LORD RAMA's PERSONALITY AND RAMAYANA GEOGRAPHY.

Yesterday I had a conversation with my Boss on the Ramsetu at Dhanushkodi. Whenever such a conversation takes place with anyone, I check on the veracity of the discussion. So I checked on that and found the following. 

Rama is called Maryada Parushottam. Which means an ideal human being as per the societal norms of that time.  

Maryada in Hindi means dignity and glory and denotes adhering to ethical and moral values under all circumstances. Purushottam of course means the best among men in virtues.

Why is Rama called thus? 

Despite facing difficult situations he lived his life according to the Dharma prescribed by the society at that time. 

Despite being a Prince, he unwaveringly accepted the exile for his father’s and foster mother's  sake considering it to be his Dharma.

He lived a life of strict monogamy and never looked at another woman apart from his wife. 

When he was later anointed as the King of Ayodhya, he treated his subjects with great kindness and love. 

Just because one of his subjects commented that he had accepted Sita without a test after her being so long at Ravanas palace, he chose to put Sita to the Agnipariksha to prove her chastity. 

Of course this is just to satisfy his subjects, but that was the way people thought at that time and he has merely submitted to their wishes despite having a great love for Sita. 

By today’s standards though, this would be seen as something terrible because he has sacrificed his wife’s comfort for the sake of someone else. So Dharma changes with time.

GEOGRAPHY OF RAMAYANA

Many of us assume that Lanka of the Ramayana is Sri Lanka and also assume that the 48 Km rock formation between Dhanushkodi in India to Mannar island in Srilanka to be the Ramsetu. 

But the actual fact is something else altogether. The rock formation between India and Srilanka is completely natural and has nothing to do with the Ramayana. 

When we examine the Geography of Ramayana, our assumption of Srilanka is blown to bits. 

The Ramayana is dated to about 700 BC and so happened 2700 years ago.    

AYODHYA is of course the current day Ayodhya.

PRAYAGA of the current day is not the Prayaga of Ramayana. 

PRAYAGA of Ramayana at that time  was a dense forest with Rishi Bhardwaja’s hermitage serving as the lone habitation. 

As per Rishi Bharadwaja, his hermitage is located 2.5 yojanas from CHITRAKOOT. A yojana is 0.60 Km and therefore his hermitage is located only 1.5 Km from Chitrakoot. 

Surprisingly the Ganga and Yamuna met at the Ramayana Prayag at that time and not at Allahabad as they do today.  

During the 2700 years’ time between the time when Ramayana happened and today the rivers changed their course and meet at the current day Prayag. 

As per Ramayana PANCHAVATI was in the  DANDAKARANYA forest which was then under the administration of the Rakshas Khara, Dooshana and Trishira. Panchavati stood close to Sarangpur in Madhya Pradesh. 

The Brahma Purana tells us that Gautami Ganga is the name of the Ganga south of the Vindhyas. It is otherwise known as Dakshina Ganga or Godavari.

Surprisingly the purana says that the length of Godavari in Dandakaranya is only about 5  yojanas or 3 Km. which means at that time Godavari was a small stream. 

KISHKINDA was located to the north of Vindhya Mountains and Narmada, to the west of Ganga and Yamuna and to the east of Mathura. This is near Chattarpur in Madhya Pradesh. 

DAKSHINA SAAGARA is leapt upon by Hanuman from Mt. Mahendra. This was described as a body of salt water abounding in dangerous fish and other living things.

Ramayana says MT. MAHENDRA is in the Vindhya range and is next to Dakshina Saagara. 

It refers to Dakshina Saagara as a body of salt water and it is by the side of a forest.

Ramayana does not mention the location of Mt MAHENDRA but both Srimad Bhagavata and Mahabharata do so. 

They locate it in Kalinga (the present day Orissa).  Mt Mahendra is known as Mahendragiri today and is located in the Ganjam district of Orissa north of Srikakulam, 50 Km away from the sea. 

At the time of Ramayana Mahendragiri was by the side of the sea and the sea retreated 50 km back since then.   

Lanka was located 100 yojanas or 60 km from Mt Mahendra. The Sonepur tract( called Subamapur today) of western Orissa was known as Lanka till as late as the 10th-11th centuries AD. 

The Goddess Lankeshwari is still regarded as the presiding deity of this territory and is worshipped daily.

Travelling south east of Subamapur brings us to Mahendragiri and thence to a small town called Lanka even today which is 40 Km away from there. 

So Lord Rama never set his foot in the South of India much less in Tamilnadu, but without examining the issue we continue to believe that Lanka of the Ramayana is Srilanka.

If anyone wants to research on the topic further, I give below that link of a blog which provides excellent and exhaustive information on that. 

https://bharatbhumika.blogspot.com/2015/11/geography-of-ramayana.html?sc=1745116305215

EMERGENCY- A TERRIBLE BLOT ON DEMOCRACY IN INDIA- PART II

 

Even before the Emergency Indira Gandhi government passed draconian laws that can be used to arrest the political elements opposing her. One was MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) enacted in 1971. MISA gave extensive powers to the Government of indefinite preventive detention of individuals, search and seizure of property without warrants and wiretapping of telephones. This law is very conveniently used to place all political opposition as well as anyone who questioned the government in prison indefinitely. 

