A Paper Tiger !! And His Moral Force in a Democracy

Once upon a time there was an intellectual. He hailed from the state of West Bengal. A former average and perhaps even below average politician, he longed to be a statesman.  That is the protagonist of this blog.

There was also a man called Hamish McDonald. He was a writer. He also authored a very controversial book. Once Hamish said in an interview, “He (our protagonist) was a friend of Dhirubhai way back when he was a minister for commerce, giving all the export-import licences (to Reliance). And then as finance minister (FM) in the Indira Gandhi government — it goes back to the time of those Isle of Man companies (1979-82), the dummy companies and the mysterious churning of Reliance shares.” (google out The Outlook website)

But that’s a different story. Hamish also wrote in his famous and controversial book, “The Polyester Prince – The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani’ : “According to New Delhi’s grapevine, the old P-D-A axis (short form is mine and D stood for R K Dhawan and A for Ambani axis) responsible for Reliance’s booming fortunes is currently reorganizing its scattered forces with V P Singh, the Finance Minister (under Rajiv Gandhi – blogger), as its principal target”.

The book also speaks about “first casualties” under Rajiv and they were “key friends of Dhirubhai”. “Rajiv sacked R K Dhawan from the Prime Minister’s Office within hours of his appointment. And in his first cabinet he replaced P (or other ‘PM’ or my protagonist) as Finance Minister with V P Singh, a choice that was eventually to bring down the heavens on both Dhirubhai and then Rajiv himself”. Well, neither Rajiv Gandhi nor Dhirubhai or even R K Dhawan is my protagonist. My protagonist is an ‘intelligent’ man and now waiting in the wings to go down the memory lane as a ‘statesman’.

He probably also wants to make bigger news in 2017. Perhaps he thinks he is the country’s most deserving person ! Intellectualism is an inherent virtue in every son and - my wife insists - even daughter of Bengal and Bengalis. So do the blogger, and obviously the PROTAGONIST too.

But in between comes a man called Narendra Modi. He is a phenomenon and a mixed bag. Thousands hate him. Bue he also inspires enormous trust as a man of action in a country where gossip and rumour mongering is the favourite past time and work shirking a born quality.

Now this man had made a few promises. Interestingly, he is trying to fulfill a few – at least those which can make people re-write history about a particular family and also about a few ‘top individuals’ who benefited and have been basking in the reflected glory of the particular dynasty. Thus, suddenly, here we come with a discovery of statesmanship. Dadri becomes an image of intolerance!

What was 1984, Bhagalpur and even Nandigram and Singur – remains a question – our intellectual protagonist may not answer. He ensured Left’s support system to MMS regime continue despite Nandigram.

There have been occasions the protagonist has displayed his anger publicly during Parliament debate and also during interactions with journos. He may do so again, if he at all reads my blog. This is also a Bengali virtue – comes to us with alu-sheddo (alu chokha – boiled potato) rice and fish. So, what’s bothering the intellectual’s mind?

“January 2016” ! Why? Because Modi says he would reveal some of the old files related to another Bengali son – Netaji Subhas Bose !

Tail Piece:

(Following extract is from website Rediff.com

Link - http://www.rediff.com/news/special/did-pranab-mukherjee-play-a-role-in-the-netaji-mystery/20120702.htm)

“In 1995, in deference to the advice of the Intelligence Bureau, the Union Cabinet decided not to bring the so-called ashes of Bose to India from Japan. But Mukherjee flew to Germany, and according to unverifiable claim of a former MEA official, says Anuj Dhar in his book, tried to bribe Bose's Austrian wife to certify his death by giving a written approval to take the ashes to India as that of Netaji's.

Netajis' octogenarian wife Emilie Shenkel was enraged at Pranab's proposal and asked him to leave her house as she, like most of her family members, believed that Bose was in Russia after his death -- a fact glossed over by a recent book by Sugata Bose, son of former Congress MLA and Mukherjee's friend the late Sisir Bose, says Dhar.

Later, when a report misquoted Mukherjee saying that Emilie had given the permission to bring the ashes to India, she lashed out saying, 'Pranab Mukherjee was propagating an untruth for reasons best known to him and the government of India', the new book says. 'A decade later, Pranab Mukherjee was described in the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry report as one of the seven witnesses who had testified before it in favour of the story on Bose's death.”

Wrap up:

SO THE SEMI-INTELLECTUAL ARGUMENT DURING THE PUJA CELEBRATIONS INFORMALLY IN PANDALS THIS YEAR IN DELHI WAS: 

Why discovery of a sudden statesmanship? Is there a nervousness? Is there a pressure tactics? Can someone in high pedestal get immunity and run away from a wrong – which I believe perhaps he has NEVER DONE - that is bribing Subhas Bose kin? 

Jai Bangla ! – is my inner response.

(ends)