Satire: a way of criticizing people or ideas in a humorous way, especially in order to make a political point, or a piece of writing that uses this style

Harishankar Parsai is considered to be one of the greatest satirists in the Hindi language. My previous post on Pagdandiyon ka Zamana was a celebration of his perspective on the contemporary issues. Then I read Tulsidas Chandan Ghisain. This book is a collection of his columns published in the Hindi magazine Sarika. He wrote two columns – Tulsidas Chandan Ghisain and Suno Bhai Sadho. In the first one he took the character of Goswami Tulsidas and in the second one that of Kabir. This book feels less satirical and more vitriolic. Sarika was published fortnightly and maybe it had other viewpoints as well, but this collection is continuity in criticism of anyone who has even a slight problem with Mrs. Indira Gandhi or Congress.

The column Tulsidas Chandan Ghisain was published between 1984 and 1985. Sarika came out fortnightly, so these would’ve been published over an eight months period. Indira Gandhi was assassinated during this period (October 1984) and in the aftermath, two major events took place. The 1984 anti Sikh riots and Rajiv Gandhi’s appointment as the Prime Minister of India. In this post I will discuss some themes that emerged for me.

Parsai Jee was Godi intellectual?

There wasn’t much media during those days. Journalism was limited to the newspapers and news magazines. Radio and TV were in control of the government and reported what was told to them. We did not have news channels which are active 24 hours these days. The opinions of the public could be shaped by intellectuals who were widely respected and widely published.

Parsai Jee was one of those intellectuals. But there were others as well. In some of the essays Parsai Jee takes them apart for being an idealist, socialist, revivalist or anything else as long as its not Congressi. He speaks about Mahadevi Verma. During the Emergency rule, she had said that Indira’s hands are painted in blood. Then Emergency was lifted, Indira lost the election. A government was formed by a united opposition. That government did not succeed in completing its five years due to internal factionalism. Again there were elections and Indira became the Prime minister. Mahadevi Verma was honoured with the Jnanpith award and she received it from Mrs. Gandhi. A lot of criticism was heaped upon her for taking this award.

Parsai Jee first defends Mahadevi Verma for taking the award from Indira. And then he also discredits Mahadevi Verma for being a dreamer and divorced from reality.

He also talks about other towering intellectuals of that era, such as Agyeya and Baba Nagarjun. Agyeya had studied South East Asian culture under an American Foundation fellowship. This was the time when India was firmly with Russia. For a common “Nehru-Socialist” Indian, USA was the epitome of Capitalist evil. According to Parsai Jee, if you are funded by the USA then you are probably working for the CIA. That brings me to the second common theme.

Association with USA means you are on CIA payroll

This fascination and speculation did not stop at the intellectuals only. In one of the essays, Parsai Jee says that Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on CIA payroll. He was a CIA stooge and was against the great socialist republic that we wanted India to become. Atal ji and Bharatiya Janta Party in general wanted India to become a Right wing, capitalist country. Much like the USA.

Apparently, there were certain findings reported against Mr. Vajpayee regarding funds received from USA/CIA. Atal Ji is one of the most respected parliamentarian and ex-Prime minister of India. So naturally, I was curious. I did a search and found two different archived articles from the New York Times.

The first one is – INDIA TALKS OF C.I.A. ROLE IN UNREST (1984)

This one is a report on how India claimed that the Punjab unrest was being fanned by the support of CIA and through Pakistan. While India pins the blame of ammunitions supply at the door of Pakistan, the article quotes Atal Bihari Vajpayee thus –

”I have yet to see the evidence,” said Atal Bihari Vajpayee, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a former Foreign Minister. ”I don’t think the Government of Pakistan is that stupid.”

Echoes of how the opposition questioned the Balakot strikes a few years ago. Isn’t it?

The second one is more interesting – Moynihan Charges on C.I.A. Aid Stir Call for Inquiry in New Delhi

In this one, an ex-Ambassador to India, Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan says in his book that the Central Intelligence Agency contributed money to an Indian political party. Interestingly, the money was given twice and both the times to the Congress party so that they can defeat the communists in Kerala and West Bengal state elections. Apparently, Mrs. Gandhi herself took the money when she was still a party official.

This article was published in 1979 and Atal Ji was the Foreign Minister of India in the Morarji Desai government. The article names him and says He enquired the senator about this and the Senator stood by the comments.

You can make what you want to make out of this. One thing is very clear, USA was considered evil and whosoever was associated with them was not good for India. We were firm friends of USSR.

Horse trading and Resort politics

If you read Parsai Jee in this book and try to relate his observations of the time to this era, you will be surprised at the similarities. Some examples are below.

All of opposition is opportunist. They will sell themselves to whosoever is the highest bidder. They just want to get into Power by hook or crook. He gives example of Bhajan Lal, who was considered a master of Horse trading. Bhajan Lal was a minister with several portfolios in Devi Lal’s Janata Party government of Haryana in 1977. Then in 1979, he defected to Congress party with a group of MLAs thereby bringing down the Devi Lal government. Parsai Jee says of this episode – Bhajan Lal got a flock of goats and took a wholesale rate to sell them to become the chief minister. He doesn’t have any criticism for the buyer though.

N.T. Ramarao is not a leader. According to Parsai Jee, he basically translated his on-screen persona to reality by wearing saffron and taking out Chaitanya Rath. He is not serious and is bad news for Indian Democracy. The Andhra politics went through momentous upheaval in 1983-84. Tired of the inept rule of the Congress party, NTR launched the Telugu Desam party in 1982. In 1983, he became the chief minister of the state by defeating Congress party. In an year and a half, the governor of Andhra removed NTR from office while he was in the USA for an open heart surgery. NTR came back from the USA and then fought for his right. He collected all his MLAs and kept them hidden in Karnataka till the final vote of confidence could take place. The resort politics started here.

When the governor acts and brings down state governments of Farukh Abdullah in Jammu and Kashmir and NTR’s government in Andhra, Parsai jee says that getting and keeping power is highest Dharma of a political leader. Unless you rule, you can’t implement your policies. According to him, there is no opposition in India. See below passage –

Compare this with the general refrain of “There is no alternative” that is pervasive today. This is an angry book. Parsai Jee is angry at everyone who is not working towards strengthening our relationship with Russia, strengthening the Congress government, keeping and maintaining the status quo. When Chaudhari Charan Singh raises question on Rajiv Gandhi’s eligibility for becoming the Prime minister, Parsai Jee says – the pyre of Indira was not yet cold when Charan Singh raised this question. If we had the same level of media coverage saturation during those days, Parsai Jee would’ve been considered a party spokesperson.

Reading this book was an experience. May we keep learning together and inspiring each other.