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Showing posts with label abuse of power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abuse of power. Show all posts

Thursday, March 4, 2010

BBC chickens out ?

I am saddened and disappointed that my exhaustive and factual comments about my nearly two decade long personal experience in dealing with brazen abuse of power issues - in effect administrative or professional dysfunctionality or incompetence - appear to have been held back since days by moderators on this site.

This appeasement by the bbc of an atrocious conspiracy of silence is barbaric.

However if the bbc's heart is in the right place, you may want to visit and participate at sathyagraha.blogspot.com

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Dr Manmohan Singh's Office Asserts Its Determination To Be An Idiot. This Time It's The New Scientist.



Shri T K A Nair
Principal Secretary To
The Prime Minister Of India
New Delhi.

Sir
,

Congratulations.

Your cold, coercive silence is being met with a reasonable response.

The following comment was published in The New Scientist.

India Is Mired In Corruption

Sun Oct 18 12:26:33 BST 2009 by divakarssathya
http://sathyagraha.blogspot.com

At a closer look, it would become obvious that the primary responsibility in any Indian job function - from The President Of India to the lowly village school teacher - is the collection and distribution of bribes and patronage.

In order to be a collector and distributor of bribes, you obviously cannot be a sane, functional, human being.There is no percentage in just doing your job.

You have to be able to regularise the irregular and irregularise the regular.

You have to put yourself beyond the pale of reason. You have to be perverse.

If Dr Venkataraman, had worked in India, he would have had been routinely asked to fetch tea for the bureaucrats.

He would have been told that such humility was fundamental to great achievement.

He would be asked to alter his lab notes and findings to suit the moods of the bureaucrats.

Good chance, if he finally came up with something good, his work would be plagiarised and even if the President Of India had been valourized by India's sheepish editorial class as a champion of science and modernity, his pleas and protests would have been coldly ignored.

Till he somehow managed to cause an international furore. Then there would be a mild stirring.

I have called it the "patronage paradigm". The paradigm of shoddiness,irresponsibility , cronyism and corruption that cretinises a society.

Read Kameshwar C Wali's biography of Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar to recollect the horror that the youthful Chandra felt, when he saw the great Satyen Bose being mistreated right before his eyes, by the top scientific babus of his day.

Sycophancy continues to rule in India today.

India's insular, necrophilous oligarchy had encountered 19 year old Ishrat Jehan on idiotic dribbles.

And the Prime Minister's Office is being quiet as a mouse about the impeccable evidence I have presented to them on the corrupt, duplicitous and psychotic conduct of the Government of India, the Government Of Andhra Pradesh, The Indian editorial class, the administrators of the Right To Information Act, The Andhra Pradesh High Court and a fellow travelling "civil society".

Proliferators or pedophiles - the lawless subcontinent is a haven for the scum of the earth.

In India today, dysfunction rules ! Perversity prevails!

Welcome to yet another "conspiracy in corruption" :

Psychotic PMO Bareknuckles "The Economist"

"When The Going Gets Tough, The PMO's Media Advisers Go Nuts"

"James Astill's Dazed Denial"

"The President Of India's Helpline Is A Waste Of Time"

Andhra Pradesh High Court's Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law .05/29/09

RTI Act 2005 Abuse In Andhra Pradesh- State Information Commissioner Cheats! Chief Secretary Lies!05/07/09

Prejudiced Chief Information Commissioner Laps Up Prime Minister's Office's Lies 05/05/09

Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong ! 01/28/09

And India's editorial class will not report the story!

sathyagraha.blogspot.com

Divakar's Sathyagraha News and views from Divakar S Natarajan's, "no excuses", ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.

Now in its 18th year.

Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity's struggle to honour the gift of life.

Incidentally, when I referred to the "petty minded idiots in your office", you will be glad to know I was being stone cold sober and scientific.

Please read this:
It's official: Your bullying boss really is an idiot


Sincerely,
divakar

The above comment was moderated and appeared in The New Scientist. Hours after my email to Shri Nair, it was dropped.

