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Showing posts with label corruption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corruption. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Prashant Bhushan And The Tail Of The Tiger

In the autumn of 2009, Prashant Bhushan, revealed to Tehelka ("sensation") magazine that ‘Half Of The Last 16 Chief Justices Were Corrupt’ 

Prashant Bhushan has also gone to some lengths to explain why he considered the current Chief Justice Kapadia's conduct in the Vedanta case to be "morally unsound or debased."


All this is sensational beyond description. 

Had Prashant Bhushan seized a tiger - or was it eight or nine tigers - by its tail ? 

Obviously the Supreme Court could not let this pass, so it launched contempt proceedings against this "turbulent priest".

Now the father Shanthi Bhushan, former Law Minister of India, stormed in to aid his son.

Fuel to the fire - what would the Supreme Court do ?

Very little. 

The Bhushans had compiled a secret sealed envelope and jammed it in the craw of the gasping Indian judiciary.

And evidently, the Supreme Court of India can neither, as the old Tamil saying goes, chew it up nor swallow it. 

There was a moment of bathos, when the court helpfully suggested that Bhushan apologise and "close the chapter on the contempt proceedings"

The Bhushans roared back. They were willing to go to jail but would not apologise.

Prashant Bhushan had not provoked a sleeping tiger by pulling on its tail. 

Rather this canny Delhiwalla, with the wisdom of three generations of proximity to the ways of the decadent embedded in his genes, appears to have grabbed the mangy Indian judiciary by its throat. 

A Godsend for the Indian Press.  A Tehelka in spades.

But the Indian Press, that can be safely predicted only to erupt in regular spouts of self congratulatory clamour, has stayed mute.

There have been no further disclosures. No leaks. No hidden camera stunts.

Close to three years have passed and the litigation meanders on.

But the Bhushans, father and prominent son, have gone on from strength to strength.

Prashant Bhushan does very well on television. 

I myself have found his careful, systematic articulation, his dogged pursuit of every detail , his stubborn resistance to authoritarian airbrushing very attractive. 

Was a time, when watching Prashant Bhushan on television, surrounded and responding doggedly to the suave officers of the Indian state, I have felt our blood pressures rise and fall in synch. 

Indian television has made Prashant Bhushan a most powerful Indian.

Consider this: There are 782 members of parliament. 

But the number of lawyers whose names regularly figures in the media can be counted with the fingers and toes.

And among this rare species of Indian, the Bhushans are among the most favoured.

Such is the formidable, almost unique dominance of the Bhushans, especially Prashant on the grungy contemporary judicial landscape of India.

This dominance has been questioned. 

First came a mysterious CD. Clumsy paste up job ? We will never know. 

But to Vineet Narain, hero of the Havala scam, who bravely took on the might of not one but two of the most mighty legal grandees of India,  the CD seemed credible

 He said,  “I am not surprised by the content of the CD because I have burnt my fingers with the Bhushans during my Jain Hawala crusade...controversy and suspicion had arisen even earlier on the Bhushans...after initially helping me in drafting the petition (of Jain Hawala case), Ram Jethmalani and subsequently, his associates, the Bhushans, made several attempts to sabotage the biggest crusade against corruption and finally derailed the case.”

I am inclined to believe Shri Narain.

But not everybody does. 

According to Tehelka - Advocate Kamini Jaiswal says that Narain was “a dirty blackmailer, who’d filed ugly petitions and circulated in his paper Kal Chakra that a particular judge was a homosexual.”

Then there was the conflict of interest case, when Bhushan Senior was alleged to have been favoured by the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati, even as he was litigating for the public interest against her alleged excesses. 

Once again there was some hot air on television: 




\   


This allegation too has been given "the quietus"  . 

Tehelka apologised; 

Even Mrs Sonia Gandhi conveyed her disapproval .


It was a rare chorus of indignation in favour of the Bhushans in a country in which activists using their Right To Information get swatted down like flies. 







and are carefully dishonoured afterwards.



Where honest officials get burnt alive.


Time


and again


Where journalists and their families are murdered,



and then forgotten.




Finally there was a case of  massive tax evasion by Bhushan Senior. 

Unlike the other two, this was a case in which no other VIPs were involved.

And in this case, the allegation stuck.


Hammers to a fly. Why ?

The Indian judiciary has been brazen in its extraordinary indulgence of  Chief Justice Dinakaran. 

The tortuous curial pussyfooting on the grave allegations against Ex Chief Justice of Supreme Court and current Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission K G Balakrishnan is a running sore and a grave embarrassment. 