The Government also renewed the Defence of India Rules which lapsed in 1967. The Defence of India act and Defence of India rules, 1962 (DISIR) were a set of emergency war-time legislations for preventive detention enacted in October 1962 during the India China war. They consisted of 156 rules that regulated all aspects of life.-travel trade, finance, communication, publication etc. This Act suspended the fundamental rights of any individual arrested under them. And enabled the Government to detain any person indefinitely without providing any explanation WHY and without any representation.  

COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act) was also passed in 1974 even before the emergency, again to conveniently trouble her opponents. 

And why did she make so many tough regulations, obviously to silence the political opposition when the economy floundered and the people were crying of frustration. But what was needed was competent administration to silence the opposition when she had draconian laws at hand. She totally lacked that competence and completely surrounded herself by sycophants closing her eyes to reality and happily used the laws to oppress her opponents. 

After seeing this monumental stupidity and closed mind of Indira Gandhi, and her dictatorial tendencies, it is the biggest joke of the century if any Congressman called Modi dictatorial. That would be a massive subversion of the truth. 

Here one thing had to be mentioned about the personality of Indira Gandhi. She grew up at Anand Bhavan in Allahabad, the ancestral home of Motilal Nehru. Theirs was a joint family where apart from Motilal, Jawaharlal, his wife Kamala, Nehru’s 2 sisters Vijayalakshmi Pandit and Krishna Huthee Singh also stayed. Nehru was away most of the time in political issues and was for some time in jail. Kamal Nehru was harassed by Nehru’s sisters and Indira was witness to that. Later Kamala Nehru also went into the Freedom struggle and Indira was left alone in the house with her aunts and they did not treat her kindly. Due to that childhood persecution Indira grew up as an extremely insecure child. This was mentioned by MO Mathai, Nehru’s PS for 16 years in the book that he had written on Nehru. He said in his book that Indira was always  a lonely child and when political meetings took place at Nehru’s house, she went into the corner of the room and did not open her mouth.          

Because of her troubled childhood Indira trusted no one and that was the reason why she surrounded herself with yes men who never did anything but obey her. But competent men do not become sycophants, so she was mostly surrounded by guys of low calibre who are fixers and manipulators and who are incompetent. The end result was that she was blanked about what people thought of her, the yes men always gave a rosy picture and she believed that stuff. 

An excellent example is RK Dhawan who was just a clerk of no consequence in the Railways but later rose to be her PS and later became a powerful Congress leader. Similarly there was Yashpal Kapoor who was a stenographer who was nominated to the Rajya sabha and rose to become an important person in the coterie of Indira Gandhi. RK Dhawan was in fact Yashpal Kapoor’s sisters son. 

Indira Gandhi had her own brat son Sanjay Gandhi whom she trusted very much. It was Sanjay that used this petty official RK Dhawan to manipulate the entire Government machinery. Now Sanjay Gandhi was a school dropout from Doon school and he later joined as an apprentice mechanic with Rolls Royce England, no doubt by the influence of her mother rather than by any ability of his own. 

Add to this bunch Bansilal, the most unscrupulous politician there was at that time who was ready to do anything the Gandhi family wanted, be it legal or illegal. It was this guy who gave land to sanjay Gandhi for his Maruthi at a throw away price. Then there was Dev Kant Barua from Assam who was then the Congress President who was called the court jester by many and was forever singing praises of Indira Gandhi. His rise was totally because of Indira Gandhi and he was therefore loyal to her like a dog. 

As you can see, none of these men in the inner circle of Indira Gandhi had any intellectual ability but they were great manipulators except for Baruah who was more proficient in doing bhajans of his leader rather than do anything else. It is downright horrible that any PM who is capable of thinking would keep such people around her. This clearly shows that what she wanted was not intellect but pure yes men who were ready to manipulate the system for her sake.      

Invoking articles 352 and 356 of the constitution, Indira Gandhi granted herself extraordinary powers and launched a massive crackdown on civil rights and political opposition. Even congress leaders who protested against the emergency were not spared. Mohan Dharia and Chandrasekhar resigned from their government and party positions and were arrested Most of the arrests happened under MISA, DISIR and COFEEPOSA..

Looking at the way Indira Gandhi was going about even before the Emergency, the SC brought out a concept of that is known as the basic structure of the constitution. It said even the Parliament did not have the power to alter the basic structure of the constitution, thus safeguarding its power lest Indira Gandhi did further damage and bypass the Supreme Court.   

The process of centralizing everything in the PM’s secretariat was started by Lal Bahadur Sastri with his Secretary L.K Jha interfered in everything and was called a super secretary. Indira Gandhi outdid that. Her secretary P.N. Haksar made everything revolve around the PM’s secretariat. Not even a Deputy Secretary could be appointed without its involvement. All the ministers took orders from the secretariat. Under him, for the first time in Indian history, the government machinery came to be used for political purposes. 

After the Jagmohan Sinha Judgment Indira Gandhi wavered and was undecided whether to resign under pressure from her own party, especially from the Young Turks Chandrasekhar and Mohan Dharia as well as Ram Dhan, Krishna Kant and Lakshmikanthamma. 

