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No Point Saying, "But Those Days are Long Gone"

    There is a difference, Gandhiji used to say, between Raja Harishchandra and an actor on a stage playing the part of Harishchandra. So also there is a difference, we are being taught, between a simple, humble farmer and Deve Gowda playing "a simple, humble farmer" !

    When, in a burst of humility, a man modest the way Deve Gowda is modest bends and touches your knees, the one thing to do is to make sure that your knee-caps are still there. Hegde has recounted how Deve Gowda had bent low and touched his feet -- and look what he has made of Hegde at the very first opportunity.

    Even the secularist editors -- who had been so delighted at his ascension to power as the harbinger of "regionalism", as the man who knew the problems of the "common man" -- even they have been stupefied into silence. How come our simple farmer, our humble man always pledging to seek the "guidance" of "my senior leaders", how come he turned so vicious and vindictive? And, after all, that little bit of revenge must have been in his heart for long how else could the man have acted it out so soon after such a busy week? But that would mean not just that the man is vengeful, it would mean that he can be saying one thing -- "Please, I am new to Delhi, do favour me with your kind suggestions" -- and plotting something altogether different. A trait that must have taken the breath out of all those "federalists" who had picked him from nowhere in the expectation that they would run him, but also out of the resident intellectuals nothing unnerves them more than the jolt that the ruler they had set out to shepherd may be cleverer than they had hoped! And look at the irony of it -- he has had Hegde expelled from the Janata Dal for engaging in "anti-party activities" for the last five years.

    For four and a half of the last seven years, Deve Gowda was out of the same Janata Dal, denouncing it up and down the length and breadth of Karnataka! Not just that, in the remaining period he went around Karnataka swearing that he would never, ever again act against Hegde. That shows not just vengefulness. It tells us what weight to put upon his word.

    (that is all I was able to lay my hands on - Webmaster)

    Arun Shourie Article Collection

    Arun Shourie
    Chapters
    Why the Hon'able Court Must Hear Us Hideaway Communalism Not an Abberation, But the Theme Things to do about the Press "Arey Bhai, Masjid Hai Hi Kahaan...?" Ayodhya: Muslim Argument Examined Myths about the Swami - Part I Myths About the Swami - Part II (Quotable Quotes) Hazratbal Mosque Crisis: How and Why it Happened? Premises and their Inevitable Consequences The Wages of Calumny 'But We Have no Right?' Secular Hypocrisy, Double Standard, and Regressions "Muslims...were looking to Pakistan for help..." Spiritual Renewal the Hindu Way - I The Indian Way of Seeking The Almighty Spiritual Renewal the Hindu Way - II The Buddha's Garment Spiritual Renewal the Hindu Way - III Signs of Renewal The Hindutva Judgements: The Distance That Remains Toppling the BJP Government on the 31st No Point Saying, "But Those Days are Long Gone" With Friends Like These, Having Enemies is Better One Who has in fact Wrought a Revolution Fascism will be Inevitable if Aggression is Called Resurgence Fashion-Setters and Their Well-Honed Technology Contrivances Replace Contrivances With Contrivances With Contrivances Their Sacrifices: A Chapter from Tomorrow's Textbooks Curiosity? Myopia? Servility? Observers and Their Unalloyed Drivel The Pakistani Bomb is, and has been, a Joint Venture Third Demension to the N-threat We Face The Tantrums Which Will Follow Explosions Fabrications On The Way To The Funeral ICHR's The Eminent Entrepreneurs! Earplugs To Shut Out Their Loudspeakers! To Paradise - Via the Jehad in Kashmir! Devices to Further the Circular A Happy Result, And Something To Look Forward To The Litmus Test of Whether Your History is Secular After Selling Himself in the Flesh Market Cut, Paste and Preserve Their Calumny On Dealing With Contradictory Signals On Treasuring a Moment The Comfort of Conspiracies A State Unimagined in Law: A Wrong Without a Remedy Body-Counts Have Become Big, Compelling Business So Many Obvious Things To Do Way To Do Them Some Good Even From This Crisis Congress Culture What a Precedent to Cite! As Soldiers Put Their Lives on the Line Kargil: Who and What is Responsible? What Propels Them? What Blinds Them? Not Just an Islamic, But a Psychological State Every Disaster, a Photo-Opportunity The Jihadi Mentality: Its Recoil and Danger The Lunatic Mainstream Vs a Slender Fringe Two Questions Recent Crises Throw at us Annexation Through Technicalities To the Bitter End Pocket Edition The Realities of Pakistan An Extreme Case is not an Exception The Pope Dispels All Doubts! POTO: Interception, Confession, Confessions, Torture (Part I of II) POTO: Approve Swiftly, and then Toughen it (Part II of II) Combating Terrorism 'A State That's Patronising Terrorists Should Wake up to the Consequences; in any Case its Immediate Neighbours Must' The Judgement Vs the Interim Order Did the Court Ask, What is Mohd Aslam's Locus Standi? Political Will Hunting Where the Buck Really Stops The Manu of Our Times? The Futility of Dialogue with Babari Committee Calamities Come and Go, But Decision to Stay Remains "But how can we disobey the command of our Lord?" Objective Whitewash for Objective History (PART I of II) ! Not Just Macaulay's Offspring The Media in Crises The "Roman Brahmin" To Undo the Scandal, Undo the Control Weak to the Strong, Strong to the Weak Vital Distinctions Who Killed Australian Missionary Graham Staines? Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons If You Let Facts Interfere You Lack Party Spirit