Quips, sallies and quality debates

Recently I read in a Tamil weekly that Jawaharlal Nehru sent a small note to the Rajya sabha Chairman not to announce lunch break until C.N.Annadurai completed his maiden speech. The normal practice is to break the session for lunch and the person making the speech would continue his speech after the lunch break. Conceding the PM's request the Rajya sabha Chairman allowed lunch break only after Annadurai finished his maiden speech . It is reported such a thing has never happened before or after that incident . No doubt Annadurai was a powerful orator in English as well as Tamil . He captivated the entire house by his erudite speeches and quick wits . He was a Rajya Sabha member from 1962-66 . During this period he made some of the best speeches in Indian parliament. He was such an articulate politician that many stories gained currency about his interactions with Yale university students during his visit to US. It is reported Anna was asked by an Yale university student to frame a sentence that would contain the word 'because' three times consecutively . It is reported Anna could  frame a sentence as demanded by the student in no time .The answer given by Anna was 'No sentence would end in because because because is a conjunction' . Similarly in TN assembly when the leader of opposition Mr.Karuthiruman said to Anna 'Your days are numbered' .Pat came the reply from Anna that "My steps are measured ".

 

One hardly finds such wit and humour in State Assemblies or Parliament these days .It is worst in TN. Leaders of ruling party and opposition don't even exchange pleasantries. These days one can witness only harsh exchanges, acrimony and accusations . Those days there were lively exchanges between treasury and opposition benches. When Rajaji was the Premier of the Madras Presidency in 1938 ,the first Anti-Hindi Agitation led by Periyar was at its height . During a debate in the Assembly Rajaji said 'only two people Ramasamy Naicker and Somasundara Bharathi are opposing Hindi in the state' . Immediately Sir A.T. Pannerselvam of Justice Party rose to say "At least two people are opposing Hindi .But how many people are supporting it, only you ." Rajaji was flummoxed by this reply. Despite all this, they were affable and genial . I feel the current Tamil Nadu politicians should also learn to practice bonhomie with their political rivals .

 

It is better not to speak about the quality of debate in assemblies and parliament these days. No debate happens in parliament .Almost all parties, all the time indulge in a strategy to obstruct a debate on important; and pressing issues. That is the caliber of our present day parliamentarians . I don't think the quality of debates in parliament has improved compared to the olden days. It has only deteriorated and degenerated to the lowest ebb.

 

I do not subscribe to the earlier stands of Annadurai on 'Dravida Nadu',( he gave up this demand subsequently during Chinese aggression) .But I can not but admire his debating skills .Look at what he had to say on the demand for a separate Dravida Nadu "During the days of the Pakistan controversy, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, speaking, if I remember correctly, on the Kapurthala grounds, stated categorically that they, the Congress, as an organization, would try to keep every unit within the Indian Union; but if any Indian unit decided to secede, the Congress would give its consent. Thus, the Congress has recognized the principle of self determination. I make this bold appeal to that liberal thought, to that democratic spirit. Despite the fact that he has become the Prime Minister, I think part of the old fire is still burning in his heart. Why don’t you give self-determination to peninsular India? After that, India will not be impoverished. I would say that decision would pave the way for raising the stature of India. I am inviting those people who want to keep India one and indivisible to make it a comity of nations instead of it being a medley of disgruntled units here and there".

 

He went on to say on another occasion " I am reminded, Sir, of your very scholarly statement made some time ago that India is united because Rama and Krishna are being worshipped and venerated from the Himalayas right up to Cape Comorin. So too is Jesus held in respect and veneration throughout the world. Yet you have nation-states in Europe and new and newer nation states are coming up in the world." Even if one does not and can not buy his arguments, his arguments were impressive.

 

I thought it would be interesting to share some more lively debates in which Annadurai participated in Rajya Sabha during his only term .While speaking on the Finance Bill tabled by Morarji Desai ,Anna said "When the critics ask them what the criterion of their planning is, whether their planning is going to be socialistic or otherwise, they say, "we take bits from here and bits from there, mix them together and call it a mixed economy.” Madam, you know that adulteration is a crime. And the finance Minister was very vehement in attacking adulteration. In the other House he said that those people who were found to be guilty of adulteration should not only be whipped....

 

Morarji R. Desai : I did not say that. There was a suggestion that they should be flogged.

 

Anna : So, the Finance Minister is not willing even to punish them. But anyhow, adulteration is a crime and adulteration of economic principles is a crime for which the present and future generations have to pay. Therefore, I would like the present Government to formulate a policy which would conform to the norms of economics.