From Shri Harish Khare

QED.

Exhibit 1 "Compelling Criminality"

Jaipal Reddy, Leader Of Opposition , Rajya Sabha writes eloquently, did nothing.


From Shri Jaipal Reddy, Leader Of Opposition Rajya Sabha




Exhibit Two "Compelling Criminality" Chief Minister Of Andhra Pradesh Writes To Jaipal Reddy.
Reddy "responds" by launching frivolous and vexatious litigation on exactly those matters mentioned by Chief Minister. The litigation continues till date.



From Hon'ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Shri Chandrababu Naidu to Jaipal Reddy, Minister of Informa



Exhibit Three "Compelling Criminality"

This nugget of non partisan wisdom appears to be utterly lost in the Prime Minister's Office.

" Indrajit Gupta ?" exclaimed the section officer at the PMO, in whose charge the Principal Secretary, has with exemplary wisdom entrusted this case, "Par Woh Tho Mar Gaye Hain !"


From

From Ex Minister Of Home Affairs Shri Indrajit Gupta's Appeal To Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpay




Exhibit Four " Compelling Criminality"
Dr Manmohan Singh's Former Media Adviser Dr Sanjaya Baru's "epiphanic" review of "Hyderabad. August 1948"


From My Scans




Exhibit Four "Compelling Criminality"

Petition to Former Prime Minister signed by Sarvashri Soumitra Chatterji, Shyam Benegal, Derek Malcolm, Om Puri, Jean Paul Carriere, Jabbar Patel, Jahnu Baruah, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and other intellectuals endorsing Indrajit Gupta's representation.

"Given that his Doordarshan commissioned documentary, "Hyderabad. August 1948." has been nationally acclaimed for celebrating our nation's core values and given the abundance of open support that he has received, it appears credible to us that he is being severely punished for his resistance to corruption in Doordarshan"

From


Exhibit Five "Compelling Criminality"

Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao's Open Letter To The Former Prime Minister.

The late Kaloji garu had known Shoebullah Khan, fought in India's freedom struggle and had seen my documentary.



From Padma Vibhushan Shri Kaloji Narayana Rao's Open Letter To Former Prime Minister


Exhibit Six "Compelling Criminality"
Doordarshan's Conduct Of Fiftieth Year Celebrations Of Indian Independence Described As "50th Year Racket" Sevanti Ninan, The Hindu


From 50th year racket


For more please go to "Compelling Criminality

Friday, August 28, 2009

James Astill's Dazed Denial

So I tracked down, Shri James Astill, who is the South Asia correspondent for The Economist, who speaks French,Japanese and Spanish but no Hindi, Urdu or Kannada and may be forgiven for not quite knowing the ways of us "lesser breeds without the law".

To Shri Astill's immense credit, I repeat immense credit, he did something extraordinarily humane.

He did something that very few Indians do.

He emailed me back.

Dear Divakar,

Though I am unversed in your various battles, I wish you success with them. But your effort to involve The Economist in this struggle seems odd: I'm afraid I can't see the connection. I don't why your comment was removed from The Economist website, though I suppose the fact that it seems to be not at all about the article you were notionally commenting on could be a reason. I imagine you can respond to the moderator asking for a fuller explanation. But we would not consider publishing your letter, for the simple reason that it is almost entirely unrelated to The Economist.

Best wishes,

James Astill

I have handraised a child and I know when she is dissembling.

The weak sarcasm is a dead giveaway.

Corruption is "not at all about the" the Indian economy ?

Did you read our Prime Minister's speech to our Central Bureau Of Investigation, Shri Astill ?

I will not grudge you the brownie points you may earned with Shri Khare's office, Shri Astill - but it doth seem like both Shri Khare and our Prime Minister are not on the same page.

When The Going Gets Tough Our Prime Minister's Media Advisers Appear To Go Nuts !

This was to the good folks at The Economist.

Ladies And Gentlemen,

I am shocked and disappointed by the admonishment administered to me by your Comments Moderator.

