SHASTRI'S  DEATH

Your Prime Minister is Dead by Anuj Dhar ; Published by  Vitasta ; Pages 289; Price Rs.395/-

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The book under review deals with the sudden death of the Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent. The reader will  be left gasping at the unusual  twists and turns. It has all the makings of  a realistic  historical whodunit, the answers to which are as incredible  as the death of Shastri  itself.

The second Prime Minister of India,  Shastri was a simple person and a dedicated leader. His tenure as Prime Minister was from 9th June 1964 until his death on 11th January 1966, which is barely 19 months. Shastri was a short man but as they say “good things come in small packages”. In the short duration of his stint Shastri  achieved many things that are having a lasting impact on the development of our nation.  Shastri was a true disciple of Mahatma Gandhi . He always wore Khadi garments.

Dhar’s book  is  the first-ever comprehensive study of the elusive demise of  Shastri in a foreign land.

Surely the angel of death  was hiding in that dacha  in Tashkent that fateful night as the Prime Minister  retired after an eventful day of signing up the Indo--Pak Tashkent pact.

The Tashkent agreement between India and Pakistan was signed around 4 pm in full glare of officials and media. History was made as Shastri and Ayub Khan  shook hands.  Was this to be  the last handshake of the beloved PM ?. India and the world woke up next day to hear the sudden demise of the Prime Minister who seemed pink in health the previous evening walking around at ease as he mingled and mixed freely with several  foreign delegates.

 Shastri had died thousands of miles  away from home. The first sign of controversy  emerged  immediately after his obituary was read out  in the parliament. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first leader to lament the demise followed by many tall leaders.

Shastri’s wife Lalita  was  interviewed by  the highly respected  Hindi weekly Dharmyug.

According to her when she  saw her husband’s body it didn’t appear normal . His face was dark bluish. The body was bloated. It bore signs of cuts and clothes were soaked in blood. As the family members raised doubts suddenly from nowhere sandalwood paste was brought in and  smeared on Shastri’s face.

Shastri went to Tashkent to participate in a Soviet mediated peace talks with General Ayub Khan, the then military dictator of Pakistan. On 10th January, Shastri and Ayub Khan signed  the peace treaty which later came to be known as the Tashkent Declaration. On the early morning of 11th January at 2 a.m. Shastri died in his room at Tashkent under mysterious circumstances. Two people were witness to the final moments of Shastri, Dr. Chugh and Shastri’ s personal attendant Ram Nath.  The official statement given out by Dr. Chugh and a team of Russian doctors mentioned that Shastri died of heart attack.

When Shastri’s dead body arrived in India, people could notice that the body was swollen and had turned blackish-blue. There were cut marks on his body with dried blood. These raised serious suspicions about the reasons behind Shastri’s death. Most people were of the opinion that he must have been poisoned. Shastri’s family and the public demanded a post-mortem report on his body and an investigation to be made into the circumstances leading to his death. The then government ignored this request and over a period of time this matter faded from the public consciousness.

Anuj Dhar in his  comprehensive study covers  the discussions, observations, prejudices,  and revelations of an  unsolved  mystery that shrouded the demise. Shastri’s  son  Hari Shastri  told the media that the family suspected foul play from the very beginning . When he voiced his doubts  he was silenced by the government officials. He also revealed that  his father’s personal diary and the flask from which he had water before he died had gone missing.

Anuj Dhar has perfectly presented well-researched facts offering seemingly convincing explanations for the lacunae cited by the lawmakers. He has even pointed out the intricate details of the medication administered.

 The medical report in Russian stated that the mixture injected into Shastri’s body by the anti-shock group of doctors was of calcium chlorine, adrenaline and glucose.  While the translation of the report in English stated that to be a concoction of potassium chloride, adrenaline and glucose. The difference in the two reports obviously was due to the mistake in the translation as the Russian words for calcium and potassium are very similar.They are Kali for potassium and Kai tsi for calcium. Thus washing away the questions raised, it was stated that by no reasoning can the discrepancy be construed as creating a suspicion.

However, in spite of the initial suspicion of poisoning, no post-mortem was done, either in Russia or in India.

The author has included all the clarifications that were issued by the government proving it to be a natural death. Dhar says that he was propelled to revisit the facts as there was a constant nagging that disturbed him. He filed the first ever RTI application regarding the demise with the PMO. He did get a reply only to find his questions being transferred to different departments without giving any convincing evidence or explanation.

