DEATH OF K KARUNAKARAN – END OF AN ERA

On the afternoon of 23rd December 2010, K Karunakaran, the former chief Minister of Kerala and one of the most visible Congress leaders of all times of the state, passed away. He was 93 years old and lived a life full of actions and events, political or otherwise. At an average, when a Malayali man lives about 73 years, Karunakaran outlived him by 20 long years! And that tells the story of endurance and longevity. His self-confidence, even when was down, used to be very high and probably that enabled him to live longer, not to speak of the marvels of modern medicine and healthcare, the best of which was available to him at all times.

Reams of newsprint and gigabytes of media space had been taken to describe his life and times. Thus, it would be out of place to write about it. However as a blogger from Kerala, it would definitely be improper of me not to register the impact of K Karunakaran on the Malayali and to some extent, the Indian.

As a chief minister, his contributions to the development of Kerala were the highest. Rest of the CMs pale into insignificance, when compared to him. In a state, the political fortunes alternated between the Congress and Communist led Governments, when one government tries to undo the previous government was the highest of priority, his was the times of chief minister-ship where the maximum progressive development of Kerala ever took place. One of the shining examples of his vision has been the Cochin International Airport.

He had a very strong will. Once he took a decision he always worked hard to get it implemented, come what may! With more than one third of India reeling under Maoist violence now, Keralites should everlastingly be grateful to him for nipping the naxalite menace from the state right in the bud when it erupted some 40 years back, as Kerala was the very first state of India to get attracted to the ism of it. Some of the treatments meted out to the naxal guys had been very harsh indeed. He personally had to bear the brunt of it in the form of ‘Rajan’ episode. But he took that responsibility on himself and never moved away from his focus of eradicating extreme political movements such as Maoism/Naxalism from the state.

Three women had played significant role in his life. First, of course, was his dear wife Kalyanikutty Amma, who though always lived the life in the background, looked after him so well, knowing his every mood and need. She passed away some 18 years back and the death had a major impact on him. The second was Mrs. Indira Gandhi, whom he revered and followed to the word T. Madam Indira Gandhi also returned the feelings abundantly on him and as much as he stood by her, she reciprocated enough to ensure that every move of him had her weight behind it. Mrs. Gandhi’s death shook Karunakaran and he was never the same person after it. The third woman was his daughter Padmaja. For close to 20 years, she looked him after, at the cost of her family life, and it is another matter that she developed very high political ambitions during the time.

He did have a hand in national politics too. On the installation of the very inexperienced Rajiv Gandhi as India’s Prime Minister, soon upon his mother’s gory death by assassination, Karunakaran played a significant role. He was also one of the decision makers in the selection of Narsing Rao, who by then was practically on political sanyas, as Prime Minister of India in 1991. He was the mover to make Mrs. Sonia Gandhi as the numero uno in the Congress Party hierarchy. All these individuals had remembered his contribution but however, were vary of his antics from time to time.

He followed the principle of looking after those who depended on him very well. In this, for he followed his deity Bhagwan ‘Guruvayoorappan’ on whose abode he always reached by the first day of every Malayalam month, wherever he was. The God looked after his disciple Karunakaran and Karunakaran looked after his disciples and dependents. No wonder much early in his life, he got addressed by everyone as ‘LEADER’ and the word stuck him for good. He was truly leader to all.

A proverb says; ‘one should stop singing at the peak of his voice’. This is something he forgot to follow. The last 10 years of his life did not have anything much to write home about. He simply loitered. Everyone, including the ones he picked up and developed, tried to distance from him. He was blinded by his paternal love for his children, Murali & Padmaja, and played many a political game to bring them to the forefront, while it is a mute question whether they deserved it at all. He fought with Sonia Gandhi, strayed out of the Congress Party, only to return to it later as a prodigal son. Actually his only flaw was that he though he could play the games over and over. He didn’t see the changing times. He did not know how to retire gracefully.

His funeral procession from Trivandrun to Trichur had seen people braving the cold night for long hours, waiting at the roadside to see the last glimpse of his body. There had only been two similar instances in the past, that being the death of former Communist Chief Minister Nayanar and the death of Panakkad Shihab Thangal, the head of Muslim League. It is indeed a matter of his greatness that in spite of losing popularity at the last stage of his life, he still had the respect of majority of the denizens of the state which got displayed in their act of laying the last respect to his departed soul.

With the death of Karunakaran, a political era, that almost spanned a century, ended.

So, what is in store for the Mallus now?

Let the times tell!

OF WIKILEAKS & RADIA TAPES

Julian Assange and his website; WikiLeaks had done it again. To expose the big brother countries, who tells one thing and does the opposite. Once upon a time, all these dichotomist big brothers thought they were the invincible ones. All that is gone! First, young terrorists indoctrinated by religious extremists exposed their vulnerabilities. And later now, their diplomatic wires are hacked and tapped for information on what they did, against what they said.

