Advocate Ansari : Your prediction Professor, has come true - the DMK Candidate has won in the Upper House election ...!

Doctor Damu : .... Also the Swatantra Candidate ....

Prof. Pandu : Yes, both of them. And did you notice Doctor, the difference in the votes as between that young man Arivalagan and the Congress Candidate .... ?

Doctor Damu : Remarkable, I should say. Really, brilliant. And that should make the Congress leaders review their method of propaganda afresh. They are thinking that to emit fire and prime-stone is the best propaganda. But that has not paid them the dividend they hoped for.

Prof. Pandu : Sir! The Congress leaders are somehow asked to munch hope and confidence - hope for an early 'come back' and confidence about the waning of the influence of the DMK .....

Advocate Ansari : But the victory registered by the DMK Candidate, and the success of Mr.Seshadri should open their eyes .... they ought to realise now at least about the real state of affairs .....

Prof. Pandu : No, Sir! I do not think that the Congress will change its ways. No! The top leaders are led to believe that vituperation is the sharpest of weapons to 'down the DMK'. Anxious to somehow recapture power, they have become frantic, their vision is blurred.

Doctor Damu : That is unfortunate really. As unfortunate as the adamancy exhibited by President Johnson in the Viet Nam problem.

Prof. Pandu : Sir! I am told that the Viet Nam issue will become a deciding factor in the coming Presidential election. Those who are to challenge President Johnson, I am told have already drafted their war-cry - 'Bring back the Boys' .... !

Advocate Ansari : That is bound to have a tremendous impact on the women voters of America.

Prof. Pandu : Experts point out that the influence of President Johnson is waning. The intellectuals are up in arms against the present Viet Nam policy. And the other day I found from the newssheet that the Peace Corps Volunteers who have returned from the scene of war, have indicted Johnson's policy.

Advocate Ansari : I would say, Professor, that, that is real democracy. They in America are not afraid to criticise and warn the party in power, or the personality at the White House. Democracy surely, is not to be equated with sheer docility.

Doctor Damu : Whatever the reasons advanced by the President for carrying on the war in Viet Nam, I do not think that the American nation will allow its President to throw more and more millions of money and thousands of young men into a pit the depth of which is growing day by day. Rich as America is, it cannot go on squandering ...

Prof. Pandu : Wars, big or small, with or without any understandable reason, are wasteful. The money drained for that purpose is indeed huge ...!

Advocate Ansari : Money that is urgently needed for developmental purposes .... money that can be spent on non-developed nations .... and with good results, is being wasted ....

Prof. Pandu : The amount already spent is really staggering. Not only in America, but also in other places. Do you know Sir, how much did Britain have to bear due to the Arab-Israel conflict? The figures presented are of a terrific dimension ..... 100,0000,00 pounds ... just because the Suez Canal remains closed.

Doctor Damu : How noble would it have been if that huge amount has been harnessed to ameliorative efforts .... to fight ignorance and poverty, disease and dirt .... ?

Prof. Pandu : Mr. Fulbright thunders often about this aspect of the problem...

Doctor Damu : Many others too. But Mr.Johnson, it is reported, is calm, confident. His faith remains unaffected ....

Advocate Ansari : Stands as a 'Rock' perhaps! Was it not Mr.Nanda who stated thus, as regards the former Chief Minister Mr.Bakthavatsalam.

Prof. Pandu : Some days ago it was reported in the press that unless the war is ended, there is bound to be a near-chaos situation in various sectors.

Doctor Damu : President Johnson, I am afraid, is under the grip of a false sense of prestige .... that is why he is prolonging the Viet Nam War. One has to pay heavily indeed for one's own prejudice .....

Prof. Pandu : That reminds me about the colossal amount spent in Malaysia - to fight the Communist guerillas - by the British Government. House of Commons Estimates Committee which investigated British defence expense over-seas, disclosed that an establishment of 102 dogs in Singapore cost 110,000 pounds to maintain - nearly 14,000 Rupees per year per dog!

Doctor Damu : If such rich countries like the United States and Britain are put to a severe stain due to the high cost of a war, how much more ought to be the strain to our economy to face a war?

Advocate Ansari : And I think that is the reason why Mr.Moraji Desai is saying that ultimately there is bound to be peace and concord between India and China ....
Prof. Pandu : But unfortunately China is in no mood to be reasonable, or even civilised. Not a day passes without China pouring forth insult on some country or other...

Doctor Damu : The Chinese have not spared even the Left Communist Party of India ...! They have begun chastising .... and the weapon is of course foul language.

Prof. Pandu : Sir! When one is puffed up with wrath and prejudice, the language becomes foul .... The Chinese utilise the gutter-stuff style ... they have specialised in that style I think. But there are other forms of attack. I am reminded of an instance. Once an editor of a news paper had to attack another news paper ... the article written is a class by itself.

Doctor Damu : Foul words were hurled in plenty I suppose.

Prof. Pandu : I can't say that the language was foul ... but it was tremendously powerful .... it was full of stinging satire .... Wrote that journal thus : I can but wonder what will become of the Times editor when the breath leaves his feculent body and death stops the rattling of his abortive brain; for he is unfit for Heaven and too foul for Hell. He cannot be buried in the earth lest he provoke pestilence nor in the sea lest he poison it.....

Advocate Ansari : That is tremendously powerful ....!

