the burning end in the mouth came about. Both men and women indulge in this rather bizarre habit that is cause for statistically significant incidence of oral cancer in the region. However I was pleasantly surprised to see a woman take out a mobile phone and a battery charger from her receptacle at the waist and seek a socket to plug it in. She was the maistree for women manual labour. She has on call a number of women workers. They assist masons in construction work by carrying in bricks and cement mortar and carrying out debris in large metal basins as a head load. This was in 2008 when I spent a couple of months back home for renovating our ancestral home. The masons and the coolies commenced their work between 9 & 10 AM and broke for lunch at 1 PM. The men went to the terrace for a smoke and a snooze and the women retired to the hall. Unbidden, they switched on the ceiling fan and lied down for a brief rest. It appears they have fans and colour televisions at home and on the days they didnt work, watched the telly, especially the serials. But according to the mason-contractor (having graduated from mason to contractor he didnt do manual work any more!) who engaged them there were no days when they didnt work. During summer they were busy in construction work. In early monsoon, they worked as farm labour. And there was construction work again between the monsoons. He said thanks to the rural employment guarantee scheme nowadays it was difficult to engage them.
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Rajiv Gandhi had the candour (or naivet) in his early days as a professional politico to confess that of every rupee the government spent only eighteen paise reached the intended beneficiaries. That his acolyte Mani Shankar Aiyar who is never tired of singing Rajiv carols - put a new spin on the economics of poverty alleviation in a recent television debate is another matter. According to Mani, who can spin words as well as the next man the eighty-two paise which fall through the cracks in the system were actually administrative expenses. You cant beat Mani in spin. He loves the sound of his voice, can pontificate in a phoney Oxbridge accent and make the most inane utterance sound intellectual as if to say, Im Sir Oracle; let no dog bark when I speak! He quotes Marx and Engels and many others with unpronounceable names to make a point that India would be better off without computers and blue jeans. For him it would be best if the stock markets were closed as they were the play-fields of only the super rich; that Pakistan is really a saint state and an ally. The rural employment guarantee scheme may be full of chinks and the system might be leaking like a sieve making many middle men rich but their hard work did enable the working class women (and their men) to watch colour television and loll under a ceiling fan on a hot day. These people may not have been aware of a gentleman called Pramod Mahajan whose tenure as telecom minister made it possible for the woman maistree to carry her cellular phone (and charger). They may not also be aware of a gentleman called A. Raja who milked the same telecom for his social justice projects. He is a part of the society, isnt he? Whats wrong if he did some social justice for himself? It is true, not all of us were aware of the enormity of A. Rajas social justice projects, back then. But then this is the third India between the India of the rich and the other India that is the darling of the prophets of doom, the raison d etre of our bleeding heart liberals. Between the black India that can stow away cash on the black in those famed Swiss banks and the white or the other India that sets hearts racing to bleed there are a myriad shades of grey.

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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War speech cost Gandhi his Nobel?

The following is the reproduction of an article that appeared in The Hans India, published from Hyderabad and other centres, on October 11, 2011. Click here to see the original: Why Gandhi was not awarded a Nobel There appears to be a sterner, scarcely understood side to Mahatma Gandhis personality. What he preached was non-violence but it was non-violence of the brave not non-violence of the meek. It was steeped in the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, as was quite evident from his speech delivered at his daily prayer meeting and reported by the 'The Times', London the next day, September 27, 1947. (See the portion highlighted in blue in the last part of the article.) .......................................................................................................... Why wasnt Gandhi awarded a Nobel peace prize? is a question that puzzles every Indian this week as names of the current years winners are announced. The question is as puzzling as Barack Obama receiving it in 2009. For Obama was in office for all of two weeks by the time the Awards Committeerecognized him for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Doesnt it make one wonder about the objectivity of the people who decide the winners for the worlds most coveted prize(s)? Do they sometimes have feet of clay after all? Alfred Nobel was explicit in expressing his wish that in awarding the prizes, no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not. Nobel judges appear to have contravened this provision of his will on many occasions for political reasons or personal predilections. The most controversial of Nobel Prizes were among those awarded for literature, peace and economics. By the by, the prize for economics was not established as per the provisions of Alfred Nobels will. It was established by Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central bank) in 1968. During the World Wars I & II and in their immediate aftermath Nobel committees adopted a policy of strict neutrality and excluded nominees from the warring nations. The third world nations also got a short shrift. In the literature section, great writers like Marcel Proust, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Anton Chekov, Emile Zola and Andr Malraux did not make the Prize. So were others like Louis-Ferdinand Cline, Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges, Henrik Ibsen, John Updike and August Strindberg who did not make it. Only one Indian, Rabindranath Tagore had ever been awarded thePrize for literature! On
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the other hand, light weight and virtually unknown writers like Gabriela Mistral and Pearl Buck were honoured. These are not the only faux pas by the Nobel judges. They first ignored Albert Einsteins famous theory of relativity but rewarded him for his relatively less important work in photo-electric effects to compensate for their oversight, eight years later. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis was altogether ignored. The most controversial award of the Prize was of course in 1994, when it was awarded to Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Simon Peres, for working towards peace in the Middle East. The prize itself became meaningless when it was awarded to Arafat. Who cares? posted a commentator on Timesonline in 2009, commenting on its premature award to Barack Obama. Gandhi was indeed nominated for the worlds most prestigious prize five times between 1937 and 1948. For the record The Nobel peace committee did apologize for its oversight and did not declare a winner in 1948, the year of his assassination as reparation. Other Indians who were nominated and rejected for the prize were Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Maharshi Aurobindo. When Gandhi was nominated in 1937, his nomination was shot down by the critical comments of the committees advisor, Prof. Jacob Worm-Mller. Mller called into question, what he called Gandhis sharp turns in his policies and vacillation between a Christ and an ordinary politician. He also referred to the criticism of several members of the international peace movement who felt that some of Gandhis nonviolent methods led to violence and terror. The Chauri Chaura incident during the 1920-21 non-cooperation movement was cited as an example. In it, a crowd attacked a police station, set fire to it and killed several policemen. Prof. Mller also cast a doubt on the universal applicability of Gandhis methods of Satyagraha. He specifically mentioned that his movement in South Africa was on behalf of only Indians and not the blacks who were living in much worse living conditions. When his name was subsequently nominated in 1947, the partition of the country, the horrors of partition and more importantly nature of India Pakistan relations in the immediate aftermath of partition were factors that ruled him out. It is probable Norway did not want to offend Pakistan by choosing an Indian leader at a time like that. When the committee met to consider him in October that year, a statement Gandhi reportedly made appears to have been the clincher in ruling him out. The Times reported on September 27, 1947: Mr. Gandhi told his prayer meeting to-night that, though he had always opposed all warfare, if there was no other way of securing justice from Pakistan and if Pakistan persistently refused to see its proved error and continued to minimise it, the Indian Union Government would have
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to go to war against it. No one wanted war, but he could never advise anyone to put up with injustice. If all Hindus were annihilated for a just cause he would not mind. If there was war, the Hindus in Pakistan could not be fifth columnists. If their loyalty lay not with Pakistan they should leave it. Similarly Muslims whose loyalty was with Pakistan should not stay in the Indian Union. ("Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate". Nobelprize.org. 7 Oct 2011 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/) Gandhi was only reacting to a precipitous situation, more in anguish than in intention, and was not directly involved in any war. If it were the criterion for rejection, then how did Theodore Roosevelt (1906) and Henry Kissinger (1973) who were more directly involved in war efforts considered for the prize? But then Gandhi was not an American!

Upadhyayula Narayana Das

Articles Published in The Hans India

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