It has been major embarrassment for USA, UK and many big nations. For whatever they had said and done (or not done), the leaders of these nations have lots of explanations and clean up to do, lot of angry faces to face and plenty of regrets to send.

Through Wikileaks, we have learnt the diplomatic wire confirmation that there is rampant corruption in Afghanistan; that the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is a characterless character; that majority of Islamic nations of the world that follow the Sunni tradition is more scared of their Muslim Shia brother Iran than Israel because of Iran’s nuclear capabilities; that contrary to the assurances made to the world, Syria's government had maintained very close ties with Hezbollah group and many more similar information.

These leaks could weaken up the Pakistani leadership; it could slow down the anti-terrorism efforts of Yemen. Many nations and its leadership will not want to communicate with the Americans and most of the Europeans. Countries may think twice before handing over secrets to the big brother nations. From now on, information would be difficult to come by. It could create anti leadership feelings within the public of many nations. Thanks to WikiLeaks, many leaders could lose their next election.

So what do the big brother nations do? They are trying to silence the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange through cheap charges such as rape, coercion etc. What a pity?

By the way, who is this person Assange? This Australian is reputed to be an excellent computer network hacker. He is also a journalist, a writer, a self-styled Internet’s freedom fighter, a self-taught scientific genius, a friend of open and free software and so many things rolled into one. More than anything else, he considers himself as the founder and spokesperson of a web based organization that exposes the wrongs of the power that be. He fights for the suppressed and has adopted novel methods to bring to open, the super powers and their deeds, something that the powers that be never thought possible. Assange is also against the giant corporations that act as virtual nation states without accountability.

"The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie," Assange wrote. "Since unjust systems, by their nature, induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance." This is his philosophy too.

Has he done the world a favour or by the leaks, made the world affairs much more complicated? Who knows, but one thing is clear to me, if whatever he exposed is the truth, he has my vote.

That takes us to the local affair, La Radia tapes.

One has heard of penetrating all powering lobbyism employed by people and organizations in countries such as USA, UK, France, Japan etc. One had always seen it at a distance. Now that one sees the monstrous face of it at the closest quarters, one shudders to think and face the consequences of its activities.

What is therefore Nira Radia? She runs a most powerful PR company in the country. She interfaces with the press, media, politician and government and among others, works on behalf of two most powerful industry houses of India. She lobbies to make ministers and break ministers, who directs the so called stalwarts of the press and leaders of chambers on what to write, what to do, what to speak, whom to recommend and the like. The arm of her company reaches out to the rulers and the opposition alike, to the bureaucrats and NGOs. She is capable of white washing some people and companies and darkening out opponent and their organizations. She was getting to be the most powerful, by attaining Godly powers to create and annihilate. Who is she, Radia the Devta, Radia the Durga or Radia the Kali? All said and done, she uses money to speak, bend and obey.

Thanks to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence having taped lots of her conversations with the powers that be, and all the more thanks to the leakages of the same through news media and websites, the common man today is preview to what is happening in the corridors of power. Now he knows that his beloved country is not moving in the right path and when he gets the stink of the corruption employed by these people, he knows that many people are bending the rules and making money without lifting a finger. He realises that hard work, efforts, truth and ethics have no value and the power brokers get away with murder in which ever form.

This is something that I dreaded. Lots of my post in the past had been on this subject.

Is it possible for man to live a decent life in this country, following its laws, rules and regulations? Can every Indian be trated the same in the eyes of law? Or do we need a supreme court every time to correct and direct the erring minsters, government and bureaucrats? How long and how far will the country go in the present manner? Where will it all end?

There can be no answers, I know. The only way is to keep praying and keep hoping for the best.