 

At that time the GOI appointed an one man commission to report on reforms to be carried out in Public Administration . Mr.Gorwal's commission report said "the most blatant tax-evaders seem to be able to manage their affairs undisturbed has caused a very widespread belief in the impotence of Government when pitted against really influential and wealthy people.” Anna in his speech said "The word used is, ‘impotence’; I would have thought twice before using such a strong word.... Therefore I would like to see some more potency and vitality in the administrative set-up."

 

Madras state was renamed as Tamil Nadu when Anna was CM of Tamil Nadu in 1967 .But it was Bhupesh Gupta of CPI who first moved a private member bill in 1961 at Rajya Sabha to rename State of Madras as Tamil Nadu . Needless to say central government opposed the bill and the bill failed . Anna in his speech in RS said "I am rarely in full agreement with myHon. Friend, Mr Bhupesh Gupta, but today I rise to support him whole-heartedly, fully and sincerely. An issue was raised here that the Bill is brought forward only as a publicity stunt of the Communist Party. Why don’t we appreciate the Communist Party for its sense of political expediency? ..Is publicity a heinous crime? Why do you publish reports and books on the Five-Year Plans? Is that not publicity, done at public cost? But let me tell this House , that even though you defeat the Bill, he has gained that publicity. You are not going to rob him any more of that publicity. Therefore you have unawares walked into Mr Gupta’s snare..." "My sorrow is that my friend Mr Bhupesh Gupta, has stolen the thunder from me by sponsoring this Bill. And they have not answered Mr Bhupesh Gupta : What do you lose by renaming Madras Tamil Nadu? Nobody has answered that."

 

N.M. Lingam (Madras) : Anyway what do you gain by renaming it as Tamil Nadu?

 

Anna : What do I gain? What have you gained by renaming Parliament Lok Sabha? What have you gained by renaming the Council of States Rajya Sabha? What have you gained by renaming the President Rashtrapati?

 

Anna was at his best while participating in the official languages bill 1963."I rise to oppose this Bill, conscious of course of the numerical factor the political arithmetic working in this Assembly. But I think apart from political arithmetic, this august house will pay some attention to political ethics and democratic liberalism, for democracy does not merely mean majority rule. It means, fundamentally, also recognizing, sanctifying and safeguarding minority rights and even minority sentiments."

 

"Very many arguments have been advanced to say that India has got to have a common language and if that base is accepted, one of the Indian languages alone can become the common language. Nobody doubts it. If India is a unitary State, this argument is logical. India is a federal State. Indian society is plural, our political system is composite and in a plural society and composite political system to plead for a single common language will, I think, create injustice unawares, create handicaps unawares to some section of the society. India is not a country . India consists of various ethnic groups, India consist of various language groups and India has been termed very correctly as a sub-continent and that is why we are not able to find out that common working medium as far as an official language is concerned."

 

"Let not my friend, Mr. Bhupesh gupta, feel that we are acting like some toadies and therefore we want English. No. He has stated that he pleads for Hindi and he wants Hindi to become the national language and official language yet he did not attempt to learn Hindi and speak in Hindi .

 

BHUPESH GUPTA: I did not have time.

 

ANNA :But he had time to learn Das Capital; he had time to learn the underlying difference between Russian Communism and Chinese Communism. He has had time to read everything except Hindi and yet he spoke for Hindi here "

 

"After modestly saying that he was not a lawyer, not well versed in law, he said the word “may” is capable of two interpretations and he also stated a very dangerous political principle. He said that the bill or any law passed by any government will be effective and fruitful only when he knows who implements it and how it is implemented. This is the worst part of this bill. Any law should be interpreted, not only by august individuals like the home minister but even by ordinary political people who are to come after him. If the home minister is to assure me that everything will be all right if the Act is simply implemented properly, I will have  full confidence in Mr Lal Bahadhur Shastri, but may I ask if Mr. Lal Bahadhur Shastri is going to be here for all times to come ?.." "I say that no laws should be left to the vagaries of the future governments."

 

Another curious thing the home minister said, “I went to madras to the Hindi prachar convocation and when I met thousands of graduates there I was wondering whether I should address them in English and they said speak in Hindi.” Is it any wonder, Madam Deputy Chairman, for the home minister to address in Hindi in the Hindi convocation. To whom does it do credit ? the amazing part of it is that the home minister was doubtful whether Hindi would be understood there in the Hindi Prachar Sabha Convocation. He was doubtful whether Hindi would be understood and that is why he enquired what language he should speak in. Therefore let us not fall in for such things. I would request the Home Minsiter to present more cogent, more logical and more responsible arguments in support of the Bill."

