Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Shourie lands first punch: this one will not just be a big book

Shourie is much more focussed and scholarly than Jaswant Singh. Rajnath and Advani can kick him out – but he will be a lot harder to shut up– not the least because of his network in the press.

Shourie feels that the RSS should exercise moral authority over the RSS and leave policy and implementation to ‘others’ – meaning technocrats like him. This is hard to do in a rancorous kleptocracy like India, but is roughly the same as the idea you first read here.

The best of all – he is going to quote HV Seshadri on the partition of India in this series of articles. Sheshadri was of course one of the tallest pillars of the RSS and put the Congress (including Patel) in the dog house of the partition – and rightly so.

I will keep repeating – the ghost of Nehru should answer not only for Tibet, china 1962, penalty rate of growth – but also for 1947 (no matter how good the partition has actually been for the Hindus).
IE Article Series by Arun Shourie
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-few-extracts-from-the-book/506752/0

Must watch - walk the Talk
http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1149392

11 comments:

Srihari said...

It would be difficult to answer the questions raised by Arun Shourie. Advaniji by his unilateral visit to Jinnah Mausoleum has lost his credibility to a large extent. He did not even take his party colleagues into confidence if his comments on Jinnah were indeed for tactical reasons. Soon after 2009 Lok Sabha general elections results, Advani first sent the message that he was prepared to step aside from the responsibility of Leader of the Opposition. Very soon he changed his mind. Stories were planted in media to say that he would retire by December 2009. Long after, he clarifies that he would continue to hold the post for full term of 5 years. Why not now itself declare him as a prime ministerial candidate even for next general elections?!
Aruns Shourie's suggestions must be taken in all seriousness if BJP is to be resurrected to glory.

AGworld said...

The interview is absolutely fantastic.

Shourie is like an expert surgeon who is seeing a tumour for the n-th time.

He can locate and circumscribe the tumour with consummate ease and then remove it, cell perfect for display.

What a demonstration of intellect and intent.

bly243001 said...

Reminds me of a satire in Hindi version of Mad magazine I read long time ago. It was about what people of different nationalities do when they get together, like-

when three americans get together they talk about conquering moon and mars.

when three russians get together, nobody says a word because they don't know between them who the KGB informer is.

when three indians get together, they form a political party and then five minutes later break into three parties.

nizhal yoddha said...

to be flippant for a minute, bly, no fair: this is a malayale joke.

1 malayali is a poet
2 malayalis are one kerala samaj
3 malayalis are two kerala samajs :-)

Dosabandit said...

The ability to filter out all noise and articulate what's at the heart of an issue sets Dr. Shourie apart.

All our ELM editors get completely lost in the cacophonous noise they themselves create. Funny is this tribe of breathless newspersons.

san said...

The fact is that Jaswant Singh's pro-Jinnah comments in his book attempted to indict both Nehru and Sardar Patel -- ie. India as a whole -- rather than just Nehru alone. The gist of the comments was to exonerate/elevate Jinnah rather than to expose Nehru's shallowness. Countries don't get ripped up because of one small personality feud between idiots like Nehru and Jinnah. The fact is that Islam is the reason why partition took off. Jaswant stupidly lets Islam off the hook.
I say good riddance to him.

Likewise, I wasn't too pleased with Advani's original blink on Jinnah. It only amounts to making our nationalist convictions look frivolous.

Rajnath seems to care little about ideology, and more about positioning himself to keep control, like the backroom dealmaker he is.

I'd rather just get rid of this old guard, and go with Modi. He's charismatic, and in a poor country charisma takes you much farther than logical arguments alone will.

san said...

Yeah, I'm not too pleased with Shourie airing his dirty laundry in public, either. Why's he getting upset over the reaction against some pro-Jinnah comments which aren't worth defending?

Anonymous said...

I agree with san

Raghu said...

Shourie is making a point beyond Jinnah issue. BJP is fiddling while UPA is taking country to dogs.

san said...

In that case, he didn't have to wait for this Jinnah incident as an opportunity to make his point. By doing so, he's making a martyr out of not just Jaswant, but even also Jinnah himself.

Suhas said...

San,
Dr. Shourie has probably been very patient and "tried" to use all possible "internal" platform to air / discuss his views. He probably was snubbed / not given a hearing - hoping he will shut up for good...

Guess the Jinnah / Jaswant sacking episode was just the last straw which broke the camels back.

Unfortunately its getting very ugly now...