Only an hour before I received your email, I had spoken to Shri Harish Khare regarding the widely reported speech of the Hon'ble Prime Minister to the Central Bureau of Investigation, in which he has, once again shared his deep concern and understanding regarding the stultifying problem of "pervasive corruption".

Since our Prime Minister had spoken similarly to the CBI just three years ago, I confided with Shri Khare, who according to Wikipedia possesses a Phd in Political Science from Yale University on the subject of Perception In Decision Making, that it would have such a Gandhian act to have come clean on the matters that I have placed before the esteemed readers of your eminent publication and which I have extensively supported with documented evidence in my blog.

sathyagraha.blogspot.com.

Shri Khare appears to have taken the easy road and appears to have bare knuckled you into removing my comment.

Shri Khare was of course," just doing his job."

But I am deeply saddened that, just one hour after my call to Shri Khare, your esteemed publication has buckled under and removed a serious, factual and well documented comment, that had been on your site since five days and had received its fair share of approvals from your readers.

Please consider this.

About twenty years ago, alarmed and offended by a section of my co religionists "profiling" Muslims in the most derogatory manner, I conceived, researched, scripted, directed, edited and presented a documentary in Urdu, "Hyderabad. August 1948".

In this documentary, I had the opportunity to narrate the events leading to the tragic saga of Shoebullah Khan, the 28 year old editor of Imroose who had his right palm chopped off and who was shot dead because his writing had offended the Razakars of pre Independence Hyderabad. His second daughter was born a fortnight after his assasination.

This documentary was commissioned by Doordarshan, but it was only exhibited after nearly two years of wrangling.

This, despite the, or come to think of it, because of the encomiums that were heaped on it.

To get a sense of how my documentary was received, please read the review by Dr Sanjaya Baru, Dr Harish Khare's predecessor Media Adviser to Dr Manmohan Singh, then an editor of The Economic Times in my blog post Divakar S Natarajan And Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong.

Responding to my signature campaign, in which Dr Baru was a participant and Dr Abid Hussain, former Ambassador to the United States the main resource person, the then Prime Minister of India, Shri P V Narasimha Rao, officially recognised Shoeb's sacrifice by granting a Freedom Fighter's pension to the widow of Shoebullah Khan , more than 40 years after his martyrdom.

Unfortunately, the Doordarshan authorities chose to take deep offense to my outspoken ( published in the editor's page of The Hindustan Times) resistance to what I perceived to be the "kickback raj" at Doordarshan.

The then Director General of Doordarshan, responded by vowing, "Your article in the Hindustan Times has defamed Doordarshan. As long as I am there, I will see to it that your work will not get done."

The former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Chandrababu Naidu, made a representation to the Government of India, that I be commissioned as " a film maker of acknowledged eminence" to make films to celebrate the 50th year of Indian Independence.

His representation on my behalf was probably, the most popular he made.

It was supported in writing by the Centre, Left and Right.

Nothing happened.

To get a sense of how I was treated, please read the letter of the former Minister of Home Affairs Indrajit Gupta to the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

In my blogpost De freezing Com Gupta I have documented how Shri Indrajit Gupta, a University of Cambridge Tripos, who was elected by Parliament as its first "Most Outstanding Parliamentarian" decided to most kindly befriend me after watching my documentary and the role played by Shri Harish Khare in publishing my impressions of the veteran communist leader in The Hindu.

The wise and pleasing liberality of the Bharatiya Janata Party in supporting the former Chief Minister's representation was a welcome surprise.

Incidentally, Doordarshan's conduct of the 50th Anniversary Celebrations were described as the "50th Year Racket" by the media columnist of Dr Harish Khare's former newspaper, The Hindu.

Despite the earnest views repeatedly and eloquently expressed by this Prime Minister and most of his illustrious predecessors, the unstated attitude of the Indian elite regarding "the scourge of corruption" is like the one expressed by Prabhu Chawla, Editor, India Today, India's leading newsmagazine and flagship of a most influential media conglomerate.

