Saturday, November 16, 2013

Editorial, "Why this undue haste to vivisect?", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 November 2013 issue, Vol. 9, Part 2, No. 21.

WHY THIS UNDUE HASTE TO VIVISECT?

The Group of Ministers set up by the vile, minority UPA government at the centre, surviving on the mercy of two outside parties – BSP and SP, the latter openly opposed to the division of Andhra Pradesh, is running in all speed to somehow achieve its despicable goal of vivisecting a vibrant nationality and à la Radcliffe. I am reminded of this exquisite poem by Auden lampooning the unholy exercise of that British law lord who never visited India but yet vivisected it drawing his line literally even across the middle of remote human habitations: “Shut up in a lonely mansion/ with police night and day / patrolling the gardens to keep / assassins away, He got down to work, to the task / of settling the fate of millions. The maps at his disposal / were out of date / And the Census returns almost certainly incorrect, But there was no time to check / them, no time to inspect / Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot, And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot, / BUT IN SEVEN WEEKS IT WAS DONE, the frontiers decided, A CONTINENT FOR BETTER OR WORSE DIVIDED…” Does this sound very familiar in our context? The British imperialists certainly had their stakes in such a hasty ‘divide and rule’ policy to which both Nehru and Patel unashamedly acquiesced thus defying and shaming their leader, Gandhi, who had declared the partition could happen only on his corpse; and he too would compromise later to sail with his disciples. But what need there is for any independent and patriotic rulers of sovereign India to thus divide and rule over a vibrant nationality which has sailed united amidst all troubles and calamities for about six decades? Have they forgotten that India is in essence a multi-national country though its constitution proclaims it a nation-state and any undue impetuous interference with the unity in diversity of the country and the identity and self-respect of its component units, especially of linguistic nationalities, could do utmost damage to the unity and integrity of the entire country itself. Don’t they know that by such post-haste they are only opening up a Pandora’s Box of more complex problems all over the country and striking at the very roots of territorial integrity of the country? No, knowing fully well, they are still moving – for nothing but nefarious electoral benefits – an acute case of open electoral corruption with the next general elections just round the corner. §§§