PMO also replied to Anuj as they stated that under section 8(1) (a) of RTI act government was not obliged to part with information whose disclosure could prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India. In 2009, the PMO had replied that it had only one document relating to Shastri’s death but refused to declassify it under a clause that would “prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of the country, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the state, relation with foreign state or lead to incitement of an offence”.

Dhar, however, was relentless in his pursuit of the truth and he has furnished  a detailed analysis of the death mystery. While many will  agree with  Dhar as he opines that he too like many sincerely want to believe that Shastriji died a natural death,  available information  compels  him to draw a conclusion to the  contrary.  Nightmarish scenarios starts startle us as we go through  the book.

There is an even more curious series of events linked to the inquiry. Two witnesses were scheduled to depose before the parliamentary body in 1977. One was Dr.R.N. Chugh, Shastri’s doctor who accompanied him to Tashkent. The second was Ram Nath, his personal servant, who was also present on the day of his death. Dr.Chugh was travelling to Delhi by road to testify before the Committee and was hit by a truck and died. Ram Nath came to Delhi and visited Shastri’s widow before the deposition. According to family members, he told her, “Bahut din ka bojh tha, amma. Aaj sab bata denge (I have been carrying this burden too long. I will shed it today).” Ram Nath left the  Motilal Nehru, residence to make his way to Parliament. He was hit by a moving vehicle, his legs crushed (eventually amputated) and he lost his memory.

 The book sheds light on the mystery, covering almost all angles thoroughly researched. He concludes with – “Countless are still restless.”

P.S--There is a Hindi film entitled " The Tashkent Files " based on this subject.

                                                                     

 P.P.Ramachandran.

25/08/2019.

NAVIN  CHAWLA--ELECTIONS

                                                                   

    Every Vote Counts : The Story of India’s Elections by Navin Chawla ; Published by Harper Collins ; Pages 376 ; Price Rs 524 /-

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The Election Commission of India derives its power from Article 324 of the Constitution .It  was instituted on January 25, 1950, a day before India became a Republic. 

 Election is described as a  “national spectacle, a collective drama, a deeply bonding experience, that contributes to the political and emotional integration of the country”. 

The book under review  by Navin Chawla, a former Chief  Election Commissioner, is a remarkable account of India’s unique experiment in electoral democracy. The author, with his ringside view of this exercise of franchise, has documented the maturing of an electorate where the system has evolved over  the decades and where the voters have time and again shown that illiteracy is different from ignorance. 

“As the world’s biggest exercise in democracy, India epitomises the will of over a billion people, of which there are over 870 million voters. It is proved beyond doubt  that every citizen is  a part of this process and that  progress is truly inclusive and all encompassing. The book is  an ode to the Election Commission of India, that has since Independence, been tirelessly working towards ensuring fair elections, despite the numerous challenges.

 Lowering of voting age from 21 to 18 years in 1989 was of great significance in this direction. Heterogeneity of political parties and the rise of coalition politics reflect diverse aspirations and the positives of power-sharing and consensus building. A stunning example of the inclusive nature of Indian democracy is that a country with a Hindu population of 80 per cent, has had four Muslim, one Sikh and two Dalit Presidents, including the current one. 

Chawla cautions against the fault-lines in Indian democracy, observing that foreign domination was in the process of being replaced by a home-grown oligarchy that had placed power in the hands of a few. Money power, muscle power and a partially compromised fourth estate, in the form of paid news, had swept away everything that Mahatma Gandhi had stood for. He said         “I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.”

The former CEC defends the use of EVMs saying they are stand-alone machines and the chip in them has a one-time-only programme and the source code is not known to anyone barring a few experts.  

Chawla dwells on proposals for electoral reforms and lists his priorities: purging criminality and tackling breaches of spending limits; transparency of funding and spending; making bribery in elections a cognisable offence; deregistering political parties that do not contest elections; and, Constitutional protection regarding  the removal of election commissioners. 

On the last proposal, Chawla has an interesting tale to narrate — how the mighty TN Seshan told the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao that there was no way he would resign nor was he going to die so soon. The only way he could be removed was to impeach him. The wily Rao then came up with the idea of appointing two more election commissioners — M.S. Gill and G.V.G Krishnamurthy. Piqued, Seshan gave them no work until chastised by the Supreme Court. Seshan told Chawla: Do you see my skin? It is the skin of a rhinoceros. If you have to do your job at the Election Commission, you had better develop it. T.N Seshan says how the CEC was lined up before Parliament twice for impeachment and the problem in giving teeth to the Model Code of Conduct. The founding fathers did not want the CEC to be a stooge and Seshan definitely was not one of them. 