Mera Bharat Mahan………………………

AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

The subject of my post is “THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE”. A little unusual subject, this is. Once you read me full, I strongly feel that you will find it relevant. You will see the line, THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE, in Bible in the New Testament under John, Chapter 8 Verse 32. Upon the question of his identity, to the Jews, Jesus uttered these words. The full sentence was; “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. It was his reassurance to an audience who doubted him. In ancient India too, there was a very strong allegiance to truth. In BC 250, in Saranath, King Ashoka engraved these words on the Lion statue that he had erected. It said, SATYMEVA JAYATE, which meant ‘Truth alone Triumphs’. Today, for us Indians, it is our national motto. All of us have heard of Mahatma Gandhi and his pursuit of truth. His autobiography is titled, MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH. For the father of the nation, only truth was the ultimate. He lived the life of truth and he gave us a strong value system, something very eternal, very sublime and very everlasting. I am a Rotarian for the last 14 years. My association with the Rotary movement began just along with the beginning of my entrepreneurial days. What attracted me the best in Rotary was the 4 way test. And it said that in whatever things we think, say or do, please ask: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendship? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? What noble thought s indeed! I had never seen such a practical wisdom anywhere. But how many Rotarians had internalized these words and follow it in their thoughts, words or deeds? Incidentally, it was Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor, Rotary International President in 1954-55, who coined the 4 way test. During a business crisis in 1932, he wrote the Four Way Test as described above. It was adopted as part of Rotary International in January of 1943.Actually he wrote these tenets when he was undergoing a crisis? He used the 4 way test to overcome his crisis. Today whenever crisis comes to us, we set aside the truth and the ethics! We now see lots of untruths around us. We see people, societies, companies, and groups indulging in acts and deeds that are far from the truth. Our aspirations, our ego and our greed are pushing us away from the truth. Many a time, we are forced to think, is there truth at all? We, therefore, feel that things have come to pass and truth is unnecessary. But whenever things have come to pass, truth had prevailed and truth had triumphed. You have seen companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Satyam, Baring Bank, Lehman Brothers etc. withering away when there was no truth in their existence. We have seen many greedy organizations and individuals going down when they deserted the truth. Progress without truth is a mirage. Whatever you see in a mirage is unreal, it doesn’t exist and therefore, it is untruth. Then, what is truth? Many of us tend to believe that whatever we perceive is truth. Is perception the truth? One’s perception is whatever one believes. This need not necessarily be what others see. You know the story of the definition of an elephant by a group of blind persons. One said elephant is a trunk, the other said it is a stump and the third said it is a tusk and so on. Perception is what you see and what you feel. Many times, perception is far from the truth. A rose flower to some would be the smell that it delivers; it would be the beauty of its color to someone. To a cat, it could be the thrones and for the bees, the rose flower may be the nectar it gives. So, the rose flower is many things to many beings. Each one’s perception of rose flower is different. So, what is the truth of a rose flower? Great Western thinker Immanuel Kant said truth is whatever that is felt by a being about itself. So truth of a rose is what the rose feels about it. Simply said, truth is the DNA of the things. It is the core of whatever. It really needs some good understanding to understand the truth. It is important for us to have a value system. It shows our character. Values lead us in our life. In addition to truth; ethics, morale, and other value systems such as love, compassion, charity, harmony, dharma, peace, happiness etc .give a purpose to life. People who lived their life with these value systems are everlastingly remembered. There are so many examples to show. Socrates, Lincoln, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, many wonderful, truthful leaders! Let us come to leadership. Leadership has many attributes combined. Leadership can be defined by the excellence in you, it can also be the quality that you show and it is about the progress that you are capable of making. It is the mentoring, fostering and coaching that you are capable of. There are so many attributes to leadership. But more than any of the attributes mentioned above, Leadership depends largely on the attribute of principles. And it is the principles that make a true leader. Principles in you ensure that your name stays much beyond you going away from the face of earth. As in the case of Gandhi, Lincoln, Socrates and many like them. That brings me to Mahabharata. At the end of the war the five brothers along with Draupadi decide to leave the mother earth. They take their walk towards eternity. They are followed by a dog. Yudhishtir saw one by one behind him falling. It was Draupadi first and then Sahadev, Nakul, Arjun then Bheem. Only he and the dog were left, and they reach a plane that was waiting to take them to heaven. When the dog was not allowed to emplane, Yudhishtir refuses to board the plane and soon the dog take the shape of Yama, the king of life. He asks Yudhistir three questions before he is allowed to board the plane. One question was, “what accompanies death”? And Yudhishtir replied,” it is the fame”. Yes, it is the fame that accompanies a person’s death. Now it is up to us to find what fame we want to leave behind. Fame is called Prassidhi in Sanskrit. It is up to you to have Suprassidhi (Positive fame) or Kuprassidhi (Bad, negative fame). The famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow, through his theory of the Hierarchy of Needs, gives us an excellent growth profile of every man. In the beginning, the man is only worried about subsistence and once that is taken care of, it is the security of life that he is bothered about. Once that is taken care of, it is his need of being part of a society and thereafter, he looks for recognitions and finally, every one of us comes to the need of self actualization. Self-actualization or atmasashatkaram, allows you to do what you always wanted to do. And enjoying whatever you do. It could be anything. It could be social service, it could be mentoring youngsters. It could be spirituality; it could be travelling…… whatever it is. It is what you enjoy. By doing so, you derive your bliss and e by virtue of it, your moksha. And when we attain our moksha and leave the face of the earth, it is all about the fame that we leave behind. When others speak about it, even when we are not around, we would want them to speak good about us. And if that has to happen, we need to ensure that we lived a principle centered life in the earth, thru which we had added value to society, and left behind the fame. Among all the qualities, the only quality that can give us the highest fame is TRUTH. And the truth allows us to attain our moksha that is all about setting us free. And here is wishing you all that bliss, that moksha, thru the Truth.