He says, " I think people have accepted it as a reality as they have lost hope in the political leadership." (Emphasis mine. Quoted in my blogpost
Why Prabhu Chavla, His Esteemed Publication And India's Editorial Class Have Decayed And Are Dangerous
Saturday, June 13, 2009.)
Given this infantile "it is you, it is them, it is most certainly not us" dissembling by a large section of India's intellectual elite, one that clearly questions their very reason for existence, I should probably not be surprised by the fact that India's editorial class and others have ridiculed my sathyagraha and made me a "non person".

The Prime Minister's Office has had months to refute my allegations. It has kept quiet.

Now it is trying to corrupt your esteemed publication and put the quietus on the uncomfortable truths that I seek answers for.

In the meanwhile, two significant pronouncements by other Chief Information Commissioners have validated my allegation that Shri Wajahat Habibullah has colluded in the violation of the RTI Act 2005 by the PMO and has punished me for standing up for its proper implementation.

You may also probably know that the respected security expert and writer B Raman had castigated Shri Khare's predecessor Dr Baru for allegedly indulging in" character assasination" of persons like him who had views contrary to that of the PMO and for running the Media like the "Gestapo" ( Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle "Is Dr Sanjaya Baru Running The Gestapo ? September 22, 2006)

When the going gets tough, our Prime Minister's Media Advisers appear to go nuts.

The rest of us recognise the imperative of endeavouring to exercise our imaginations constructively however arduous and futile it might seem at this moment.

I know this is a little longish, but I shall be grateful if you would kindly publish this letter.

In the best traditions of journalism, please let Shri Harish Khare know, in no uncertain terms, that he must throw his weight in the right
directions.

Do feel free to call me, if you need any more information.
My cell number is.......

Sincerely,
Divakar

Psychotic PMO Bareknuckles The Economist

Barely an hour after I spoke to Dr Harish Khare, currently media adviser to the Prime Minister and formerly one of the prime panjandrums of The Hindu's editorial page , I received an email from the Comments Moderator of The Economist.

It informed me that my comment on The Economist's cheery piece, Asia: An Astonishing Rebound was being removed.

The comment had stood since five days and had received its fair share of reader recommendation.

In my conversation with Harish Khare, he sounded about as distant and disoriented as our crepuscular elites are from the agonies of Indian citizens.

He did not remember me. "Indrajit Gupta? That was such a looong time ago !"

Khare had personally accepted my impressionistic profile of the late Shri Indrajit Gupta, then Minister of Home Affairs.

The Hindu, as the unofficial mouthpiece of the Communist Party Of India (Marxist) was involved in a serious sibling spat with the Communist Party Of India, Indrajit Gupta's party and was undermining him at every opportunity.

Since I was conveniently perceived as Indrajit Gupta's man by the wise heads of The Hindu, that was excuse enough for them to ignore my sathyagraha.

No, he had not read my comments in The Economist and he had no idea about the letters I had written to our Honourable Prime Minister.

And in the style perfected by India's babudom to rouse the monster in the breasts of even the meekest of human beings, he hung up on me.

"Hahn,okay,hahn!,by..." Click .

Approximately an hour later, I have this in my inbox:

CommentsModerator@economist.com
to divakarssathyagraha@gmail.com
date Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 3:09 PM
subject divakarssathya's comment to Economist.com


Dear Sir,

The attached comment, posted under the pen name divakarssathya, has been deleted from Economist.com. The comment was removed because it breaks our comments policy:
http://www.economist.com/about/terms_and_conditions.cfm#8

We ask that future comments be made in the spirit of good-natured debate. Repeated violation of our comments policy will result in your being blocked from posting comments on Economist.com.

Yours sincerely,

Comments Moderator
Economist.com

Your comment:
----------
In my earlier comment, I had pointed out how the Indian ruling elite,The
Press, The Judiciary, The Bureaucracy and of course The Political Class work
together to do nothing, so that desperate citizens who value their sanity and
innocence can then prostrate to them, acknowledge them as their true fathers
and mothers,mai-baap, pay them a percentage of their income and eke out a
living as vassals.