But Sanjay’s advice was a firm no to any stepping down by her. Sanjay Gandhi told the press much earlier that he liked a dictatorship. He now obtained a copy of the censorship rules and details of the machinery set up to implement dictatorship in the Philippines. He hated the press and felt that Information Minister IK Gujral was not tough enough on them. Of course, Sanjay Gandhi controlled the PM’s secretariat. 

Indira Gandhi gradually fought and strengthened her position in the party. Congress then started thinking about a way for her to hold on to office even if the SC ratified the High Court Judgment. 

Sanjay felt convening the Parliament to be useless for anything and is a waste of time. By now Indira Gandhi was a changed person. She now believed what Sanjay believed, that Judgment was a conspiracy to remove her. Apart from the other Congress CM’s who rallied behind her Siddarth Shankar Ray, who was then the Chief Minister of West Bengal was her strongest supporter.   

On 26th June 1975, the Emergency was promulgated and the entire opposition arrested. Press censorship was imposed and people were detained indefinitely without any explanation as to what the detention was for. All the telephones were tapped. Of the opposition, only George Feranadez, Nanaji Deshmukh, Subramaniam Swamy and a few others remained outside. All other leaders were arrested. Sanjay eased out IK Gujral from the Information ministry and brought in VC Shukla. 

Justice Jagmohan Sinha was shadowed all the time by the Police, all his past career was screened to find loopholes and his relations were harassed. The cyclostyled forms of MISA orders were signed in blank by the DM’s and were handed over to the Police for detaining people. 

All the publications of the Jana Sangh were shut down by the Police. The publishers of the papers could not find any counsel to defend them as they were afraid. Any who agreed to do so were arrested under DIR. Any reporter which dared to question the Government was arrested under MISA and detained indefinitely without trial. 

There are many officials who misused the Emergency and used laws like MISA to settle personal scores. 3 Journalists Peter Hazelhurst of the London Times, Loren Jenkins of Newsweek and Peter Gill of the London daily Telegraph were informed that they could not remain in India and would be deported in 24 hours. Officials have been posted at the offices of the News agencies that are left for striking off any critical news at source. VC Shukla told the press that he would not tolerate any nonsense being published in the press. The editors were threatened with arrest if they publish anything against the government. So no editor had the guts to condemn Emergency. Lewis M Simmons of the Washington Post was banished from India because he reported something unpleasant. One friend who attended dinner with told Simmons that during the dinner Sanjay Gandhi slapped Indira Gandhi 6 times yet she did nothing and took it. So the control of Sanjay on his mother was total.  

It was Sanjay who ran the show and gave instructions to Ministers. Sanjay had a dislike for Southerners and East Indians and the Kashmiris. He wanted Punjabis everywhere. 

It is a big joke that Indira Gandhi went on claiming that she is working within the ambit of the constitution to save Democracy. 

There was severe criticism of the government moves abroad but no Government officially condemned Indira Gandhi for what she did. 

EMERGENCY- A TERRIBLE BLOT ON DEMOCRACY IN INDIA-PART I

 

Emergency was a blow to India as it had the capacity to destroy the Country and let loose anarchy with a strong dictatorship at the top that was totally bereft of any ideas. It was the blackest period for Indian Democracy and lasted from 25^th June 1975 to 21^st March 1977, a period of 22 months during which time India perched precariously on the verge of chaos and dictatorship.

Most unfortunately, today’s youth do not know anything at all about it, as it transpired some 48 years ago. How did it come about and what are the factors that triggered it? What are its repercussions?

A little preamble needed to be known in order to understand it. In the 1950’s, Indira Gandhi unofficially served her father as a Personal assistant. Later, Indira Gandhi became the Congress President in the year 1959 and served for 1 year when she was just 42 years old. During her tenure as the Congress President, she was instrumental in getting the Kerala government dismissed. Clearly that position would not have been possible without Nehru’s backing. Thereafter she was made the Minister for Information & Broadcasting in Lalbahadur Sastri’s cabinet between June 1964 & January 1966.

When Sastri died of a heart attack in Tashkent in 1965, the Senior most Congressman then available was Morarji Desai who promptly announced his candidature for the PM’s position.  The Congress President then was Kamaraj Nadar. There were also 4 regional party bosses who were powerful and controlled the Congress cadres in their areas. They are Neelam Sanjeevareddy of Andhra Pradesh, S. Nijalingappa of Karnataka, Atulya Ghosh of Bengal and S.K.Patil of Maharashtra. Congress was then still a Democratic organization and a person has to be elected by the party in the Loaksabha if he/she were to become the Prime Minister. Kamaraj Nadar along with the other 4 party bosses was known as the Syndicate as they exercised immense power over the Congress Organisation.

Morarji Desai was a no no for the Syndicate, because he was seen as rigid and inflexible and was totally immune to their influence. Thus Kamaraj favoured Indira Gandhi who was seen by them as soft and pliable. With this in mind, Kamaraj first got the name of Indira Gandhi nominated by 12 Congress CM’s out of 14 and with that with her being elected the PM candidate by the Loksabha became a mere formality, yet Morarji Desai insisted on a context and lost with 169 votes to Indira Gandhi’s 355.

The Indira Gandhi government faced the largest problem in the Economy. Sastri era did terribly on the GDP. The economy registered a negative growth rate during his tenure; a -2.64% in 1964-65 & a -0.06% in 1965-66. For those years the inflation was 9.5% & 10.80% respectively. So the economic condition was terrible. In comparison the last FY of the Nehru era 1963-64 registered a GDP growth of 7.45% but the inflation was high at 13.4%.