The book leaves no aspect of the elections untouched — exit polls, paid news, administrative  rigmarole, Constitutional showdowns, clash with the political establishment, holding elections in troubled areas like Naxalite-infested zones and J&K, besides transgender rights, etc. That elections in India have always been held on time is a tribute to the poll panel. 

The author says the role of technology was amplified in the Cambridge Analytica case that gained access to data of 87 million Facebook users to influence voter behaviour and help the Trump campaign. It was clear Facebook could manipulate the emotional state of its users through the kind of content it chose to display to them. All this led to concern over data privacy and the US, the UK, Germany and other countries launched a probe into the effect of Facebook on voter behaviour. 

The description of the election arrangements in the Maoist corridor is like the setup for a thriller. Multiple attacks were targeted at the election officials who were brave enough to venture in these areas - bombs concealed under roads, guns fired at moving vehicles, ultimatums to boycott the election. In the middle of this atmosphere, Chawla did his part in arranging for enough security and transportation for the brave officials—eventually talking directly to the armed forces to get his requirements fulfilled.

The Kashmir state elections story from 2008 is even more complex. In this case, it was well nigh impossible to agree on an appropriate date to have the elections—voting percentages, alignment with central government elections, and other factors weighed in. Differences cropped up between the Election Commissioners themselves. The various political parties active in the state were supportive; however, they added their own quirks. Eventually, the decision was taken, the elections were held and the rest is history—with nearly 60 per cent participation.

The last part of the book focuses on the mechanics of the EC itself. One of Chawla’s main concerns is the relative role of the CEC, compared to the other two Commissioners (who were added to the Commission during the time of TN Seshan ). He goes into detail about his falling out with N Gopalaswami, the CEC, although without apportioning blame or telling any secrets.

There are interesting asides. Navin Chawla recalls his meeting with Shyam Saran Negi of Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh who voted in the first General Elections in 1951 and was probably India’s oldest voter. Negi complained that EC restrictions had taken the fun out of elections and these seemed more like a funeral these days unlike the days of yore when there would be a festival-like atmosphere. 

There is also the account of the setting up of a polling booth for just one voter in Junagadh, Gujarat, in the heart of lion sanctuary. 

The  book recalls the contribution of India’s first Chief Election Commissioner Sukumar Sen, who laid the foundation of a fragile democracy that now towers over all democratic nations.. 

The book is  a riveting account of the maturing of a fledgling democracy that keeps challenging itself through a process of ferment only to emerge with its halo intact. It is an exercise that gives people dignity, the chance to make a difference and to humble and mock pretensions.

This book is required reading for all those interested in going behind the scenes of the most logistically complex democratic exercises in the world.

P.P.Ramachandran.

18/8/2019.

MAXWELL PEREIRA--TANDOOR  MURDER

                                                                            

The Tandoor Murder  by Maxwell Pereira; Published by Context;  Pages 290; Price: Rs 599/-

                          

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This is a murder story  told so attractively that you cannot put down the book.  The tale in brief. Sushil Sharma ,Congress big-wig ,objected to his wife Naina Sahni's friendship with Matloob Karim. Matloob and Naina were classmates and fellow Congress workers. Sushil suspected Naina of having an extramarital relationship with Matloob. On the night of 2 July 1995, Sushil came home and saw Naina talking on the phone and consuming alcohol. Naina, on seeing Sushil, hung up. Sushil redialled the phone to find Matloob on the other end. Enraged, he fatally shot Naina. He took the body to a “Bagiya” a  restaurant  and tried to dispose it off with the restaurant manager, Keshav Kumar. The body was chopped into pieces and put in a tandoor to burn. Police arrested Keshav Kumar but Sharma escaped . He surrendered on 10 July 1995. The case also involved the use of DNA evidence to establish the identity of the victim.

The victim’s  body was found half-burnt in a tandoor in Delhi by one of the night patrol officers, and her husband, Sushil Sharma, who even though confessed to the crime, managed to stave off conviction for more than a decade. The  accused, Sushil Sharma,  was Naina’s partner and Youth Congress leader. More than a corkscrew was  the twists and turns in the case .  Maxwell Pereira, who was the ACP  in charge of the case, gives us an insider’s account of events as they unfolded, based on his notes and investigation reports as well as the many stories that appeared in the media.

It is a  page-turner of a book, forthright and dramatic, with unexpected nuggets of information and insights into the way policing and the legal and political systems work in India by someone whose life was spent in policing.