You had kindly permitted me to invite your esteemed readers to my blog,
sathyagraha.blogspot.com, where i have documented how -

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has systematically denied me due process.

The State Information Commissioner has concocted a transparent ruse to
rubbish the RTI Act 2005.

The Chief Secretary, the top bureaucrat of Andhra Pradesh, has personally
supervised the false and misleading information that was fed to me and has
also lied to the High court. The State Information Secretary never
represented himself in the Court.

The Chief Information Commissioner, in New Delhi, has comprehensively
contumed the RTI Act 2005, has chosen to not examine the false claims of the
Prime Minister's Office and has punished me for standing up for the proper
implementation of the Act.

Not only has the Prime Minister's Office, violated the RTI Act 2005 it has,
perhaps inevitably, clearly kept the Hon'ble Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh
in the dark about their sordid juvenile delinquency.

The Prime Minister's Office has not answered, or even acknowledged my letter
to him sent by registered post, number 9700, dated June 15, 2009.

After a great deal of work by the concerned postal authorities, I finally got
the acknowledgment due for the Speed Post dated 28 July 2009 on 17th August.
The letter had been delivered to the PMO on the 1st August and normally, I
would have received the acknowledgment not later than a week from that date.

I had also described to you the President's helpline, launched with fanfare.

I finally received a response:

Name : Shri Divakar S Natarajan
Date of Receipt : 04 Aug 2009
Current Status : The petition is transferred
Date of Transfer : 19 Aug 2009
State Government : Government of Andhra Pradesh
Officer's Name : Shri C.R.Biswal
Designation : Principal Secretary
Address : General Administration Deptt.
3rd Floor, B Block, AP Sectt.,
Hyderabad
Telephone No. :

Note: You are requested to further liaise in the matter directly with
Principal Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh, General Administration
Deptt.3rd Floor, B Block, AP Sectt., Hyderabad for further information.

Well, if my President asks me to, I shall obey.

But are you and your esteemed readers, convinced that the President's
intervention in this form is adequate to address the issues that I have
documented ?

Or is it a, properly worded sigh of helplessness ?

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Excellence Vs Perversity. Divakar S Natarajan's Sathyagraha.



A bare account of Divakar S Natarajan’s “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, individual, non-partisan, sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law.
Now,well into its second decade.


In the winter of 1990, I conceptualised, researched, scripted, directed, presented and produced a 37-minute documentary for Doordarshan in Urdu, entitled, “Hyderabad. August 1948.”

Responding to the horrendous communal riots that erupted in Hyderabad in the wake of the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign in 1990, I traced the course of events leading to the “police action” in the erstwhile Hyderabad state and brought to light the role of forgotten Muslim heroes, who had valiantly opposed the Nizam’s anachronistic fantasies.

One of them was the brilliant young editor of Imroose, Shoebullah Khan. He was slaughtered by the Razakars of the demagogue Qasim Rizwi.

The film received excellent reviews in the Press. The Hindustan Times called it a “fine documentary,"

From Fine documentary


The Hindu, New Delhi explained to its readers, why it found the film, “ a viewer’s delight and a maker’s pride”.,

From The Hindu, New Delhi Rediscovering The Lost Hero


Nikhat Kazmi, in the Times of India, oracularly titled her piece, “The Trouble with Truth”.

From The Trouble With Truth Times of India


The Indian Express,

From The Indian Express, Hyderabad


The Pioneer,

From The Pioneer, New Delhi Of unknown fighters


The Deccan Chronicle,

From VH Desai Deccan Chronicle


Siasat
, Qaumi Awaz, all recognised the value of documenting an important aspect of our freedom struggle, which had been forgotten.

From VH Desai The Hindu Hyderabad


From Newstime Hyderabad


Among the most epiphanic reviews of my work was that by Dr Sanjaya Baru,appointed by the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh as his handpicked Media Adviser.