So why is this scion of The House Of The Bhushans Of New Delhi, allying himself with another legal blunderbuss, Ram Jethmalani to, for all practical purposes, harass and stymy the career of a high court judge whose alleged misdemeanor appears innocuous, almost innocent, in comparison with the monstrous misdeeds  alleged and otherwise of his peers and superiors in the Indian judiciary ?

Why is Prashant Bhushan who flaked out of taking on the entire Andhra Pradesh High Court on its egregious misconduct against a single, unsupported citizen who had been stripped of the best years of his life for standing up for the idea of the rule of law in India, now going after a judge who even if for a brief moment and half-heartedly, lit a little light in that case ?

Is their action in the public interest ?

Is it motivated by the zeal to cleanse a diseased Andhra Pradesh High Court and restore it to a semblance of credibility ? 

Neither Bhushan nor Jethmalani can make any lofty claims. 

The Bhushans appear to have made a compelling argument that Chief Justice Kapadia or a "Amicus Curiae" Harish Salve can be accused of being  "morally unsound or debased." .

The Bhushans do not appear any less prone to abuse the judiciary to aggrandise themselves. 

Given their expedient torpor on the occasion when their considerable talents and individual consciences were more urgently required, it is fair to infer that the Bhushans are mere adventurers. 

They are mere pirates with a training in the law, backed by their ill gotten wealth and a dotty Delhi centric media, who are scavenging on India's irretrievably compromised and crumbling political establishment.

Sad. 

If there are any clean hands in India's decrepit, delinquent and depraved judiciary, they do not appear clearly visible to the naked eye.












Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Prashant Bhushan Exceeds His Brief

PIL seeks quashing of Andhra Pradesh high court judge’s appointment

Prashant Bhushan and Ram Jethmalani, two of India's most high profile lawyers are supporting a Public Interest Litigation by an advocate Manohar Reddy, seeking to quash the appointment of a Justice N V Ramana of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The details of the allegation are in the news report.  

The allegation does not relate to any personal or professional misconduct of the judge while in office. 

However it does allege that the judge may have suppressed a material and mandated fact, that may have disqualified him to pursue a career in the judiciary. 

The report also makes it clear that while the judge may have suppressed the fact of having a minor criminal record in his application, the matter has been a subject of public negotiations for some time.

If true,  these allegations are serious. The independence of all our constitutional institutions are their life's breath and heart's blood. Our constitution comes alive in the aloof manner in which they examine, interrogate and abrade each other.

In order that they maintain their abrasive quality, they cannot hold any uncomfortable secrets. They cannot be potential targets for blackmail or seduction. They have to stay well inflated with their abrasive purpose throughout their service life.

So if Justice Ramana did withhold a 'dirty secret' and had become transparently beholden to the government to favour him with some rare kindness, I at least, will have no doubts that he has forfeited his place among his awesome, black robed brethren.

He is the proverbial rotten apple that must be quickly discarded, before he infects the rest of the basket with his disease.

And Shri Bhushan and his well funded NGO deserves the warm gratitude of all reasonable persons in society for having taken the time off from his no doubt grueling schedule of personal and private interests - does he have any ? to undertake the onerous task of ejecting a serving Indian judge from his high office.

But truth does not yield itself so easily.

If the truth was what a mystic messiah or a cabal of  high priests declared, then we would have no need for constitutions and laws, procedures and protocols, evidence and witnesses, black robes and sober miens, lawyers and litigants. 


We can dispense with books and libraries, teachers and schools, science and ethics and all the laboriously constructed appurtenances of the idea of humanity's evolution and difference and submit like our simian cousins to a place in the tribe. 



I have had a brush with Shri Prashanth Bhushan - an encounter which left me wondering whether this firebrand's legendary talent for sniffing out the public interest does not sometimes desert him.



Thursday, June 23, 2011

Banalising The Beautiful. Lok Satta Does Martin Luther King.

Happened to click on the Lok Satta site the other day and was confronted by an alleged quote from Martin Luther King.


I carry the music of Martin in me and this just did not sound like my beloved prophet.

So tame. So plaintive and boring. "More dangerous"! - what is this?

So I Googled.

Not only did I come up with the original melody, but also a lovely photograph, that is so typically Martin.

About ten years ago, I went to meet Dr Jayaprakash Narayan and came back empty handed.

But here you see two men traversing whole worlds.


And the quotation ?

" History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

Can you hear the passion? The conviction? Can you see the shadows of history and Martin's clear vision of the future?"

In my meeting with the good Doctor Jayaprakash Narayan - he had done a pretty good job of de impressing me.

This misappropriation of greatness, by a media anointed crusader against corruption, does nothing to raise him up in my eyes.

