By: Dr. S Kalyanaraman
kalyan97@yahoo.com
November 18, 2003

It is refreshing to see the SC judges using the Bharatiya idiom while deliberating upon The Hindu and Murasoli case. Without prejudging how the Hon`ble court will finally dispose of the case, we can try to delineate some lakshman rekha-s defining the boundaries of morality which cannot be crossed in public life.

Impelled by a desire to possess the golden deer and the duty of honouring an atithi, Devi Sita breached the lakshman rekha. That she was a victim of a diabolical plot is immaterial. She breached the rekha and paid a price.

The top brass of The Hindu are all smiles that the arrest warrants have been stayed. This may be pyrrhic victory, gained at too great a cost. Hopefully, it may be the beginning of the end of control by the CPI-M over the paper`s policies. The cost is that a number of fair-weather friends have flocked to draw the ram rekha and gain some political mileage for themselves. Ram rekha may become a flexible rekha to cater to the politicking of these fair-weather, newly-acquired friends.

"No one can get anything out of me or subdue me by threats, harsh treatment; it only makes me more stubborn, inflexible, unbending, determined. The only way one can get me to cooperate is to be nice to me, pamper me, cajole me, talk to me kindly, softly." Jayalalitha`s statement in 1985.

http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/99/0507/nat10.html The top brass of The Hindu should be running scared now that they have gained the freedom for the 5 scribes. The freedom may be illusory since they have to think twice, thrice before recognizing where the Lakshman rekha is on a given issue.

It is clear that the episode has clearly brought out the political nature of, primarily, the English press in Bharat and the nature of control wielded by the unions of journalists who would stoop to conquer -- stooping to curry favours with the politicians of the day.

Jayalalitha may not like to read a paper which will not publish her colour photograph on some public function, every day. Maybe, it is a throw-back of the days spent in the glamorous publicity-loving film- world. Who does not love publicity? The Lakshman rekha is breached when the craving for publicity blinds a political institution -- be it the press, be it the legislature, be it the judiciary -- to the imperative of public good, the imperative of a developed Bharat Vision 2020.

It was sickening to read The Hindu of Nov. 10, 2003 consumed by self- importance, with pages full of stories about itself as if the elections slated in 5 states, the proposed trip of the PM to Russia and other countries of Europe, the tensions in Sri Lanka and the bomb blasts in Saudi Arabia did not matter at all and certainly did not deserve front page headlines.

I question if the newspapers such as The Hindu do represent public opinion. If not, how can it claim to be part of the Fourth Estate? How often do the reporters report from the villages of Bharat? In contrast, the politicians at least go back to the constituencies sometimes. Judiciary is another story; they deliberate in their chambers and how do they comprehend the ground realities without holding court in villages?

But then, the tradition developed for the last 50 years of independent Bharat has shown that it is not the business of a political institution to care for public good. The public has to take care of itself and its needs for a just social order and struggle against a corrupt polity composed of institutions which keep re-drawing Lakshman rekha-s, at will.

We yearn for a day when these institutions drawing their own Lakshman rekha-s show some humility governed by a tenet of dharma: tena tyaktena bhunjhitha, `enjoy through sacrifice`. Yes, sacrifice of ego and self-importance, driven by the goal to achieve the welfare of the people whom they are organized to serve.

Dr. S Kalyanaraman