Indira’s first year as PM was pretty good for the GDP and it registered a 7.8% increase during 1966-67 but the inflation was high at 13.1%. Thereafter the GDP growth rate fizzled out.

Till 1977, 3 years under her were pretty bad registering a mere 1.64% in 1970-71, 1.19% in 1973-74 & 1.6% in 1975-76, not to mention the negative growth of -2.2% during 1971-72 on account of the Bangladesh war. In the 11 years between 1966-67 to 1976-77 Indira averaged 4.1% on the GDP but a high 7.5% on inflation. Ultimately it was this miserable growth rates that led her to the discontent among the people and the Emergency. The Allahabad High Court judgment was merely the precipitating factor and not the cause itself.

It was an irony that the slogan for the 1971 elections by Indira Gandhi was Garibi Hatao. This slogan, along with nationalisation of Banks & Abolition of Privy purses indicated to the poor that she wanted to help the poor.

Congress got a huge majority of 352 seats out of 518 in those elections. That was over a two thirds majority. But, it was that very election that later led to her downfall because let alone removing Garibi, she managed to make things worse for them.   

Between 1971 and 1974 in the 3 years the GDP only logged an average yearly growth of a mere 0.73% while the inflation averaged over 17%. A feeling of hope soon gave way to despair and despondence. Little wonder there was unrest in the country which was quickly exploited by the opposition. Indira Gandhi failed most miserably on the economic front after winning such a massive mandate.

How did the precipitating Allahabad High court Judgment affect Indira Gandhi and the nation? In the 1971 Loksabha elections Raj Narayan contested as the candidate for the Samyukta Socialist party and managed to poll only 71,499 votes against Indira Gandhi who won 183, 369 votes getting 64.4% of the vote share.

Later Raj Narayan filed a petition against Indira Gandhi in the Allahabad High Court, alleging electoral malpractices like using Government employees as election agents, and organising campaigns by them in the constituency while being Government employees. He also accused her of corruption. Indira Gandhi was represented by Nani Palkhiwala while Raj Narayan was represented by Shanti Bhushan. Palkhiwala later resigned as Indira Gandhi’s lawyer in protest when Emergency was promulgated by her.  Palkhiwala was later appointed as an Ambassador to the USA by the Janata Government.

On 12^th June 1975 Justice Jagmohan Sinha pronounced a verdict against Indira Gandhi. He found her guilty of the charges and declared the 1971 Rae Bareilly MP seat as null and void. He also banned Indira Gandhi from holding any elected office for 6 years. This is a most unjust judgment because in that constituency Indira Gandhi got almost 65% vote share while Raj Narayan only got 25%. Employees may well have been used but he had no right to judge the result as null and void based on that alone. At the most he could have penalized the officials if any specific people are named and chastised Indira Gandhi. Declaring the election null and void on account of that is nonsense.

Prior to that in late 1973 and early 1974 there was public unrest simmering in the country obviously because of the messed up economy when the GDP growth averaged less than 1% in 3 years but inflation galloped at a hefty 17%. Little wonder the country was on the boil.

There was a student agitation in Gujarat against the state education minister after which the central Government was forced to dismiss the state Government and dissolve the legislature. There were also assassination attempts on public leaders in which Lalit Narain Mishra the Railway minister was killed.

Then in March-April 1974 began the student agitation in Bihar by the Bihar Chatra Sangharsh Samiti which was supported by Jayaprakash Narayan. JP called for total revolution. A month later the Railway Union went on strike led by George Fernandez. The strike was brutally suppressed by the government which arrested thousands of employees and drove their families out of the quarters.  

With all this discontent simmering out came the verdict of Jagmohan Sinha and it exploded like dynamite on Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi appealed to the Supreme Court on the issue but Justice VR Krishna Iyer upheld the judgment of the High Court. He also ordered that all the privileges she was receiving as an MP be stopped. However she was allowed to continue as PM pending decision on her appeal.   

On 25^th June 1975, the next day after Krishna Iyers decision JP called for a huge procession at Delhi where he indicated that Policemen should disobey the orders of the Government and act as per their conscience. On the same day Indira approached the pliant President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and got the proclamation of the Emergency signed. Within 3 hours electricity to all the newspapers was cut and the political opposition was arrested. The decision was sent to the cabinet only next morning and they quietly fell in line.

The Emergency came about because of the utter incompetency of Indira Gandhi to take proper economic decisions which threw the economy into a downward spin. Clearly not a single ordinary person would be satisfied with a less than 1% growth rate and 17% inflation. Any government that brought it in has to face the music and that is what happened to Indira Gandhi. To get out of that and keep her power she resorted to draconian powers and persecuted the people who opposed her at her whims. But draconian powers are no substitute for governance and everything boils down to good governance which Indira Gandhi could not provide.

Imagine today if any Government gives a less than 1% GDP growth rate and 17% inflation, then would it be spared by the people? That too, a government with over a two thirds majority? Why blame the opposition? They took the opportunity because she bungled right royally and wanted to hang on to the chair despite that. She was very lucky that her opposition was a motley bunch of parties sans any ideology except sitting on the PM’s chair and so they blundered on and gave India back to her on a platter. Those gentlemen; Morarji Desai, Charan singh, Jagjivan Ram and of course the BJP had diverse ideologies and nothing in common except getting the chair. What else can be expected to happen with such gentlemen at the helm?    