It gets worse. It is Malalai Joya, an activist, writer and former politician from Afghanistan to whom those words are attributed.

This is "robbing Peter to pay Paul" taken up a few notches.

This is distorting Ms Joya to dull Dr King.

Certainly not my idea of "New politics for a new generation".















Thursday, August 20, 2009

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

Shri Christy L Fernandez,
Secretary to The President Of India,
New Delhi.

Dear Shri Fernandez,

When a citizen petitions the President of India, it is reasonable that he expects a comprehensive, well considered and honest answer.

He does not expect to be thrown back into the bureaucratic quagmire.

The following is a comment that has been published by The Economist:

divakarssathya wrote:
August 20, 2009 6:42

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, 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 ?"

You have my cell phone number.

I will be delighted to receive your response at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

divakar.


PS Incidentally,

1. Political Secretary (GAD) CR Biswal is the same officer who supervised the stream of false and misleading statements, that I have documented.

2. He is no longer the Political Secretary (GAD). The current political secretary is Shri R M Gonella, with whom I have been in touch.

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.








Sunday, September 28, 2008

Prof Mushir Ul Hasan's Smart Move

In a land where thoughtful Hindus have to hold their noses against the President of a major national party baying for a hapless prisoner's blood – George Bush as Governor was dearly beloved and admired for such proclivity - Rajnath Singh screaming "When we come to power, we will make sure that Afzal is hanged" - please Rajnathji, so sooli mein chadao me for being a thayir sadam Tam Brahm - but I would rather know how you propose to rehabilitate the tens of thousands who have been uprooted by the devastating floods - Prof Mushir Ul Hasan's offer of extending legal aid to the students of Jamia accused of terrorism comes as a blessed whiff of sanity.

Finding quality legal advice in our democracy is about as easy as finding the Sanjeevani.


For twenty years, I've searched.

I've spoken to "Gandhian" journalists and "civil rights"type retired judges, MPs, MLAs and lawyers - not Shri Prashant Bhushan or Nandita Haksar - despite advice from some erstwhile good friends - entirely my fault - "altruistic" IT tycoons, professional associations and even scientists, I have hunted in Delhi and Hyderabad and Chennai and Bengalooru - but I have not found one good person who could have an intelligent conversation about the legal options I may have about getting accountability in my "no excuses," ultra-peaceful, non partisan, individual, sathyagraha against the patronage paradigm - the paradigm of shoddiness, irresponsibility, cronyism and corruption that is cretinising our great nation.

A sathyagraha for the idea of the rule of law, that is now in its, give or take a year or two, twentieth year.

I have been pettifogged thrice.

The one case that I can prove beyond any shadow of doubt - when the then Commissioner of Police and the then AP Governor's office connived and egged on the so-called Owner's Association to cut water supply to my flat, without any judicial intervention or authority - the Commissioner of Police blithely interpreting this vigilante mob action as a "civil" dispute - the gold medallist lawyer at least left behind a saucy Hindi phrase that will forever yield me lessons in humility - "aap bhi tho dhoodh ke dhule huve nahin ho".


Till date, I have to fetch and store water every alternate day.


If there are any Peter Russos in Hyderabad, I haven't had the privilege.

Talking about Peter Russo, it just occurred to me that the sole forensic fraternization I have had on my case, was with a thirty something Australian backpacker in Pahar Ganj.

Over the tortuous years I invested, trying to get Doordarshan to be sane about working with me - with about as much success as Shri Ratan Tata had in Sonar Bangla - most of them spent in the halcyon climes of Main Bazaar, Paharganj,a Lonely Planet marked crossroads for Western backpackers and their suppliers, I had developed my own visa points system of those who would be worth my while.

In my system, "Readers of Books" topped the list. Ahead even of "Blondes wearing saris and pottu".

This guy, believe me, was really dug into "The Constitutional History of India"."If you really want to know a country, read its constitutional history." says he.
This one wanted to know.This was a brother.

Later as I became his guide and buddy, we visited his tabla teacher from DU who had accompanied my most illustrious aunt and when I confessed that I had been fatigued about writing about my plight, again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and gain and again and again and again and again and again - okay, now think twenty years - he instigated me to demonstrate at the Film Festival in Delhi, helped draft my appeal, shared zany occult insights into deconstructing prose, and through my plain horror, explained with a relentlessly imaginative zeal how I had the soul of a punk rocker and bought me a marrow moving piece of our gorgeous tribal metal sculpture.

He pissed me off later by insisting on buying rare Indian paintings from Main Bazar, and I have not replied to him after he wrote to me complaining that the "art" he bought at some expense had washed off the cloth - but if he 's reading this, write me, man. I'm generous. I have forgiven you. Its divakarsnatarajan@gmail.com

Prof Hasan may not have the soul of a punk rocker, but he probably does have some of the Mahatma's shocking talent for doing the right thing.

