Erich Segal: Poet, Historian, Novelist

I did not believe my eyes when I read that Erich Segal the author of Love Story had died in London. I remember reading this wonderful novel set in Harvard and Radcliffe which touched all the emotional and political chords of the 1960's USA: a more innocent and less politically correct time. I was in High School when I read Love Story and I was struck up the culture and openness of American University education, and that impression prompted me to go to the US for my graduate studies. From the first line: What can you say of a girl of 24 who died. That she was young and beautiful and that she love the Beatles, Beethoven and me" to the last this novel is a wonderful depiction of class in urban America. But done is an evocative manner. Of course the whole story was just a mushy romance, but the humanity was genuine.
I am sure that this scholar with a Ph D in Classics who taught Latin and Greek at Oxford was influenced by the great traditions of European tragedy particularly Sophocles who was in the fragility of human existence the inexorable hand of fortuna.
Some of the lines from this novel like Bob Dylan's "blowin in the wind" have become part of American popular culture.
Erich Segal deserves to be remembered as a great scholar and novelist.

DMK MINISTERS WATCH AS POLICEMAN IS HAKED TO DEATH

I have always maintained that Tamil Nadu has degenerated into medieval barbarism under the Dravidian dispensation. By this I include all political,parties of Tamil Nadu and most certainly the two prime Dravidian parties. I have no hesitation in saying that had Shri E V Ramaswamy Nayakkar been alive to day he would have rejected the criminalised identity politics of the two Dravidian parties.
Nothing illustrates the degeneration of the political culture and humanity in Tamil Nadu than the callous manner in which two manmamigus (sarcasm intended) the ministers Pannerselvam and Muhammad watched with utter disdain the death of Shri Vettrivellan, a sub-inspector of Police in Tinevelly District who was involved in arranging the security for the ministers. A few minutes before the arrival of the convoy of the manmamigus Shri Vettrivellan had been attacked with country bombs and hacked with avuvals (a local weapon glorified in Tamil Nadu as the Tirupacchi) and as he lay dying the two honourable ministers watched the fun with their dothis folded up and not one of them even bothered to send the dying man to the hospital even though an ambulance was part of the ministerial convoy.
Tinvelly district has become notorious for gang warfare between Maravars and Kallar politicos and thew police are part of the gang warfare as they are used by rival gangs to settle scores. This kind of violent politics has been going on in the region since the late eighteenth century and it is high time factional fighting is checked. Rayalseema area of Andhra Pradesh is another region where such violence has become rampant.
The two ministers must be forced to resign as they acted in a highly irresponsible and criminal manner.

K P S Gill is not S P S Rathore: Do not Humiliate a Hero

K P S Gill, the former DGP of Police in the strife ridden state of the Punjab at the height of the "Khalistan" terrorism was the man responsible for defeating the menace of terrorism in the region: the security won by this brave and fearless policeman was squandered away by the dynastic fascist Party called the Congress, which launched the pogrom of massacre against the Sikhs after the demise of Indira Gandhi. I agree that his behavior in the Governor's party when he intentionally patted the bottom of Mrs Rupam Bajaj IAS and the acting Chief Secretary of the state was in bad taste. But that act in and of itself does not constitute molestation or even an attempt to "outrage" the modesty of the lady. The very fact that the objectionable action took place in full public view shows that the intent was only misguided bravado and nothing more. KPS Gill did not bring his influence and stature to either suppress the facts or evade accountability for his misguided act. He was punished and he has appealed. The fact that Mrs Rupam Bajaj was not a 14 year old school-girl but a senior IAS officer has to be borne in mind and moreover the system did not fail her. The governor acted immediately.

This is not the case with Ruchika. She was molested and false cases foisted on her younger brother in order to further traumatise and humiliate the family of the victim. Moreover she committed suicide as she was just too young to bear the terrible consequences of the predator S P S Rathore IPS. Anyone suggesting a moral equivalence between K P S Gill and S P S Rathore is trivialising the death of the young child and molestation of a young impressionable child is an altogether different proposition than patting the bottom of a Chief Secretary. Certainly K PS Gill was in the wrong but to somehow suggest that he too is in the same category as that criminal S P S Rathore is altogether misplaced.

K P S Gill ruthlessly hunted the terrorists who has made normal life impossible in the Punjab and has earned the Nation's gratitude. He cannot now be thrown to the wolves just because all the insects are coming out of the woodwork.

Is there any progress in the Ruchika case

The media hype surrounding the Ruchika Molestation and subsequent suicide case is unprecedented in recent history. I heard the eminent lawyer Shri Ram Jethmalani declare on NDTV show the other night that he does not think that the former DGP of Police of Haryana Shri SPS Rathore is guilty of anything serious. With criminal lawyers like that it is no wonder that crime is the biggest growth "industry" in India today. In the University where I teach a similar lawyer criminal became the Registrar and misued the position and power to forge his daughter's BDS degree from the Mahatma Gandhi Dental College at Pondicherry. Even though the Lt Governor of Pondicherry and the Dental Council of India were notified in writing nothing was done. From this episode I learnt a very valuable lesson: In India crime not only pays but the entire system protects the criminals and this is the reason why I advocate justice being brought to the criminals in high palces.