EXPERIENCES IN MY LIFE--SHOOTOUT AT BHIND.

 

My posting at SBI Bhind Branch as Manager Personal Banking had been fairly long (a full 4 years from Aug 1991 to Jul 1995) and it has given me varied experiences. That is the longest duration I worked at any single place in the Bank. I am writing down my experiences in various places at random and in the process wrote this small narration. One can see that it is interesting as the experience is somewhat different from what we tend to have in life. 

Bhind town is the headquarters of Bhind district and had a population of 110,000 as per 1991 census. However I have seen that currently the population of Bhind is over 2 lacs.

Bhind branch had about 30 staff in all, of which about 10 in my division. While the Personal Banking Division which I headed and the Cash Department were downstairs, the Agriculture Banking Division headed by Shuvinder Hemraj who was one batch senior to me was upstairs.

That was my first assignment as the Manager of a Division. It was a big division and we had 120 savings ledgers in all. 2500 pensioners and 600 school teachers drew their pensions and salaries each month from there. The division always had a big rush all the time. All the transactions were manual at that time and people had to be personally present at the branch to withdraw the money as no ATM’s were there. To top it everything was manual excluding the lists of pensioners which we got done from outside.

Ours is the only commercial bank branch at Bhind apart from State Bank of Indore and probably Central Bank of India and Punjab National Bank.

The very first impression I had of Bhind is that so many people carried guns which are licensed. There are so many guns everywhere. I found that some people carried guns even while travelling on a bicycle. Bhind and the surrounding areas had many Thakurs, and for them to possess a gun is symbol of prestige. There were so many tractors as well because that was also looked as a symbol of prestige by the people. At that time, I have never seen that many tractors anywhere else in MP or for that matter in any other state which I had visited except for Punjab. Our branch alone has financed over 200 tractors and that was in 1991.

I want to give you an idea of the area. Once, the belt of Morena, Bhind, Etawa  and Mainpuri was famous for dacoits. Since the British times dacoits abounded the Chambal. Although it was said that feudal mindset and exploitation led to dacoity, there is no proof for this, as most of the dacoit gangs have come from a higher caste backgrounds who were economically well off. One of the famous dacoits of the Chambal area is Gabbar Singh on whom the film Sholay was made. Gabbar Singh had the odious the distinction of cutting away the noses on 113 people. Another famous dacoit Malkhan Singh surrendered at Bhind in 1982. Then Phoolan Devi and Man Singh surrendered at Bhind in 1983.           

Bhind district then had 29000 licensed weapons, and the adjoining district of Morena 21000, when the number of licensed guns in the entire Bihar state is only 50000 and AP only 28000. Both Bhind and Morena are the heart of Chambal Valley and part of the Chambal dacoit belt. The nearby Chambal ravines had many dacoits once. The ravines started immediately after Bhind and Chambal river was just 14 Km from Bhind and if one crosses that one enters into Etawah district ( Etawa is Mulayam Singh Yadav’s hometown) from UP which is about 38 km from Bhind.

The ASP of Bhind Sushovan Banerjee (He retired in 2023 as one of the Additional Director Generals of Police for MP) was my customer.  He told me that Bhind district had big dacoit gangs at the time of Phoolan Devi and earllier, and the police were no match for them at that time because the gangs were equipped with automatic weapons (Phoolan Devi Carried a Mauser gun)  and had many members while the Police carried 303 rifles. He also told me that all the big dacoit gangs have been eliminated now and only small gangs of 4-5 people operate and they were no match to the police.

I asked him as to how he finds his job. His remark was the IPS label appears glamorous but only the insiders knew what their position is. Probably there are lots of internal pressures which the public would not be aware of. He told me that the posting at Bhind was good for his career. I asked him how that is so, and he tells me that he has encountered 17 dacoits and that has gone into his service record. Haha some service record that.

The branch was then headed by Chief Manager Mr T.C.Jain who was a Trainee Officer of 1978 batch. He was lame in one leg and walked with a stoop. The Manager Agricultural Banking Division was Shuvinder Hemraj who was a Probationer of 1981 batch which is one batch senior to me. I did not know Hemraj prior to that  Branch and got introduced to him there. Nirmal Singh who was a 1980 batch probationer was a Deputy Manager to Hemraj. The accountant for the branch was S.K.Gurnani.

Since I was posted at Bhind for a long duration of 4 years, a lot of incidents happened. Maybe I cannot remember all of them now because it is too distant in the past, but there are some which are simply unforgettable and I will narrate one of them now.

The very first incident that comes to mind is that of a shootout because that is something absolutely out of ordinary for us South Indians. As already narrated earlier, when we initially came to Bhind there was no hotel where a family can go and have lunch or dinner.

Bhind was a district headquarters but it lacked such facilities. Also because of its aggressive culture perhaps people thought such a hotel would not be able to run properly. After about 1 year after our arrival at Bhind, one guy called Amar Singh Bhadoria who owned a Gymnasium at Bhind, and had many sishyas set up such a Restaurant named “Mayura”. His elder brother was also the Sub Registrar at some place in MP and he comes from an influential Thakur family.