From Resurrecting History


Freedom fighters who had known the late Shoebullah Khan, welcomed the film as
a significant contribution to the cause of communal understanding and harmony.



Kaloji Narayana Rao's Open Letter To Prime Minister Of India And Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh


Historians of the calibre of Dr Bipan Chandra commended the painstaking attention to research, detail and documentation.

The Oral History Project of the Jawaharlal Museum and Library was alerted to record some of the forgotten heroes who had featured in the documentary.


The documentary had also been instrumental in my successful campaign for a Svatantra Senani pension for the martyr’s widow, under the Chairmanship of Dr Abid Hussain, with Dr Sanjaya Baru and several senior journalists as signatories, more than 40 years after his martyrdom.

Doordarshan’s response, triggered by the venality of some middle level officials and tolerated by the lethargy of higher ups, was unfortunately, a study in contrast.

* Doordarshan attempted to vandalise my work by asking for arbitrary cuts. It took me more than two years, most of which I had to spend in cheap hotels in Delhi, to get them to cease and desist.

* This experience bankrupted me. It was a body blow from which I have not yet recovered.

* The film was finally telecast without any cuts but abruptly and without any prior promotion or notice.

* When the film was finally telecast, it received only favourable attention, reinforcing the unconscionable nature of the delay.

* Requests from several responsible people, including Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee (then leader of opposition, Lok Sabha) and Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao, that the film be dubbed and displayed in other national languages were ignored.

* The documentary’s contribution to the cause of national history and communal harmony was not allowed any formal national recognition, awards, etc.

* Doordarshan lost the master tape containing the documentary.

* Finally, not only has Doordarshan not invited me for any projects in all these years, but has also truncated the concepts I presented and provided an unworkable and potentially calamitous pittance as budget.

On the 9th or 10th of September 1996 - around 5.30pm, the Commissioner of I & PR, Government of AP, informed me that the former CM Shri N Chandrababu Naidu was rushing to Bombay to collect funds for cyclone relief the following day and asked me whether I would be able to make a film to help the Hon’ble CM’s efforts.

Eager to be of service to the devastated people of the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh, I accepted the challenge - and delivered.

Enthused by the extraordinarily positive results produced by my creative effort, the former CM (whom I had never met ) was thoughtful enough to call for me and to personally thank me.

In an interview to The Hindu recently, (April 4, 2003) the former Chief Minister has said that the 1994 cyclone was the first of the two "major" crises that he had faced in his tenure.

During that occasion, I took the opportunity to mention some of the problems I was experiencing with the Doordarshan management and requested his intervention and support.

The former Chief Minister agreed and wrote to then Minister of Information & Broadcasting Shri C M Ibrahim and later to Shri Jaipal Reddy (3-6- ’97)

From Hon'ble Cheif Minister of Andhra Pradesh Shri Chandrababu Naidu to Jaipal Reddy, Minister of Informa


Despite the fact that Jaipal Reddy and the Home Minister Shri Indrajit Gupta had watched and had recorded their appreciation for “Hyderabad. August 1948.” nothing positive happened.

From Shri Jaipal Reddy, Leader Of Opposition, Rajya Sabha


From Shri Indrajit Gupta Ex Home Minister to Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee


About a year after its non-response to the former CM’s recommendations, my various representations and article in the editor’s page of the Hindustan Times

From The Dross In Doordarshan


and an op-ed article by the media correspondent of The Indian Express,Kavaree Bamzai

From Kavaree Bamzai Indian Express


DD sent me a notice for breach of contract on precisely the same issues contained in the former CM’s recommendations.

The prosecution/persecution on this matter (for a value of Rs 25,000/-) continues to this day.

The former CM wrote again (17-5-98) to Smt Sushma Swaraj, recommending that I be commissioned as “filmmaker of acknowledged eminence” to make films to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Indian Independence.

From AP CM to MIB


He wrote once more to Smt Sushma Swaraj on 17-7-98.

