Prof. Pandu : Mr. Ansari! Have you come across a news item about an interesting case in a Calcutta court.......?

Advocate Ansari : A case? Of what sort? Was it a case about some constitutional point......

Prof. Pandu : Oh! No! A simple case about a motorist......

Doctor Damu : Was there a fatal accident, Professor!

Prof. Pandu : No, Doctor! No accident. A motorist was fined by a magistrate ....... for an offence, which is interesting. A few days ago a Calcutta motorist was hauled up before the court, for displaying his number plate in Bengali.

Doctor Damu : What if? Bengali is the official language for Bengal. Is it not so......

Advocate Ansari : It may be so, Doctor! But the Motor Vehicles Act stipulates that the number-plates of vehicles running in the city should be in 'English'.......

Doctor Damu : Now I understand the case ..... and so, for contravening the act, the motorist was fined.....

Prof. Pandu : Yes, Sir! Fined. But how much? One rupee! Yes! Only one rupee! Law requires the Magistrate observed that it is an offence and so merits a fine, but he observed further that particular law is defective. Since the majority of the people in Calcutta know Bengali, it is not necessary that law should stipulate that number plates should be in English only.

Doctor Damu : The Bengalis as a whole are proud of their language and want that Bengali should be given the highest place of honour....

Prof. Pandu : More than that, Doctor! The Bengalis are up in arms against Hindi becoming the sole official language of India.

Doctor Damu : Exactly like ourselves, I think. I think resistance to Hindi as the official language has been recognised by the present Govt. of India. The Education Minister, Mr. Trigun Sen has expressed in that way.......

Prof. Pandu : In a way, Sir, in a way. But I am afraid Mr. Sen is vacillating now and then.......He champions the cause of the regional languages vigorously, but nullifies all the hopes raised by such advocacy, by suddenly championing the cause of Hindi.....

Doctor Damu : I am told, Mr. Sen is an educationist of repute ...... Vice-chancellor of some university.

Prof. Pandu : True, Sir! Mr. Sen is an educationist of repute ....... an eminent Vice-chancellor ....... but as an administrator he has to overcome so many hurdles, and finds it extremely difficult to translate theories into actualities.

Doctor Damu : Quite so ....... especially in an atmosphere which is very disturbing ....... None can feel happy or hopeful about democracy after reading about the awkward scenes witnessed in the Bihar State Assembly......

Prof. Pandu : Why leave out the Parliament, Sir! There was commotion galore ...... adjournment of the House there too. I don't know what the common man will think about all these moods and deeds. Perhaps he will think that unable to solve the difficult problems confronting them, the masters are fretting and foaming and hence all this disturbances......

Doctor Damu : We are now told that due to the clash between Egypt and Israel, the freight charges we have to pay has risen up; and extra 35 crores, they say, is to be paid by us.......
Advocate Ansari : And there seems to be no end of the trouble ..... flare-ups occur ...... war is in the air.......

Prof. Pandu : Yes, Sir! War is always contagious, and though the present form of statesmanship seems to be to localise it, it appears that once begun, it becomes extremely difficult to extinguish the fire.......

Advocate Ansari : Like the fire in the slums in Madras.....

Prof. Pandu : Sir! Since the police are investigating I refrain from expressing any opinion on that ....! But these have taken place in the slum areas, is really terrific. These poor people already in the grip of poverty, starvation and malnutrition, are now victims of vandalism.

Doctor Damu : They deserve all our sympathies ... and Professor, I fully endorse the plan chalked out by the C.M. for their relief and rehabilitation.......

Prof. Pandu : Your endorsement Doctor, is valuable, but your contribution would be appreciated much more than mere endorsement .......! We should contribute something substantial from our club.

Advocate Ansari : The response to the appeal issued by the C.M. seems to be good......

Prof. Pandu : Contributions are really encouraging ...... but for the C.M's plan to yield full results, more funds are needed. You know, he wants that these unfortunate people should be provided with non-inflammable habitations......

Advocate Ansari : And in the City, there are nearly six hundred slums.......

Prof. Pandu : The task before the C.M. is colossal ........ but anyhow it has to be tackled. Looked at from any angle, these huts, ought not to be allowed to remain ....... they are the easy targets for villainy ........ it is inhuman to keep lakhs of people in dirt and disease, danger and desolation. .....! Cheap and clean abodes should be provided for them. As the Chief Minister himself has stated, the problem can be solved only by continued effort.

Doctor Damu : And what explanation can those people who were in power for such a long period, offer ....? Why did they allow this awkward problem to grow so much ....? If only they had executed an intelligent plan, a decade ago, this problem would not have assumed such a shape ...! Slums were allowed to spring forth almost everyday.......

Doctor Damu : True, Sir! But if we are to engage ourselves merely in the task of calling for the accounts from the ex-ruling party, problems will not be solved. And this is a problem wherein all should join hands ...... it is not to be confined to the petty domain of party politics......

Advocate Ansari : Talking about domains, have you seen Professor, the speech of the Vice-President last week......

Doctor Damu : You mean Mr. V.V. Giri......

Prof. Pandu : Of course! And Mr. Ansari is referring to the Vice-President's speech at Bombay. Yes, Sir! I did notice it.....and I was much attracted by it.......The Vice-President is hopeful about the World State......an ideal that has been advocated by eminent men....... a good idea.......

Advocate Ansari : A World State Professor! Are we to entertain that idea with any confidence ... with flare-ups in the Middle East, and continuous bombing in Vietnam ...