So me and my wife had an opportunity to go and have lunch and dinner there now and then. We were too happy about it and utilized the services of the hotel often. Whenever we visited the hotel, Amar Singh Bhadoria cordially welcomed us and it went on like that for about a year. The hotel is quite near to my place and is approached by a side road branching off from the main road to the left.

One day in the morning I came to know that a shooting incident took place at “Mayura” and a young waiter aged about 19 brought in by Amar Singh from Gwalior was shot dead. I was shocked and immediately visited his hotel in order to enquire about the happening.

Since a murder has taken place there the previous day, I thought that there would be police present there. But the scene that presented itself to me was simply stunning. Till that time I saw such scenes only in the movies. Not a single policeman was present at the site, but I found about 20 men holding guns with their shoulders adorned with flashing cartridge belts. Most of them were tall with beards and looked sinister and were like soldiers ready for war.

It was a sight straight out of a Western movie. Amar Singh is nowhere to be seen. The scene shook me and I did not know who those men were, or why they were there. Since I arrived there I had no choice, so I just went to one of the guys and told him that I wanted to meet Amar Singh. That guy went in, and out came Amar Singh to my relief. I asked him as to what was the matter. Amar Singh blurted out “ Saab ladayi hogaya tha. Par jobhi ho, ye hotel to kisi bhi halat me chalega hi aur band nahi hogi” then he said “ Jo hua acha hua, sala dubara is raste se gujar nahi payega”. Probably he assumed that I knew everything about the incident. I did not want to press him any further in that condition, agreed with him and left the place.

Later that day in the Bank I came to know what has actually happened. This incident requires a background to understand it. Behind it was a notorious goonda named Pappu Sharma. This guy used to collect hafta from the shops as they show in movies. Once he was caught by the police and was produced in the court. While the judge was trying his case, he jumped out of the witness box, beat up the judge and ran away. He was caught thereafter and was jailed, but another judge granted him bail. That guy used to roam around with his chelas in Bhind collecting hafta.

Amar Singh was very strict about not allowing liquor in his hotel because he meant that the hotel should be used by families along with other citizens. That day at about 9.30 PM the hotel was about to be closed when Pappu Sharma arrived with 4 other guys. Since Amar Singh knew (Of course all locals of Bhind knew him) who Pappu Sharma was he let the hotel remain open and got them served.

However, after sometime some difference came up between Pappu Sharma and Amar Singh. What exactly it was no one knows, but it was highly likely that it is regarding consumption of liquor in the hotel. In the altercation that followed Pappu Sharma exclaimed “Tumhara hotel kaise chalega dekhloonga”. Now Rajput guys are short tempered and take offence easily, and in the process they act first and think later. Amar Singh took it as a challenge to himself and said “Theek hai dekhlenge”. Pappu Sharma then left the place in a foul mood.

Amar Singh knew that he would come back with more men and arms. He stationed 2 of his men on the terrace of the hotel with guns and stationed another 2 men inside the hotel again with guns.

As expected Pappu Sharma reappeared in about 30 minutes with about a dozen guys with half of them armed. Pappu Sharmas group knew that Amar Singh is also a powerful guy in the area and his gymnasium had many students in Bhind. So Pappu Sharma’s group was trying to negotiate for a truce.

However, as the group is uncoordinated, a guy from the back shouted some abuse and the firing started. About 20 rounds of fire was exchanged. Amar Singh’s men were firing under cover while Pappu Sharma’s men were on the road exposed. After the exchange Pappu Sharma himself got injured as buckshot hit him on the forearm and his skin right up till his forearm joint was ripped open. He and his men finally ran away leaving their chappals and also some scooters. After the shootout was over, Amar Singh’s men found a waiter aged 19 lying dead on the floor of the hotel. That guy was brought in by Amar Singh from Gwalior just a few months back. The waiter became too inquisitive at the time when the gunfight was going on ad opened the door slightly to see what was happening. He was caught in the crossfire and died but no one noticed that till the fight was over. After the fight was over and Pappu Sharmas men fled, Amar Singhs men found the body of waiter lying dead.

The men I found next morning were stationed there by Amar Singh just in case, if by any chance Pappu Sharma mounts another attack on the hotel during daytime.

Amar Singh continued to run the hotel. Now, which family would visit a hotel where a murder has taken place? On top of that he had a doorman with a semi automatic rifle slung on his shoulder and the cashier had another semi automatic lest the hotel gets attacked again. The hotel then looked right out of a western movie or perhaps even worse because in western movies there are no doormen holding guns.

Now, I relate another incident that happened earlier to this but is linked to it. Since Bhind had no other means of recreation myself, Hemraj, Nirmal Singh and Dr Jain (Banks authorised Doctor)  used to meet at each ones residence every Saturday and had dinner. That Saturday the dinner was supposed to be at Dr Jain’s residence. By the time I reached the Doctors place Hemraj and his wife have already reached there but not Nirmal Singh. I could see that the Doctor and his wife’s face were ashen and they were unable to speak anything. I then asked Hemraj as to what the matter was. He told me that some time before that Pappu Sharma and his chelas arrived at the Doctors place and threatened him of dire consequences if he does not take one nurse which the Doctor removed some time back. Pappu Sharma told the Doctor neither you nor your nursing home would exist if you do not take that nurse back and I will throw you and all your equipment on to the road.

