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By: V Sundaram, IAS April 23, 2005 Views expressed here are author’s own and not of this website. Full disclaimer is at the bottom. 
Feedback“Democracy becomes a Government of bullies tempered by Editors and Newspapers” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. The attitude of most of the so called front rank politicians in India today is not only surprising but also positively disgusting. In the present political scenario in this country and more so in Tamil Nadu, one is not able to understand who is bossing over whom. In Tamil Nadu, any political leader can issue any direction to any category of people to follow a particular life-style in the manner and measure capriciously dictated and proclaimed by that political leader according to his whims and fancies from time to time. The inspiring story of Dr. Ramadoss asking the people of Tamil Nadu to live in a style of his choosing and liking – Speak only Tamil, Write only Tamil, Read only Tamil, Eat only Tamil, Inhale and Exhale only Tamil, Walk only Tamil & Sleep only Tamil—is indeed a landmark in the cultural history of not only Tamil Nadu, not only India, but indeed the whole world. Tamilians of the World unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!! Politics in Tamil Nadu is a strife of ‘local’ communal interests masquerading as a contest of ‘National Principles’. In any court of law any one can lie with impunity only once. In Tamil Nadu politics, every politician can lie with impunity and immunity in all the manner possible on all days of the year for all time. For most politicians in Tamil Nadu, politics consists mainly of the delusion that a change of form is a change in substance. In order to be popular men, these politicians believe that they must create strange monsters and then quell them. Politics is not the art of the possible. In Tamil Nadu, it mainly consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. It is the diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed in it, become more important in the eyes of more trivial men. The time has arrived when we must not poke fun at the politicians of Tamil Nadu!! They can be rough with us but we must not be rough with them. They are the sacred white elephants of our era. At least there is one leader with unshakable political courage who comes forward to criticize the “revolutionary” approach of Dr. S. Ramadoss. Jayalalitha, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, has put a direct question to Dr. Ramadoss as to whether his son Dr. Anbumani will ever speak in Tamil at least in Tamil Nadu and dress like a Tamilian at least in Tamil Nadu. Public in Tamil Nadu have a legitimate feeling that Jayalalitha ought to have put the following questions as well to Dr. Ramadoss: i) How was Dr. Ramadoss addressing himself a few weeks or a few months before he came out with his historic proclamation: Speak Tamil--Read Tamil—Write Tamil, etc.? (Earlier he never bothered to call himself ‘Maruthuvar’ or Ramadasu, as he is calling himself now.) ii) Is he intending to organize a Dharna to stop the publication of English Newspapers from Chennai.? (After all we don’t have to read English as a matter of national duty as perceived by Dr. Ramadoss.) iii) Will he come forward to organize a protest to change the name of some political heavy weights in the State to suit his convenience? (Say for instance will he ask M.K. Stalin to have a Tamil Name rooted in the culture and tradition of the Dravidian Movement?) iv) Will he organise a protest to recall the wards of all political leaders from English Medium Schools to join Schools with Tamil Medium education? v) Will he give Tamil equivalents for popular medicines like crocin and paracetamol? vi) Does he advocate only the deathless cause of Tamizh Maruthuvam – Ethilum Tamizh Maruthuvam – Enneramum Thamizh Maruthuvam – Ekkalamum Tamizh Maruthuvam? vii) Does Dr. Ramadoss know that Tamil, although a very old and rich classical language does not help outside the State? viii) People of Tamil Nadu would like to know the Constitutional base and basis on which Dr. Ramadoss derives his authority to issue directions to the people of Tamil Nadu on all matters affecting their day-to-day life – all matters ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. ix) Finally, will he ensure job opportunities and gainful employment to every student who pursues Tamil Medium Education (in this State, in the other States of the Country and in all countries of the world as well). I am aware of the fact that in politics there is no honour. Nothing is contemptible. A majority is always better than the best repartee. It is the science of exigencies. All political questions, all matters of right, are at bottom only questions of might. Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. Finality is not the language of politics. Even in the purest democracies like the U.S.A. and Switzerland, a privileged minority stands against the vast enslaved majority. John Billings wrote: “If you do not know how to lie, cheat and steal, turn your attention to politics and learn”. For the common man in Tamil Nadu today, even to speak, let alone live, is an act of courage. Life without the courage for death is slavery. Courage is a resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear. Bernard Shaw foresaw the political situation in India when he wrote: “It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendour”. V Sundaram, IAS
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by: V Sundaram, IAS Admn Reforms Comm: Welcome move April 18, 2005 USA: With good will towards none March 27, 2005 Public Impeachment of Indian Nabobs March 17, 2005 The tragedy of Indian democracy March 03, 2005 The Dancing Dervish of Goa February 08, 2005 Benny Hinn - Symbol of Secular Adharma January 29, 2005 Beware of Nocturnal Raids January 14, 2005 Was Veer Savarkar ever a Freedom Fighter? December 24, 2004 Our National Degradation December 13, 2004
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