 

"I have got here the remarks made on the floor of the Constituent Assembly by Mr B. Das of Orissa. He accepted Hindi, After accepting Hindi he has stated "But that does not mean that we have no apprehensions, we have no suspicions, we have no fears. The fears and suspicions of years ago when officialdom was manned by the English. When the Civil Service examinations were held in London naturally the Englishmen preponderated in the Service. Now that the Civil Service and other examinations are being held in Delhi, naturally hereafter the Hindi speaking province would preponderate .Madam, Mr. Das was very prophetic!"

 

"We are amending the Constitution for the sixteenth time and I would plead for a reappraisal of the language issue and ask this august house to inform the Government that instead of allowing this bitterness to grow, this rancor to continue, instead of two camps being created artificially, they should take up a reappraisal of the language question and keep the status quo. If that is done, I would be perfectly satisfied with the motives of the Government."

 

"It was stated Hindi has got the claim to become the official language because it was spoken by 42 per cent of the population. If this 42 percent were to be scattered throughout the length and breadth of India, the argument would be logical and it would be ethical also but this 42 per cent is concentrated in compact and contiguous areas. It is not spread over. Therefore if 42 per cent is taken into consideration you are conferring a permanent, perennial advantage on a compact and contiguous area in India and conversely a permanent disadvantage to other areas. And therefore it is that this 42 per cent cannot be taken into consideration. If Hindi were to be spoken throughout India even by 20 per cent of the people, then we can say that of all the languages Hindi is known from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas. Twenty percent of our population do know Hindi and, therefore, let Hindi become the official language. I can understand it, though I cannot support it. I can understand the logic behind it. But what is the logic behind presenting this 42 per cent, in a compact area of U. P., Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh as an argument."

 

"Therefore, the 42 per cent, entrenched in a compact area cannot be taken as an index of ethical majority. It is merely an arithmetical majority. Therefore I say that Hindi has no claim to becoming the official language." "As the Home Minister was saying, we have had linguistic States working in full harmony. We have developed our regional languages. We do not even call them regional languages. We call them the national languages "

 

SANTHOSH KUMAR BASU : What is your solution to the problem of a common language for the whole of India ?

 

Anna : Maybe my solution to the problem is negative, not positive. I will present it in this way. Keep the status quo by amending the Constitution. Let there be a solution not necessarily by us We are not the last scions of India. Perhaps we are more confused. We have more political rancor. In future times a proper solution may be arrived at. Therefore, let us not seal it. Let us have the status quo maintained by an amendment of the Constitution. I do not say it is my solution. It is my request, it is my pleading and I would say that on a solution of this issue depends the entire political future of South India"

 

"Therefore, it is not as if there is any imposition of an alien language by an alien power. We ourselves, for the sake of convenience, for the sake of expediency, because of the force of circumstances, are asked to choose this medium, which happens to be foreign to U.P., foreign to Madhya Pradesh, foreign to Tamil Nadu, foreign to Andhra, therefore the advantages and disadvantages are evenly distributed."

 

( Interruptions)

 

Please do not provoke me into presenting these stark realities. Therefore, I would say that it is not a question of majority or minority. It is a question of justice and freedom, it is a question of consultation and concord " "Therefore I request the Home minister, the bill if it is passed by the lok sabha, to withdraw the bill, to take the prime minister’s assurance into his consideration. "

 

"A prime minister of a state will not go on giving assurances to anybody at any time. An assurance from the prime minister becomes necessary because he finds a political atmosphere in the country  that needs soothing,that needs assuaging, and it was at that time that the prime minister had come forward to dispel our apprehensions. He stated that English would continue as the associative official language. Why don’t we include the words “associative official language”? well somebody may ask: “are you not satisfied with the title”? it is an official language.” But if I were to be satisfied with the title, my friend Mr. Vajpayee would be dissatisfied because it is official languages and not official language , I have got nothing against Mr. Vajpayee, I can understand his words, and as a matter of fact in politics as well as in other things extremes can understand extremes."