 The country’s conscience  was shaken in 1995 and the criminal and justice system got quite a jolt.

The book offers a ringside view of the grisly case. It had everything: a powerful politician (Sushil Sharma), his attractive wife (Naina), passion, jealousy and a burnt body in a hotel. Sharma had coolly asked for Amul butter to make the body burn faster. The corpse was a horrifying sight. The face wore “a blank horrific grin”, the teeth were exposed, and some bones were retrieved from the ashes of the tandoor.

It is not common to encounter Reminiscences of Indian police officers. Pereira who is a familiar face on  T V has produced a  thorough, chilling and candid story of the “Tandoor Murder” .He has a voice, at once literally and figuratively. He is present virtually  in every page of the thriller. He  is  woken up rudely at 1am by the shrill ring of the telephone—”a flattish, cherry-red instrument which sat malevolently’’ by his bedside. You are entranced and as he says  “It is not a thriller ,; “It is real life.”

Pereira is both  kind and emphatic. “Detached,” is how he  describes   Naina’s parents  .They refused to accept the remains.... We did everything that we could do. Yet, the parents would not say that it was Naina. The family would say, “Bring Sushil Sharma here. Let him say that it is she”

The participants leap out of the book in flesh and blood. Take the constable –from whim the story starts---Abdul Nazeer Kunju who “expected to spend the evening with his wife and three-day-old daughter, but.... would have to handle the overnight beat” and the Commissioner of Police Nikhil Kumar who had a “knack of piercing one’s ego with a few crisp questions”. Pereira is masterly in etching his characters.

Pereira recounts the progress of the case-- how Sushil Kumar and Naina Sahini’s flat was found, how Sushil was  hunted  down and captured  in Bengaluru. The trial was far from simple. “They wanted me off the case,” he says.

The ACP  has the knack of writing like  Agatha Christie and does not allow his story to lose the pace even by a minute—he has mastered the craft of good writing and makes it  gripping and credible. Though the attempt to dispose of the body is grisly Pereira manages to make the tale eminently readable.  “Tandoor Murder” is truly  spine chilling .

Pereira's insider account of the case, his notes and memories become the soul and life of this book. "I had the manuscript already worked 20 years ago," says the author. "The book is the result of notes I recorded and wrote over the two years of 1995-96 but ended up holding back for the next 18 long years till the final verdict in the Supreme Court. It was done purely in the interest of successful prosecution and especially for fear of the accused possibly using my writings in his defence to his advantage - by introducing elements of doubt or claims of procedural lapses."

Pereira comes across as utterly careful ,totally honest and forthright. According to him these qualities are  important when you are assigned a case with strong political backing . "Once you resist the pressure around you, no one will dare to trouble you. That is what my Senior once told me," he says adding, "When I see the plight of cases like the Mecca Masjid blast and Aarushi Talwar, I wish for the old days."

Pereira fills the book with lesser known details of what is perhaps the goriest murder in Indian history. Sushil Sharma's manipulative nature and his tendency to change statements every now and then, the murder aide Keshav's visit to Pereira after his sentence and so on, not to mention the media frenzy around the case then. "I had to go back to the manuscript and make a lot of changes. The trial intrigues had to be included, the tenses had to be changed. I used to call the officer in charge till 2004 to get regular updates on the case,"

Pereira’s advice to all officers is  “to never get emotional with your work. The crime scenes do make me uncomfortable, but as long as you haven't committed the murder, there is nothing to get worked up about."

Pereira's character sketches of both Naina and Sushil are comprehensive. "Most of it is through Matloob Karim, the alleged lover of Naina Sahni. He gave 164 statements. Sushil was elusive and Naina's parents did not cooperate. It was through Karim that we got to know them, and from neighbours who had a very high opinion of Sushil. That is how we knew he led a double life," says Pereira.

The tricky part of the case, according to Pereira, was evidence gathering. "We had a confession early on. It was all about finding evidence that could seal the case. That is what many officers now fail to do. They just rely on confession. Use the confession for your satisfaction, but without corroborative evidence you cannot close a case."

In fine, Pereira has produced a first-rate , fast paced “thriller ”.

P.P.Ramachandran.

11/08/2019. 

LIBERAL INDIA 

How Liberal is India?..Edited by Ronald Meinardus ; Published by Academic Foundation ; Pages 251 ; Price Rs 1195/-

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The Editor of the book under review Ronald Meinardus was the Regional Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. He headed the Foundation in Egypt, Philippines, South Korea, Greece and Turkey. He is a prolific writer on political affairs and he has to his credit one book on the Liberal movement in India. In the present book, he attempts to answer the question, “ How Liberal is India?”.