Prof. Pandu : But Mr. Advocate, it exhibits a very very bad taste. Thiruvalluvar said two thousand years ago that to utilise harsh word when soft ones are available is like stealing unripe fruits when sweet fruits are available.

Doctor Damu : Our people have built up a high sense of nobility in thought, word and deed.....

Prof. Pandu : ...... and that, Doctor, at an age when most of the countries around us were groping in the dark unable to find out and establish norms and codes of conduct ...! The Tamilian culture was one of the finest ones ....

Advocate Ansari : We should make the modern world realise this .... We may be .... are really .... poor today, so far as material objects are concerned, but rich indeed is our legacy, culture and history.

Prof. Pandu : You are right Mr.Advocate ... and an ample opportunity comes forth soon, in the shape of the World Tamilian Conference .... to be held in Madras. Delegates from many countries are going to attend this conference ... and if it is conducted on the right lines and efficiently, a mighty impact can be created ... the world can be made to realise and accept the superiority of our culture ....

Doctor Damu : The conference is bound to be a grand success .... the party in power today will certainly make it historic.

Prof. Pandu : Not, if we remain dull, dormant or indifferent .... We should contribute out mite, to make it a great success....

Advocate Ansari : None would grudge giving encouragement for such a noble effort ....

Prof. Pandu : But the Congress party in our state would surely withhold its co-operation. In fact, it would even actively decry the effort itself.

Doctor Damu : But everybody knows pretty well that the Congress Party is itching for power, and hence will go on misinterpreting anything the DMK Government comes forward to do. The Congress party seems to think that the people voted them out of power only because of a temporary frenzy.....

Prof. Pandu : But keen observers and unbiassed critics do come forward from time to time, to call a spade a spade. The other day we were discussing about the indictment launched by that Grand Old Man ..... endearingly termed as Frontier Gandhi ....

Advocate Ansari : But, Professor! A Congress friend of mine when I brought it to his notice brushed it aside by saying that Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan is so far, far away from India today, politically ... by that he is not posted with all relevant facts ... hence his criticism is born out of sheer ignorance ....

Prof. Pandu : If that is the stand that is taken by your friend - the Congressman .... I can only say that he is only shielding himself with impertinence. Granting, just for the sake of argument that the Frontier Gandhi is not entitled to offer such criticism, what explanation can he give us for the criticism levelled against the Congress by Mrs.Vijayalakshmi Pandi .....?

Advocate Ansari : Surely, Mrs. Pandit cannot be dismissed as a person of no importance by even the rashest of Congressmen.

Prof. Pandu : And such a high personage - Mrs. Pandit has stated, quite recently that, "the congress losses in the last general elections were due to the fact that Congressmen had totally forgotten their pledges to the people." Mrs. Pandit remarked that "the country had lost the vision which Gandhiji placed before it. A country which lost its vision would perish and we are 'near-perishing' today".

Doctor Damu : None would be impertinent enough to ignore Mrs. Pandit's words of advice ....

Prof. Pandu : You are mistaken Sir! Most of those Congressmen in power would denounce Mrs. Pandit ... and declare that frustration has made Mrs. Pandit utter such uncharitable remarks .... They still believe that the people can be hoodwinked and led astray.

Doctor Damu : .... Not for all-time to come ... No! Not at the present moment.... the people are today more enlightened than ever before and it is not possible today to lead them astray ...

Advocate Ansari : That attitude is entirely due to the fact that Congressmen are afraid to remain without the lime-light for a long period. They are apprehensive of a total liquidation.

Prof. Pandu : Sir! No democrat would wish for a liquidation of the Congress Party. It should remain in good shape, to offer its honest and sincere criticism about the Non-Congress Government, with patience and responsibility. A party which was in power for such a long period as twenty years, should be capable of playing its part in a dignified manner. It should not degenerate into a camp of disgruntled elements. And more than that, unfettered by power an position the Congressmen and for that matter any good a citizen can play a noble role in serving the people.

Advocate Ansari : That is possible only if an individual or a party is imbued with an ideal and regulates the activities in such a way as to discard self-interest ....

Prof. Pandu : Mr. Ansari, you have clarified the issue perfectly well. Talking about ideals and objectives, I am reminded of the saying of that noble soul, Dag Hammarskjold. Said that eminent Humanitarian,
"The day you were born
Everybody was happy,
You cried alone!
Make your life such
That in your last hour
All others are weeping
And you are the only one
Without a tear to shed!
Then you shall calmly face
Death whenever it comes."

Doctor Damu : What a noble ideal ... and how fine is its presentation ...!

Prof. Pandu : And Doctor, that noble soul, lived up to that ideal .... dedicated his life for a noble cause ... and he died in harness .....

Advocate Ansari : And the manner of his end cannot but be termed as poignant ....

Prof. Pandu : Such men Mr.Ansari, are never dead ... No! they live always through their deeds .. I was thrilled, when late night I have had an occasion to read about, this noble soul....

Doctor Damu : Professor! Why not we one day arrange a talk about him....?

Prof. Pandu : We need not Sir! For, an invitation has been extended to me by our local College Union to unveil a portrait of that noble man and say a few words about him ... and I have accepted that invitation with thanks.

Advocate Ansari : That is a pleasant piece of news .... and Doctor! Should we not attend that meeting? ....

Doctor Damu : Sure! Are we fools to miss that opportunity ... And now I think we should start home. Professor Pandu should be given time for further study about the man and his mission.

Prof. Pandu : That is very kind of you Doctor! Let us start.

(Home Rule - 3-9-1967)