The opposition's anger with the Government's conduct has been widely shared by the media. The opposition's minimum demand for allowing the House to function normally was that the Law Minister should resign, and the Railway Minister be sacked.
This year's Budget Session of Parliament had just entered its last week. No business was being transacted for several days now because almost the entire opposition was angrily demanding that Government be made to pay for the two megascams. The specific demand was for the resignation of the Prime Minister (who was Coal Minister when the coal allotments were made), the Law Minister and the Railways Minister.
Having decided to brazenly defend its two ministers, more particularly its Law Minister, whose dropping from Government would have made the PM's continuance untenable, Government adjourned Parliament sine die two days ahead of schedule, on May 8 instead of May 10.
While both the print media as well as the TV channels broadly reflected the opposition MPs' anger, I was particularly impressed by R. Prasad's cartoon in the MAIL DAILY, based on the above fairy tale by Hans Anderson. I wonder if the PM and the Congress President have seen it.
This cartoon reminds me of Abu's famous cartoon during the 1975-77 emergency depicting Rashtrpati Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in a bath tub, telling one of his aides who is handing him a document to sign, “If there are any more ordinances, just ask them to wait.” Many papers and journals critical of the establishment and/or the emergency were banned, or forced to close down. But Shankar's Weekly, the one and only cartoon periodical of those days, decided on its own to wind up. In its last editorial titled “Farewell”, dated 31st August, 1975, the editor wrote a brilliant piece.
The editorial did not even use the word Emergency anywhere, but there can hardly be a more devastating comment on the authoritarian regime of that period than this one. The editorial ran as follows :
“In our first editorial we made the point that our function was to make our readers laugh – at the world, at pompous leaders, at humbug, at foibles, at ourselves. But, what are the people who have a developed sense of humour? It is a people with certain civilized norms of behaviour, where there is tolerance and a dash of compassion. Dictatorships cannot afford laughter because people may laugh at the dictator and that wouldn't do. In all the years of Hitler, there never was a good comedy, not a good cartoon, not a parody, or a spoof.
From this point, the world and sadly enough India have become grimmer. Humour, whenever it is there, is encapsuled. Language itself has become functional, each profession developing its own jargon. Outside of the society of brother-economists, an economist is a stranger, floundering in uncharted territory, uncertain of himself, fearful of non-economic language. It is the same for lawyers, doctors, teachers, journalists and such-like.
What is worse, human imagination seems to be turning to the macabre and the perverse. Books and films are either on violence or sexual deviations. Nothing seems to awaken people except unpleasant shocks. Whether it is the interaction of the written word and the cinema on society or not, society reflects these attitudes. Hijackings, mugging in the dark, kidnappings and plain murder are becoming everyday occurrences and sometimes lend respectability by giving it some kind of political colouration.
But “Shankar's Weekly” is an incurable optimist. We are certain that despite the present situation, the world will become a happier and more relaxed place. The spirit of man will in the end overcome all death-dealing forces and life will blossom to a degree where humanity will find its highest purpose discharged. Some call this God. We prefer to call it human destiny. And on that thought we bid you good-bye and the best of luck.”