 

"The word “indefinitely” was explained by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in this way; “As long as you want, as long as the non-Hindi people want; and I will leave the entire question to be decided not by Hindi-knowing people but by non-Hindi knowing people." "I am not being ludicrous because a member of the Planning Commission, Shri Shriman Narayan, has stated only last week that only the non-Hindi people should decide the question. " "That is political magnanimity, that is political sagacity.". "Therefore with a lone voice, though it might be as Mr Bhupesh Gupta stated, a noisy voice, I would plead with the Home Minister to consider this as the feeling of the official representative of the DMK and the unofficial emissary of the non-Hindi States of the South. Therefore, I plead before the Home Minister for a reappraisal of the language issue, pending that reappraisal, for an amendment of the Constitution for maintaining the status quo and keeping English as the official language."

 

On another occasion speaking on the same subject Anna said "Many Hon. Friends of this House have been talking for the past two days and when I heard some of them speak I was not angry. I was in agony. They were saying that there was bad propaganda in Tamil Nadu, that there was a misapprehension about the whole issue, that we have got unjustifiable fears and so on. Please do not underestimate our intelligence. There is absolutely no misapprehension. There is real and genuine apprehension. There is a lot of difference between misapprehension and apprehension "

 

"It is so easy to argue that a common language is needed for the unity of India. Before we analyse that, may I request the Members of this august House to make a distinction between unity and uniformity. Is it merely unity that you want? If you want uniformity that you are going to aim at, you are not going to achieve it come what may. This country consists, as the late Prime Minister has stated in this very august house, of different ethnic elements, different cultural elements and different linguistic groups. It is only unity within this diversity that we should arrive at and not by  destroying the fine niceties of this diversity, mistaking uniformity for unity. May I ask Members of this House and the Prime Minister whether language alone is the cementing force for the unity of this country? Is it language alone that stands as a handicap to that unity? Certainly not. There are regional imbalances, there are regional leanings, there are linguistic leanings. All these things have got to be bridged if you want to have a sort of unity without uniformity for this country."

 

Akbar Ali Khan : Would you like to have a lingua franca or not for this country? If so, what should be the lingua franca?
 

Anna :I would like to have a lingua franca for India through a very natural process, in due course of time, with out the backing of a Government and it ought to be sponsored by the people . Anything coming from the Government, especially from this Government, is anathema for millions of our people
 

"I would plead with the Prime Minister to take our viewpoint into consideration even though a colleague of his has stated “Be firm.” Be firm certainly, when you deal with the Chinese but not with your own countrymen. Be fine in your feelings, be golden in your heart and be statesmanlike at every step you take, because one step faultily taken by you will create a conflagration in this country. "
 

"Till we arrive at a proper solution, the suggestion that the DMK offers is that all the fourteen languages be declared as national languages and be given the status of official language." "Perhaps multilingualism is the price that we have to pay for keeping India one and united. You can have India disunited through Hindi. But if you want to have a contented India, if you want to have an India which does not feel that one region will dominate over another, if you do not want genuine apprehension to get into the minds and hearts of millions of people, if you want an India about it which everyone of us could be proud, you will have to take into consideration the problem of multilingualism." "multilingualism is not a fad ".
 

"Children of the Hindi-speaking areas, will be learning by heart sonnets and stanzas of Hindi from their parents. You learn Hindi through a thousand ways, in your fields and factories, in your homes and hovels, in every avocation, in every walk of life. You learn Hindi not by going through books but by merely being born there. What you inherit you want us to learn and you want us to have a handicap race. Only the Romans had the handicap race. The roman satraps sat in the arena, asked the gladiators to go bare-handed and fight ferocious beasts, and some of them did, like my friend, Mr. Satyanarayanan. But other gladiators were torn to pieces by the wild beasts. What have we done to merit such treatment? Why is it that you imbibe a language and wants us to learn it and compete with you? There in lies the injustice. It is an injustice which even most of the Hindi enthusiast in calmer moments, will never contemplate. Therefore let us be just, fair, friendly and let us above all be democratic."
 

Going through his arguments,I hope one can understand Anna's fervour,to maintain status quo and get an official language status for English as long as the non -Hindi speaking states want.In fact many members belonging to various other parties have pleaded with the chair on many occassions to give Anna more time to express views on various issues on which he was speaking.We do have some articulate MP's like P.Chidambaram , Arun Jaitley and Yashwant Siinha among the current lot. But healthy and constructive debates are very few in number. The younger lot of MP's are suave but rarely exhibit their debating skills . We need a young brigade of MP's who can analyse threadbare the issues country is facing and initiate worthy debates to resolve them and take the country forward in a meaningful way .