Reinhardus assembles authorities in various fields who throw light on their subjects and analyse the state of liberalism in our nation. The book arrives at the conclusion that “ Indian liberals have more in common than what separates them. There is a definite chance to forge ahead towards enhanced freedom for more people .”

There are 17 contributors who have achieved distinction in their field of studies. The introductory essay is by the Editor Meinardus  who declares that his aim is to find out—“ How to make societies better for the people by giving them more freedom  and responsibilities—in short, how to make the world a more liberal place.”

Discourse and arguments are lifelines of democracy and conditions for participation, conflict resolution and also innovation and progress. Liberal aspirations are always driven by the quest for more freedom for more individuals. Freedom stands at the core of liberal thinking, liberal advocacy, liberal policy design and governance—since  the basic principle is not negotiable.

The contributors come from different walks of life, the media, academia, civil society. All have been associated with educational programmes supported by the Naumann Foundation.

Karthik Shankar, who teaches at the Ashoka University tackles the subject, “Liberal Ideas in Indian History of Thought”. His essay delineates a brief history of how Indian Liberalism has become silenced and irrelevant under the strain of Hindu nationalism or Hindutva. Liberalism faced its first onslaught with the ascent of Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister. She declared Emergency, concentrated powers in herself, weakened the Judiciary. Her reign was a marked attack on civil liberties such as the right to protest and free speech. A  new  Liberalism has risen in India and it is different from the one articulated by traditional, metropolitan English speaking elites and it is shaped profoundly by Indian cultural conditions. Liberal democracy is strengthened by movements of resistance.

Barun Mitra –a commentator on public policy and a co-founder of Liberty Institute—an independent think tank--attempts to answer the question,  “Was Gandhi a Liberal?”. Gandhi held Truth as God, was wedded to non-violence and looked at politics as a vehicle for human upliftment for his path to salvation. Liberals lost Gandhi as they lost their own intellectual moorings but he will still be providing  a way for liberals to rediscover their own roots and reclaim the lost political ground.

Two writers Sanjoy Hazarika—a human rights activist, Director  of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative--  and Sarthak Roy---also a part of CHRI and authority on Public International Law-- have thoroughly studied “ The Idea of Justice and the Ideal of Liberalism in India”. People  turn to the idea or meaning of justice when they themselves have experienced injustice. The best example is that of Mahatma Gandhi, who began his quest for justice when he experienced the humiliation and sting of racism and apartheid in South Africa.

Their essay analyses the mobilisation of voices or focus on economic policy and planning for India under a mix of a liberal  and left political regime or ethos. In this context the Right to Information ( RTI) law passed by Parliament in 2005 has great significance. It has been used by some 10 million people and has helped robust civil society to block efforts by governments to shackle liberty.

The authors underscore the fact that it is in the implementation of  such laws that liberal democracies and structures can grow. It is a right that governments must anchor, protect and sustain, not oppose.

Nikhil Pahwa---Founder and Editor of MediaNama a journal on technology policy in South Asia and co-founder ofSavetheinternet which fights for Net neutrality-- analyses critically  Digital India and the chances and challenges to individual freedom while there has been a focus on enabling investment, startups bringing more people online. A decided shift has been made towards establishing a command and control mechanism for activities on the Internet. Under the directions of Nandan Nilekani, the Aadhar Biometric System was inaugurated. This provides every Indian resident a unique identity number linked to their biometrics. Over 1.23 billion Aadhar numbers  had been generated. Pahwa notes the emergence of a threat to individual liberty from multiple perspectives and Government attempting to control both content and behavior of individuals.

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri –the Foreign Editor of Hindustan Times and adviser to the Mitsubishi Corporation--has studied in depth the status of Press freedom in India. The true guaranteers of press freedom in our country is the plethora of platforms, literally to many to control and the competitiveness among the various media players. Its ultimate weakness is the relative passivity of the large Indian population to the state of the media and a continuing assumption that the State is more to be trusted than the newspaper or television news shows.

Various instruments of State control remain and will remain so long as the Government retains a large economic and regulatory footprint. It is the structure of the media industry and the degree of public awareness about this issue that determines the ability of the press to withstand such pressure.

This is a impressive volume of immense use to students of public policy, upholders of liberty and those who value freedom.

P.P.Ramachandran

4/8/2019.