Intentinal mistakes

Excerpts from the editorial on a leading news paper:

Today marks a new beginning in the political history of Tamilnadu, as Bharath, thirty four year old IIM graduate, will be sworn in as the chief minister of Tamilnadu. He will be the India’s youngest chief minister and also the first chief minister in state since Bhaktavachalam not to have any links with the Kollywood (excluding the brief period during which Mr. Panneer Selvam, was the chief minister). He thereby brings to an end the era of Rajkumar, who ruled Tamilnadu for the past seventeen years in a sort of dictatorship manner.

Though readers will be aware that our editorial board never agreed with the various policies of Rajkumar, we ought to give him credit where it is due. In the past thirteen years under his helm, Tamilnadu attained 100% literacy, became a huge industrial hub attracting MNC companies from across the globe, and its infrastructure became the role model for not only developing countries but also for some of the developed countries.

At this hour, we wish and hope that Bharath would follow the developmental path of his predecessor and at the same time perform them in a more democratic way, thereby creating a developed Tamilnadu free of severe restrictions placed on media and opposition parties during the previous regime.

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I reread the editorial written by my father, who was chief editor of the same newspaper, in which I am working as a political correspondent. I have been entrusted with the special task by my father, to write an article on Sunday, analyzing the reasons why Rajkumar, considered as a demi God by most of his followers, who won two consecutive elections with huge majority, who was described by Indian media as ‘21^st century Chankaya’ for his political acumen, lost to a party founded just three years ago by a youngster from a remote part of Tamilnadu.

Rajkumar – was born as the only child of the third wife of the liquor contractor, who was also a close aide of the former film director and the then leader of a famous party. Few years later, when Rajkumar was attending residential school in Ooty, the former film director became the chief minister of Tamilnadu, and he repaid Rajkumar’s fathers loyalty by making him the education minister; which took every one by surprise as Rajkumar’s father had never attended school.

Rajkumar however, unlike his father, did attend school, and even got the most outstanding student award when he finished his twelfth; though every one knew the only reason for that award, was the school principal’s extra effort in pleasing the education minister, as the school management had plans of opening a new engineering college soon. Rajkumar then went to US to do his undergraduate course, and since the college management in US had no plans of opening any new schools or colleges in Tamilnadu, he had to return back to India having spent five years without obtaining a degree.

Back in India, he decided to try his hand in almost all business, and tried doing business in almost all districts of the state. The only positive to the state because of his irresponsibility, was that some of the ill earned money of his father was lost due to his stupid ventures. Though in business, Rajkumar was a failure, he was highly successful in another of his venture – that of seducing girls. So when ever he left any district, he left behind not only a bankrupt business but also a grieving girl with unborn child of him. He selected the right girls – girls who neither had power nor strength to fight against the son of the education minister.

By the age of thirty five, he began to realize that he needs to be more sensible – after all as his father had already had two heart attacks, he could become the next education minister. With many more engineering colleges all set to open his father assured him that lots of money could be made. But just the education minister post didn’t satisfy him. He dreamt of more power; and it brought about a huge transformation in him.

For the first time in his life, he sat down and started to make plans for his future. He did an analysis of himself and found out that one field where he could do well was acting; he has easily deceived so many girls acting as a perfect lover. So he felt he could easily do the same in front of cameras too. When the then, chief minister’s son who was very interested in poetry, was busy writing lyrics for Tamil film songs, and also at the same time preparing himself to be the next chief minister under the able guidance of his father, Rajkumar decided to embark on this great journey, which if turned out successful, could help him achieve his dream.

With the help of his father’s money and power, he selected the promising young director, beautiful young model from Mumbai, famous comedy actor, make up team from Hollywood, who made him look more younger and smarter, strong marketing team and as a result his first film was a super hit and collected loads of money especially in B and C centre, in spite of the critics dismissing the movie as ‘Yet another normal masala movie’.

With the television run by his father’s party, continued to give him all the support he needed, he soon became a famous hero, giving super hits after super hits. He even managed to act in one critically acclaimed movie, and won a national award. It was then his father died, and few months later the chief minister also died, and his son became the new chief minister. When the new chief minister offered the education minister post to him Rajkumar politely refused saying that he wanted to concentrate on his film career. “It’s your job that I want” – he said within his mind. He continued to be an active member of the party though.

His party under the leadership of the former chief minister’s son lost the next general election. Though it is widely speculated now that Rajkumar played a huge role in the party’s loss discreetly, at that point of time every one genuinely believed that Rajkumar was sad like any other party member about the party’s dismal performance. Some of the prominent leaders in the party, started to the question the ability of the leader, and some even started talking openly about Rajkumar taking over the party’s leadership.

Surprisingly, Rajkumar declared his support for the former chief minister’s son and even campaigned through out the state for him. The corrupt rule by the other party over the past five years coupled with the active campaigning by a famous hero meant that the party came back to power winning almost all the seats in the assembly election. During the swearing in, the new chief minister told the media “No one in the world could dream, of having a better friend than Rajkumar”. The new education minister Rajkumar smiled.

