Punishment of a Prime Minister

I'm in no mood to swipe at a wounded old man, who is also a widower. But I cannot restrain myself on commenting on the current plight of former Indian prime minister, P.U.Narasimha Rao. This old man deserves the censure he received recently from the legal arm of India, because he was an influential power-holder in India between 1991 and 1996, and during those five years, covertly and overtly did some nasty things to block the growth of the Tamil Eelam liberation movement.

The New York Times of Oct. 12 reported that, "Former prime minister P.V.Narasimha Rao was sentenced today to three years of 'rigorous' imprisonment for his role in bribing members of parliament to vote for his government in a 1993 no-confidence measure."

On Narasimha Rao, I wish to present excerpts of what I wrote seven years ago, in the Tamil Nation (Aug/Sept. 1993) under my pseudonym Sachi Sri Kantha. In a commentary entitled, 'The Prime Misfit of India', I wrote,

"As far as the Eelam Tamils are concerned, at least three actions carried out by the Cabinet and coterie of Narasimha Rao proved to us that this mean Brahmin will be punished by the Almighty for his misdeeds. First, the banning of the LTTE in India. Second, indicting the leader of LTTE, V.Prabhakaran on falsely trumped-up charges as the first accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Third, capturing the LTTE's ship in international waters and precipitating the death of Lieutenant Kiddu and his colleagues....

It should be embarassing to Rao that of the three anti-Eelam actions mentioned above, the first two were carried out to placate the moody Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha. Having been placed in a position to lead a minority government, Rao depended on the 11 Lok Sabha votes possessed by the All India Anna DMK party to give strategic support. However, as expected, Jayalalitha's political relationship with Rao turned sour lately and the prime minister was made to look like a fool in the recent No-Confidence vote, when the AIADMK MPs voted in favour of the motion....

"The current plight of P.V.N.Rao has been projected in four lines of cine lyric by poet Pattukoddai Kalyanasundaram for the 1960 movie, Paathai Theriyuthu Paar [Look - The Path is Visible!].

The verses began with,

'Unmai Oru Naal Velliyahum - Athil
Ullangal ellaam thelli vaahum.
Porumai Oru Naal Puli-yaahum - Atharku
Poiyyum Purattum Pali-yaahum.'

In translation, these lines state,

'Once the truth become freer,
Minds will be made clear.
Patience will turn into tiger - and
demolish the cheat and the liar.

"Well, for Narasimha Rao the future path seems not so rosy, because his cheating has caught up with him...."

This was written seven years ago. And I feel gratified, that my prediction has come true. In the past , Rao has paraded in the Indian political stage as a poly-glot pundit. Thus, he sure would have learnt the Tamil proverb,

Arasan anru aruppan; Theivam ninru arukkum
The king punishes instantly; the God punishes incalculably

If only he had taken the trouble not be too greedy for power, he wouldn't be in today's plight and be an object of ridicule.