The story was, previous to that there was a nurse working for the Doctor whom he removed because she was incompetent. That time the doctor just had a clinic. Later he borrowed some money from the bank and set up a small nursing home. Now that nurse wanted to come back but the Doctor was just not willing. Now that nurse knew Pappu Sharma and so she sought his help and Pappu Sharma’s arrival at the Doctors house was a consequence of that.

I told the Doctor, are Jain sab what is there in that, you just make a complaint to the police. I still remember his reply very clearly. He said “Are sab woh to hum ko road par marega”. He felt he had no choice and with great reluctance he finally took the nurse back.

Now when this shootout occurred and Pappu Sharma got hurt and ran away Dr Jain was the most happiest of all in Bhind. Since Pappu Sharma lost face after the incident and cannot possibly threaten him again, so he removed that Nurse from the job after the incident.   

But it is amazing to see in that town that none can remain safe and anyone can be threatened. Luckily, we lived in a place called Bhuta Kothi which had a huge compound around which a number of houses were located all owned by the Bhutas. They were tenanted by a number of people apart from the Bhutas who stayed there. We tenanted the ground floor of the main Kothi which had about 2 large bedrooms and 2 other rooms plus the drawing room. It is large in area but had no ventilation at all. Although there were windows at the front the windows at the back opened on to a narrow dingy alley which had drainage sewers. So the back windows although present could be opened at all and therefore the house has no chance for cross ventilation. The open area in front of the house was however, excellent. It was cemented and had a badminton court right in front of our house. I played badminton for many a day with the 2 young Bhutas and others.

There is one thing I liked about the people of Bhind. They are as straight as an arrow. If they did not like you they would tell you on your face. Scheming rarely happens among them. Of course like everywhere there would always be some exceptions there too.

The bank has given me a number of different type of experiences that added to the thrill of life and this incident is just but one of them.  

EMERGENCY- A TERRIBLE BLOT ON DEMOCRACY IN INDIA.

 

Emergency was a blow to India as it had the capacity to destroy the Country and let loose anarchy with a strong dictatorship at the top that was totally bereft of any ideas. 

It was the blackest period for Indian Democracy and lasted from 25th June 1975 to 21st March 1977, a period of 22 months during which time India perched precariously on the verge of chaos and dictatorship. 

Most unfortunately, today’s youth do not know anything at all about it, as it transpired some 48 years ago. How did it come about and what are the factors that triggered it? What are its repercussions? 

A little preamble needed to be known in order to understand it. In the 1950’s, Indira Gandhi unofficially served her father as a Personal assistant. 

Later, Indira Gandhi became the Congress President in the year 1959 and served for 1 year when she was just 42 years old. 

During her tenure as the Congress President, she was instrumental in getting the Kerala government dismissed. Clearly that position would not have been possible without Nehru’s backing. 

Thereafter she was made the Minister for Information & Broadcasting in Lalbahadur Sastri’s cabinet between June 1964 & January 1966. 

When Sastri died of a heart attack in Tashkent in 1965, the Seniormost Congressman then available was Morarji Desai who promptly announced his candidature for the PM’s position.  

The Congress President then was Kamaraj Nadar. There were also 4 regional party bosses who were powerful and controlled the Congress cadres in their areas. 

They are Neelam Sanjeevareddy of Andhra Pradesh, S. Nijalingappa of Karnataka, Atulya Ghosh of Bengal and S.K.Patil of Maharashtra. 

Congress was then still a Democratic organization and a person has to be elected by the party in the Loaksabha if he/she were to become the Prime Minister. 

Kamaraj Nadar along with the other 4 party bosses was known as the Syndicate as they exercised immense power over the Congress Organisation. 

Morarji Desai was a no no for the Syndicate, because he was seen as rigid and inflexible and was totally immune to their influence. Thus Kamaraj favoured Indira Gandhi who was seen by them as soft and pliable. 

With this in mind, Kamaraj first got the name of Indira Gandhi nominated by 12 Congress CM’s out of 14 and with that, her being elected the PM candidate by the Loksabha became a mere formality, yet Morarji Desai insisted on a context and lost with 169 votes to Indira Gandhi’s 355. 

The Indira Gandhi government faced the largest problem in the Economy. 

Sastri era did terribly on the GDP. The economy registered a negative growth rate during his tenure; a -2.64% in 1964-65 & a -0.06% in 1965-66. 

For those years the inflation was 9.5% & 10.80% respectively. So the economic condition of the people was terrible. 

In comparison the last FY of the Nehru era 1963-64 registered a GDP growth of 7.45% and the inflation was at 13.4%. 

Indira’s first year as PM was pretty good for the GDP and it registered a 7.8% increase during 1966-67 but the inflation was at 13.1%. Thereafter the GDP growth rate fizzled out. 

Till 1977, 3 years under her were pretty bad registering a mere 1.64% in 1970-71, 1.19% in 1973-74 & 1.6% in 1975-76, not to mention the negative growth of -2.2% during 1971-72 on account of the Bangladesh war. 