It was probably said of the Mahatma that he could sight a moral high ground from a mile away and he never passed one without wanting to clamber on to the very top.

Prof Hasan has realised that its not right to let our children twist in the wind, while we hurry off to our date with the television studios.

Prof Hasan's gesture is "modern”, democratic, potent and exemplary.

Twenty years ago, when I had taken the final cut of my documentary, "Hyderabad. August 1948." to our capital city and then had to spend two years trying to save it from being vandalised by the very people who had commissioned it with your tax money, Dr Manmohan Singh had taken over as Finance Minister and the air was so thick with mediagas about the so called reforms, that I was beginning to get little niggles that my documentary was becoming somewhat dated and irrelevant in the impending Shiny New India.


Hyderabad. August 1948 is about the events that led to the "Police Action” in the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad. It told the story of those brave, visionary and humanistic Muslims who had spoken out against the depredations of the Razakars and argued for Hyderabad acceding to the democratic Indian state.

I had the opportunity of recalling the saga of the 28 year old Shoebullah Khan, editor of an Urdu newspaper Imroose who had been harassed, intimidated and finally slaughtered by the Razakars. They shot him dead and then cut off his right palm.

It is not for mere man to fathom the mysterious ways of Allah.

But here I was, a benighted and unredeemable qafir, chosen to be an awed witness to his mad / majestic munificence.

Because even before my niggles could develop into a concern, let alone take on the proportions of a worry, I was saved.

Prof MushirUl Hasan chose this particular moment to say some mildly professorial thing about Salman Rushdie’s comedy The Satanic Verses. And a bunch of Jamia Millia Islamia students chose to take deep umbrage and explode into a riot.


"Traitor to the qaum" screamed the students, to my relief and gratitude. They could have been quoting this rhetoric from my documentary. "Cut of his tongue. String him up. Shoot him down". They manhandled the poor man, demanded his resignation.


Decades ago, much before he became famous in India, for deifying our "altruistic" IT tycoons, Thomas Friedman, had observed that a fundamentalist, characteristically, did not have a sense of irony.

Can't argue with that, but then here was undeniable proof that Allah, certainly was no fundamentalist.

There were counter demonstrations in solidarity with the hapless academic. As a humble token of my own gratitude to the All Merciful Joker in the Ether With Perpetual Bad Timing, I joined them.

I called the Hassans and got myself invited to their refuge at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. The Hassans received me most graciously and given the intense stress that they were suffering, they even organised a VCR and patiently watched my 37 minute Urdu documentary.

Years later, when I was still struggling, and had organised a projection at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, which the then Home Minister the late Shri Indrajit Gupta, had kindly decided to grace, I invited them.

Unfortunately for me, they had already committed to the BBC, which was showing something about The Dynasty of the Nehrus - at a local five star hotel.

The Hassans were not the only people I met.


Saeed Naqvi spared time to watch my documentary. However he could not accept my offer to get on the documentary and introduce it with a context.

I met Shabnam Hashmi and the good folks at SAHMAT.


I met MJ Akbar when he was aide to the Hon'ble Arjun Singh. And on a few occasions since.

I was given the courtesy of writing in the editorial page in Hindustan Times. Kaveri Bamzai was generous to spare me a line in her light op-ed piece in the New Indian Express. Unfortunately, we did not inspire a single Indian to even write to the Editor.

I demonstrated through the entire duration of the Film Festival 10 -20 January 2000 in New Delhi.


Some of the finest and most respected folks present, took the time to talk to me, understand my effort and sign my petition addressed to the then Prime Minister.


The Press was present in numbers. Hasan Suroor was there. So was Nikhat Kazmi. The Press ignored me.

Javed Akhthar and Shabana Azmi had seen me at the Festival. Shri Akhthar did say hello. Coincidence: I had featured Ms Azmi's uncle the late Akhthar Hassan, in my documentary and had the opportunity to include her beautiful aunt and her gangly, bespectacled nephew, kinda reminded me of me at that age, in a frame.


Of course these were not the only people I met in our corroded capital city.

I would love to report that I made some intelligent, new friends who have been an oasis of inspiration and pillars of strength to me.

Unfortunately, I cannot.

Maybe these very busy people were too preoccupied to make the connection between the nationwide, 24/7 corruption and the pulverization of the idea of the rule of law or maybe it was just my strange sounding last name or my stubbornly khadi clad presence that spooked them - we just passed each other by.


C'est la vie.