From AP CM to MIB I


In a welcome and unexpected affirmation of the documentary, “Hyderabad. August 1948”, the BJP advertised, “Our Martyr and Patriot Shoebullah Khan! The state of Hyderabad will not forget your sacrifice”. (The Deccan Chronicle 21-8-98.)

From Sathyagraha


Now the then state BJP president and Member of Parliament , Shri Ch Vidyasagar Rao, also endorsed the CM’s recommendations.(ltr dtd 10-9-98 to Smt Sushma Swaraj and Dtd 16 - 12 -98 to Shri Pramod Mahajan.)

In the absence of any results, I travelled to Delhi and could not find any of my papers on file.

Shri Yerrannaidu MP, several serving and past members of the NDA ministry, the Speaker of Lok Sabha, the late Shri GMC Balayogi and others revived the matter and requested that a favourable decision be taken “as a special case”.

This persuasion has not borne any positive result.
Some of the finest contemporary creative minds including Sarvashri Soumitra Chatterji, Shyam Benegal, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sidharth Kak, Om Puri, Jabbar Patel, Jahnu Baruah, Derek Malcolm, Jean Claude Carriere endorsed the former CM’s representations in a petition to the Prime Minister,

From Filmmakers petition to Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee


India's editorial class did not support this petition.

Padma Vibhushan Shri Kaloji Narayana Rao (18-01-2001)wrote a moving open letter to the then Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Chandrababu Naidu.

India's editorial class, barring an honourable exception, saw it fit to censor this most distinguished call for justice.

The Confederation of Indian Industry - Southern region (July 13,2000), The Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists, have all represented to the former Chief Minister on my behalf without any avail.

In October 2002, I met the PS to the former Governor of Andhra Pradesh seeking an appointment to meet the Governor.

After four months of meeting with this officer, almost thrice every week, I realised he had no intention of letting me meet the Governor.

I then met the Lady Governor at a concert and gave her a detailed petition.

I received an appointment the very next day. The former Governor gave me a most patient hearing. But nothing happened.

Last August I met the former Chief Minister, in his new capacity as Leader of Opposition, and showed him how his representations on my behalf had been well founded, reasonable, phenomenally popular and utterly ineffective.

He promptly shot off another letter to the Minister for Information & Broadcasting.

I am not aware of any response.

Prasar Bharathi’s conduct of the 50th year celebrations had been termed a , “50th year racket” by Sevanti Ninan , biographer of Shri N Chandrababu Naidu and media columnist of The Hindu. (August 9, 1998).

From 50th year racket


Other senior media columnists (Amita Malik, Indian Express) had similar views.

While my documentary was reasonably well reviewed, the editorial class has been strangely muted in responding to my unwillingness to submit to the "patronage paradigm".

I have personally met Sarvashri N Ram, Shekhar Gupta, Dilip Padgaonkar and several other colleagues in the media to explain my persecution.

It must be said that they have been unable to speak my truth to the powers that be.


From The Indian Express makes Divakar S Natarajan a non person


It has now been a decade since I responded productively to a serious crisis faced by the Government of Andhra Pradesh - at a moment’s notice and overnight.

Close to two decades - a life sentence - since my documentary earned national critical acclaim for having “brought to life” a forgotten but inspiring chapter in the history of the freedom struggle in Hyderabad and for having conveyed a measure of justice to some forgotten heroes.

The preposterous and bizarre non-implementation of the former CM’s repeatedly expressed and widely acclaimed recommendations has grossly violated my life.

Such an unrelenting perversity and egregious abuse of power has robbed me of the rewards and recognition that I have earned and deserve, arrested my professional development and blighted my personal growth, brought great anxiety and fear to my family, humiliated me and made me appear a dupe and a charlatan.

My Gulag type nightmare is an insult, threat and challenge to all those who would like to see India grow from a dependant, derivative and predatory system to a vibrant, autonomous, benign and productive force in the world.

For that reason, it demands a just and proper accounting.


PS: Please click on the pictures (thumbnails) to reach the full size version.