In the 11 years between 1966-67 to 1976-77 Indira averaged 4.1% on the GDP but a high 7.5% on inflation. Ultimately it was this miserable growth rates that led to the discontent among the people and the Emergency. Her biggest debacle on the economy was in 1973-74 when the GDP growth was a mere 1.2% while the inflation roared over 28%....clearly the position of the people was terrible....

The Allahabad High Court judgment was merely the precipitating factor and not the cause itself. 

It was an irony that the slogan for the 1971 elections by Indira Gandhi was Garibi Hatao. 

This slogan, along with nationalisation of Banks & Abolition of Privy purses indicated to the poor that she wanted to help the poor. 

Congress got a huge majority of 352 seats out of 518 in those elections. That was over a two thirds majority. But, it was that very election that later led to her downfall because let alone removing Garibi, she managed to make things worse for them. 

Between 1971 and 1974 in the 3 years the GDP only logged an average yearly growth of a mere 0.73% while the inflation averaged over 17%. The year 1974 itself brought in an inflation rate of over 28% which was crushing. 

A feeling of hope soon gave way to despair and despondence. Little wonder there was unrest in the country which was quickly exploited by the opposition. 

Indira Gandhi failed most miserably on the economic front after winning such a massive mandate. 

How did the precipitating Allahabad High court Judgment affect Indira Gandhi and the nation?

In the 1971 Loksabha elections Raj Narayan contested as the candidate for the Samyukta Socialist party and managed to poll only 71,499 votes against Indira Gandhi who won 183, 369 votes getting 64.4% of the vote share. 

Later Raj Narayan filed a petition against Indira Gandhi in the Allahabad High Court, alleging electoral malpractices like using Government employees as election agents, and organising campaigns by them in the constituency while being Government employees. He also accused her of corruption. 

Indira Gandhi was represented by Nani Palkhiwala while Raj Narayan was represented by Shanti Bhushan. Palkhiwala later resigned as Indira Gandhi’s lawyer in protest when Emergency was promulgated by her.  Palkhiwala was later appointed as an Ambassador to the USA by the Janata Government. 

On 12th June 1975 Justice Jagmohan Sinha pronounced a verdict against Indira Gandhi. He found her guilty of the charges excluding corruption and declared the 1971 election to the Rae Bareilly MP seat as null and void. 

He also banned Indira Gandhi from holding any elected office for 6 years. 

This is a most unjust judgment because in that constituency Indira Gandhi got almost 65% vote share while Raj Narayan only got 25%. 

Employees may well have been used but he had no right to judge the result as null and void based on that alone. At the most he could have penalized the officials if any specific people are named and chastised and rebuked Indira Gandhi. Declaring the election null and void on account of that is nonsense. 

Prior to that in late 1973 and early 1974 there was public unrest simmering in the country obviously because of the messed up economy when the GDP growth averaged less than 1% in 3 years but inflation galloped at a hefty 17%. Little wonder the country was on the boil. 

There was a student agitation in Gujarat against the state education minister after which the central Government was forced to dismiss the state Government and dissolve the legislature. 

There were also assassination attempts on public leaders in which Lalit Narain Mishra the Railway minister was killed. 

Then in March-April 1974 began the student agitation in Bihar by the Bihar Chatra Sangharsh Samiti which was supported by Jayaprakash Narayan. JP called for a total revolution. 

A month later the Railway Union went on strike led by George Fernandez. The strike was brutally suppressed by the government which arrested thousands of employees and drove their families out of the quarters.  

With all this discontent simmering, out came the verdict of Jagmohan Sinha and it exploded like dynamite on Indira Gandhi. 

Indira Gandhi appealed to the Supreme Court on the issue but Justice VR Krishna Iyer upheld the judgment of the High Court. He also ordered that all the privileges she was receiving as an MP be stopped. 

However she was allowed to continue as PM pending decision on her appeal.   

On 25th June 1975, the next day after Krishna Iyer's decision JP called for a huge rally at Delhi where he indicated that Policemen should disobey the orders of the Government and act as per their conscience. 

On the same day Indira approached the pliant President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and got the proclamation of the Emergency signed.

Within 3 hours electricity to all the newspapers was cut and the political opposition was arrested. The decision was sent to the cabinet only next morning and they quietly fell in line. 

The Emergency came about because of the utter incompetency of Indira Gandhi to take proper economic decisions which threw the economy into a downward spin. 

Clearly not a single ordinary person would be satisfied with a less than 1% growth rate and 17% inflation. Any government that brought it in has to face the music and that is what happened to Indira Gandhi. 

To get out of that and keep her power she resorted to draconian powers and persecuted the people who opposed her at her whims. But draconian powers are no substitute for governance and everything boils down to good governance which Indira Gandhi could not provide. 

Imagine today if any Government gives a less than 1% GDP growth rate and 17% inflation, then would it be spared by the people? That too, a government with over a two thirds majority? 

Why blame the opposition? They took the opportunity because she bungled right royally and wanted to hang on to the chair despite that. 

She was very lucky that her opposition was a motley bunch of parties sans any ideology except sitting on the PM’s chair and so they blundered on and gave India back to her on a platter. 

Those gentlemen; Morarji Desai, Charan singh, Jagjivan Ram and of course the BJP had diverse ideologies and nothing in common except getting the chair. What else can be expected to happen with such gentlemen at the helm?