Prof. Pandu : Sir! Somebody said, that dawn is always preceded by a thickness of darkness! Who knows.... states may get exhausted so much that they would themselves sponsor this idea of World State ...

Advocate Ansari : Professor! Your intention is to pay the highest respect to the Vice-President ... that is why you are saying that the World State idea is bound to become a fact. But we begin to doubt about the effectiveness of the United Nations organisation itself...

Prof. Pandu : There is nothing to be wounded at, Sir! Even Mr.Giri has admitted that he himself was doubtful about the effectiveness of a body similar to the U.N.O. He has stated in that speech that at one time he used to call the League of Nations as the League of Notions ... Now he is convinced about the prospects of a World State ... keeping the U.N.O. as the guardian over all the separate states ...

Advocate Ansari : China, Professor, will ridicule the very idea... China dubs the U.N.O. as a department of the Government of the United States of America .... a den of the big powers ..... a saloon for the diplomats with the monocle...

Prof. Pandu : Sir! China employs dirtier words too. It is blinded by its own growing power. But you should know, that in spite of its war drums, China is practical too as far as self-interest is concerned. While all of us are thinking that the mention of the very name of America makes China jump up and howl and curse, China is busy in its trade relations with America ... in a round about way ....

Doctor Damu : That is amazing and unthinkable. You better explain Professor.

Prof. Pandu : With pleasure Doctor! Let me read out a press cutting .... It is from 'New Times' - a Soviet Magazine....

"Two-thirds of China's foreign trade was with capitalist countries "despite Peking's expression of firm support for oppressed peoples," Tass reported on July 7.

"China had substantial trade with the U.S. and added that this even included steel for the U.S. war programme in Vietnam,

"For its commercial dealings with the U.S. Peking uses Hong Kong insurance companies, import-export firms, shipping companies and banks."

"At the end of last year, the Chinese had sold to the Americans in Vietnam several thousand tongs of steel for military construction."

"U.S. trade with Hong Kong in 1965 was 500 million dollars and that the, Hong Kong inhabitants could not absorb this sum on their own and that "money found its way to China".

"China continues to trade with the racist regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa. Trade between South Africa and China totalled ten times in 1963 than in 1961, Since 1963 no figures have been published."
Advocate Ansari : This is really amazing ... China while it carries on a vendetta against America is all the while earning profits through trade with that country.

Prof. Pandu : They are such effective adepts in the art of false propaganda. Most of us are bound to be bewitched. Sir! You know the anecdote ... a boy asked his father, 'Dad! What is a diplomat' ... and the father replied, 'a diplomat is a husband who can convince his wife that she wants an umbrella when she thinks she wants a fur coat ...'

Advocate Ansari : I am reminded about the Mink Coat ...

Prof. Pandu : About the controversy over the Mink Coat, raised sometime ago in the Parliament?

Advocate Ansari : No Sir! Not about that. I read so nowhere, that these Minks are now being killed in large numbers ...

Doctor Damu : Minks killed? Why? What is the purpose ...?

Advocate Ansari : The usual profit motive .. avarice in a way. Mink Coats are now costly you know. They want the price to remain at a high level. But if there are Minks in large numbers, the price falls. So they destroy these Minks.

Prof. Pandu : That is most cruel. But the urge to get profit is so intense, that it drives them to any length and any depth. Most deplorable indeed. Traders do sometimes adopt such inhuman and dirty methods. I have come across a news item, depicting such dirty method. But this is the doing of a lesser being. A Hong Kong hotel waiter, presented a menu card .... and he was given four months jail for the same.

Advocate Ansari : For having in his possession a menu card? Why that cannot be an offence! As a matter of fact a waiter should have a menu card.

Prof. Pandu : But this was "an inflammatory menu". Do you know how he named some of the dishes? In that menu card the name of the dishes were .... Roasted John Beef - Baked laper cat from Government house - Stripped Chiang's spy pigs - Boiled Bourgeois shirimps - for dessert there was Blood and tears mixed plate of police stations.

Doctor Damu : Why should such terrifying names be given Professor? Was it merely his fancy or prank.

Prof. Pandu : I don't think so, Sir! Hong Kong as you know is fast becoming a hot-bed of Maoist deeds ... The waiter was but catering to the cruel tastes of such elements.

Advocate Ansari : And in such an atmosphere, it is amazing that Vice-President Giri is hopeful about a World State...

Prof. Pandu : Sir! it is exactly because of the prevalence of such inhumanity and cruelty licensed in the name of National State or Mother Land or Father Land, some of the nobler souls think so. I do want the emergence of a world state. From being the repository of distinct culture and wealth, National States are fast becoming, barracks wherefrom fighting forces are sent forth for the inhuman purpose of butchering people, devastating properties and enthroning savagery. Hence that urgency for the emergence of the World State has become intense.

Advocate Ansari : That is a lofty idea, Sir...

Prof. Pandu : Yes, Sir! A lofty idea ... like the distant star, if you would like it that way. But hope, somebody has stated is Morning star. Let us all realise the necessity for such an ideal.... and no goal is unattainable however high it is ...

Advocate Ansari : Sir! Your mentioning about the goal, reminds me about the case I have on hand... You know about the foot-ball case I am handling .... wherein the goal-keeper is charged with conspiracy...

Prof. Pandu : Mr. Ansari! We won't troble you about the details... and without the relevant papers with you, you are apt to give a confused version of the entire case. So, I suggest that we depart right now; you to your case-file, and me to my library. Good Night.

(Home Rule - 16-7-1967)