Ruchika Tragedy and the Indian Elite

Once again we find a powerful police officer responsible for the death of a young girl. By now, given the fact that the Indian media, like the people of India in general, have a short memory. How many remember the fact that not that long ago the IPS officer, and the father of 2 girls R K Sharma I PS was found guilty of hiring Tyagi gangsters from Meerut area and having Shivani Bhatnagar killed. People of India have come to expect from politicians and police officers a large degree of criminality and it is time we checked this. Because the people of India can be persuaded by emotion, cash and liquor it is time for patriotic and freedom loving people to come together to inflict punishment on criminals who use their high office and political clout to evade punishment. The high voltage media campaign does not help because even after the Priyarashini Mattoo, Jessica Lal, Nitish Kataria and the BMW cases we are not seeing a reduction in the number of cases in which powerful politicians and their associates escape the long arms of the law. It appears that only when the last witness against Lalloo Prasad Yadava is killed will the Fodder case come up before the Bench. More recently, in Madurai where 3 journalistss were killed in the Dinakaran office when it was attacked by DMK criminals led by "attack "Pandi and others, all the accused were acquitted and one of the prime accused is now serving as a Union Minister. There is just no point is thinking that politicians and powerful bureaucrats and policemen can be brought to justice. Justice must be brought to them in one form or other and only then will things change.
I was shocked at the brazenness with which S S Rathore IPS swaggers. The arrogance displayed by this criminal is breathtaking. He was responsible for driving a young and budding tennis player, Ruchika, to suicide after he raped her and threatened her family with dire consequences if they persist in prosecuting him for the crime. He subjected the entire family to humiliation and disgrace and this resulted in the young and impressionable girl killing herself. S S Rathore IPS is a police medal awardee and this itself shows that the Government of India honours powerful criminals if they are useful. Stripping him of the medal now will be only of symbolic value as he has already reaped the benefits of the ill bestowed medal. My question is simple: How do such criminals rise to the top and get away with their criminal behaviour, even rape and abettment to suicide. The answer is the politician-criminal officer nexus. Devil Lal's son of Meham fame, Om Prakash Choutala (a well deserved name for a Haryana politician) seems to have covered up for S S Rathore IPS.
I do not think that the common India citizen will ever see the fact that the politicians elected by the common man has all the traits of the common Indian citizen--criminality, venality, prone to moral turpitude and corruption. Therefore there in no point in saying that justice will finally triumphs. Only when we take it upon ourselves to punish wrong doers will the politicians fall in line.

Madhu Koda is Harassed and Humiliated by the Indian Establishmen's war against the Tribals

Everyone knows that Indian politicians are amongst the most corrupt in the world and the name of Spectrum King A Raja, Sukh Ram, Laloo Prasad Yadava and the late unlamented Narashima Rao are icons of filth, corruption and sloth of the worse kind. Yet the Indian people did not once punish them and the political system found place for them in the Lok Sabha. The only minister who was hauled up for crime was the Jharkhand leader, Shibu Soren and even he was ultimately let Scot free. The Spectrum King A Raja has made at least 50,000 crores and all that the chief courtier of Sonia can say is that he is innocent and the CBI is answerable only to the Prime Minister and therefore Spectrum King will go the Shibu Soren way. How much did Karthik Chidambaram make in the last few years and yet no response from the political class. However it is over eager to prosecute a tribal leader even when he is in the hospital,.
It seems Chidambaram has declared war on tribals: in the name of anti naxalite counterinsurgency he wants to eliminate the tribals from their rich forest land and hand over the areas to companies which serve the interests of Karthik and Co, I have always said that unless the people of India decide that the Indian Constitution does not contain any mention of the word Party and throw out the rascals who stand from organised thug gangs called recognised political parties the country has no future.
I am sure that Koda has made money. And so have 99.9% of the MPs. So why discriminate by invoking the law selectively.

Major Nidal Hasan and the Massacre at Fort Hood

The horrific incident at Fort Hood, Texas, should come as a wake up call to all those in the American academia who promote identity based politics:Gays, lesbians, minority, sexual preference, etc etc. Now the Muslim identity is becoming increasingly problematic in the USA and I believe that years and years of promoting identity politics has left the country without the means of even admitting to itself that the Islamic identity clashes head long with that of a secular nation state. The US media is already concluding that Major Hassan's crime does in no way reflect upon the patriotism of the Muslim-American population. May be so. My point is that the growing alienation of the Muslims from the mainstream of western collective life is contributing to the sense of unease and the killings in Fort Hood stems from that feeling of unease.
Let me at the very out set condemn in the strongest possible manner the violence against the army men and women at Fort Hood. My point is not to justify the crime but to say why it happened. Major Nidal by all accounts was being radicalised and his peers at Walter Reed had drawn attention to a presentation he made in which he seems to have justified suicide bombings. If this was indeed the case why did the Army not pay any attention. The practice of identity based sensitivity forced the authorities to turn a blind eye to the increasing radicalisation of one of their own. In a conflict between secular law and identity based Faith based customs the Army must enforce the secular law and in the name of minority rights it cannot permit the radicalisation of its members.
Major Nidal seem,s to have been harassed for his Muslim beliefs and humiliated for practicing his religion. By the same token, if an army man or woman is humiliated the authorities concerned must make a full and complete inquiry and set right the fraying human relations. This is absolutely essential in a heterogeneous army.
Finally, it would be a good idea not to deploy Muslims in the Army to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan as they would have to fight fellow Muslims. Secularists may not understand this, but practicing Muslims put faith above politics and the State.