Enigma of sorts!

Raju Korti

Among the many colourful politicians I was exercised to meet, Vidya Charan Shukla was by far the most intimidating. All the Arabian Nightsque stories about him that had been doing rounds during the country's darkest hour -- the Emergency -- had only served to accentuate my fears about the man whose father Ravishankar Shukla was the first chief minister of the reorganised Madhya Pradesh.
His home turf Raipur was earlier part of the Central Provinces and Berar and the senior Shukla -- a lawyer, freedom fighter and a veteran Congressman happened to know my father fairly well. As a matter of fact, I sought an audience with Vidya Charan purely on the basis of my father's acquaintance with his father and to be fair to the man, he agreed without any fuss. In politically conscious Madhya Pradesh, the Shuklas displayed a huge clout. Vidya Charan's elder brother Shyama Charan had already served as a CM and the family had a large stake in the state's mineral rich mining. Having won the parliamentary election from from Mahasamund as many as nine times, Vidya Charan's proximity to Indira Gandhi was quite well known. He then went on to hold a number of portfolios, but his stint as the Information and Broadcasting Minister was particularly eventful for reasons more wrong than right.This was in 1975 that got him some odium as propagandist for Indira government. Although, his ministry attracted adverse attention for the media censor policy when  freedom of expression had been brutally compromised, everyone knew who was the real architect of the gag order. Vidya Charan, like most senior Congressmen, did his bidding with the sycophancy the party has become synonymous with. His detractor Arjun Singh, another influential player in the state and national politics, was also among the famed Indira coterie in those times. However, unlike his other tainted partymen Bansi Lal and Sanjay Gandhi, Vidya Charan, always flush with authority and power, showed the gumption to own up his "excesses" before the Shah Commission post-Emergency.
Two instances must be mentioned at the cost of repetition. His purported late night knock at the doors of actress Vidya Sinha -- when the two were in the same hotel -- and telling the latter "Mai bhi Vidya tu bhi Vidya, dono milkar ho jaaye ek" and banishing Kishore Kumar from All India Radio and Doordarshan for the singer's refusal to perform at the party's rally. It was harsh on KK who had replaced the almighty Mohammed Rafi and was coming into his own. So also his role in the disappearance of several reels of the contentious film Kissa Kursi Ka, a political satire by BJP's Amritlal Nahata.
Vidya Charan just smiled at the mention. "I have come a long way since then," he told me. Indeed he had since he raised the banner of revolt against Rajhiv Gandhi and joined hands with Jan Morcha of "Mr Clean" VP Singh. The once Indira loyalist then returned to the PV Narasimnha Rao government before launching his own outfit and serving a short stint with the BJP.
Off the record, Vidya Charan was all for the separate statehood for Vidarbha but on record he preferred to be non committal, incidentally at a time when a veteran Congress leader C Subramanyam had advocated the need for smaller states. His heart lay in the newly carved tribal Chhattisgarh of which he aspired to become the first chief minister, but he hadn't forgotten how old foe Ajit Jogi with Digvijay Singh's not so tacit support, had managed to outsmart him in the run up to the top post.
"I will work for the party's unity but I left the Congress only because of Jogi and this time I will ensure unwanted party leaders do not grab power if the party wins in the assembly polls due next year," Shukla told me. "My top priority will be to unite the party in the state but my battle against unwanted elements in the Congress will continue."

Asked how his own brother Shyama Charan had voiced his opposition to the Chhattisgarh statehood, Vidya Charan conceded that his elder brother was keen to be the CM himself and that only muddied the political waters in the state, but preferred to be cagey on the question about having pulled out all stops to stymie Jogi's ascent to power.
For Vidya Charan, Chhattisgarh was a case of Paradise Lost. Having genuinely believed that the new state whose conception he so ardently wished was his, it was a huge setback to him that he couldn't garner much support for his ambition although at one time the BJP toyed with the idea of engineering a split within the state party ranks. However, all those manoeuvres were quickly laid to rest when it was seen that Vidya Charan had few takers in his own party. He felt it was "betrayal of the worst kind."
The man, who looked a bit aristocratic, and at times also behaved like one, was clearly a spent force. It is another story that he met with an end in a state where he always wanted to be but in a manner one would rather not remember.

With a lot of Re-Morse. RIP telegram!

Raju Korti

Finally, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has decided to write the epitaph of an institution that dates back to well over 150 years. In an era punctuated by up-to-the-minute technological advances, the good old telegram has been cruelly edged out by smartphones, emails and SMS. The old world charm of the telegram that often turned the world of the people topsy turvy will now be consigned to the realms of nostalgia.
The generation born in the late eighties and later will perhaps never be able to appreciate and understand the world of telegraphic communication. An email or an SMS can never carry the depth, punch and feeling of a hand-written letter for which no one has the time and patience these days. In my school days, I distinctly recall a chapter "A letter written by William Hazzlitt to his son" as a chapter in English. Today, it might be "An email sent by Steve Jobs to his son through Whatsapp." Technology is a double-edged weapon that often takes away the soul and emotion out of human life and makes it utterly robotic and bland.
In the times of post cards, envelopes and inland letters, the telegram enjoyed an exclusivity and importance the present-day systems of communication will seldom have for, they can never boast of evoking the same sense of anticipation.
The telegram threw up a spectrum of human innervation -- the joy of having landed a job, the greetings of near and dear ones on festive occasions, the arrival of a new born and the disconsolation of the bereaved. And in good time. You just had to visit a telegraph office to see the postal staff working in the chaotic sounds of the Morse Keys to know how the system worked to ensure that the service delivered many happy and sad news to people spread all over the country. It was a part of one's growing consciousness.
Such was the awe and contemplation of the telegram that unless one had a fair sense of presentiment, one would shiver untill it was opened and read. You were hit with a sledge hammer if it was about someone's death. The few suspense moments before the postman shouted "telegram" or "taar" and you signed the acknowledgement, could be killing. Only a split second stood between relief and torment.
Of course, the telegram wasn't without its comic side too. Often people who sent telegrams about their arrivals back home, ended up receiving them themselves. Telegram will indeed remain the last remnant of the saga of letters. Remember the old Hindi movie scenes where heart attacks were caused by arrival of a telegram.
With a great institution consigned to the dustbins of history, the older generation will have another subject to cud upon and relate to their younger ones. A live wire will remain mired only in archives. The country's ruralside which had steadfastly swore by the telegram has now shifted its loyalties towards the mobile phone under the BSNL's own aegis. And the striking irony is the PSU has moved on with an apologetic "What an Idea Sirji".