Tamilnadu understood the full significance of that smile only two years later, when Rajkumar delivered the now famous speech in front of the entire national media. “Betraying a friend is a great sin. Today I am going to commit that sin, as I feel betraying one’s own mother land is much greater sin than that.” He handed over the documents in his hands to the media, with tears in his eyes. The documents were so meticulous enough, that based on them as evidence the High court would convict the Chief minister for five years of prison over corruption charges.

A week after the dramatic press meet, Rajkumar took oath of office, and said he was reluctant to accept the post, but only did so to save his mother land Tamilnadu and its people in this hour of crisis. Every one believed he would be yet another normal Chief Minister; but he proved them all wrong. His agenda for the first two years was no village in Tamilnadu without proper road and twenty four hours power supply. His hidden agenda for the same first two years was no opposition for him in the state.

He achieved both the agendas in such a way that, visiting US senator, remarked that village roads in Tamilnadu are comparable to highways in US, and on the same day almost all the second and third rung leaders in the major opposition party joined his party; they joined because they liked my principles – Rajkumar remarked, but people neither believed him nor dared to disagree with him openly.

It was then during Rajkumar’s first term in office, Bharath came into public picture for the first time. Bharath, who was born in a poor family in one of the most backward district of Tamilnadu, and had studied in a local Government school that had no Physics teacher for twelfth standard, nevertheless managed to score centum in maths in public examination. He couldn’t get a seat in any of the Government engineering college, because of his low mark in physics, and he couldn’t afford the fees in any of the private engineering college, hence he decided to do B.Sc Maths in Loyola College, Chennai.

When he was studying in college, staying in his uncle’s house in Ponneri, he was distressed by the continuous late running of electric trains in the route. He felt every one was unhappy about it, but none was interested to bring it to Government’s notice; that led to him spearheading the train boycott that lasted for four days. It was held so peacefully, that not even one rupee worth of public property was damaged or a singly person attacked during the first three days. On the fourth day, an angry young supporter of Bharath threw a stone at one of the passenger, who felt watching a movie with his friend was more important than helping the protest. The stoned missed the person’s head but broke the glass pane of the electric train.

Bharath immediately called off the boycott and surrendered to the police saying, since he led the protest he was responsible to any damage caused to the public property during the protest. And when he wrote a short story in prison about five different people were affected because of the late running train, and it was published in famous Tamil magazine, ‘Bharath’ became a house hold name.

Most of my friends in media think that Rajkumar didn’t consider Bharath to be his competitor then. But on careful research I found out that, a couple of friends organized a similar protest in a village against the poor drinking water condition, and media gave good coverage to it. Within six months one of the friend died in a road crash, and the other friend joined Rajkumar’s party, and since then has never spoken about his dead friend. If some one else does some thing positive, they should be either under him, or should not be there at all was Rajkumar’s same policy. Why was the same policy not applied in Bharath’s case?

Bharath later went on to pursue MBA in IIM Bangalore, but on completion of the degree, unlike his friends he did not accept a lucrative offer from MNC. He started an NGO in the Tamilnadu, that worked on identifying and converting the hidden talents among the villagers, and helping them convert their talent into profit making enterprise, thereby proving them an opportunity to come out of poverty and also give them lot of self respect.

Rajkumar was in is second term as a chief minister then, and I don’t understand why he didn’t weed him even then. A young girl who decided to start a NGO in Tamilnadu to improve the educational standards here two years before, suddenly decided that Somalia needs her help more, and went there to become a teacher. On careful research I found out that it was Rajkumar’s close followers who got her a job in Somalia and also her flight ticket; may be she didn’t accept to join the party and at the same time was also not foolish to die in a road crash.

His NGO created such an impact world wide, that a renowned writer down under wrote a book entitled “Silent revolution”- the book was in New York Times best seller list in Non Fiction category for ten weeks, and the book was translated into almost all Indian languages. The Tamil version sold more than one lakh copies. After Rajkumar became CM, no books about any other living person in Tamilnadu other than Rajkumar was published – A publisher who dared to publish a book about the former chief Minster, whom Rajkumar replaced, suddenly became bankrupt for no reason and the book was never published. But once again Rajkumar decided to be a silent spectator as Bharath became more famous.

The last straw came when Bharath announced the formation of the new party, “Citizen’s democratic party”, and Rajkumar responded by saying, “No one can defeat me, since people will vote for me, even if I myself ask them not to vote for me”. Even media believed the same then, as in those years Rajkumar had single handedly made Tamilnadu the model state for India to follow; but the same media now believes that it is his over confidence that led to his defeat.

I am not a great fan of Rajkumar; but one thing I’m sure is he wouldn’t have been over confident unless he himself wanted to be. He is too shrewd a politician to not to know when to be over confident and when not to be. If I need to write an article that brings out the true reason for the downfall, I need to find out why did he made such intentinal mistakes thereby letting Bharath replace him?; because I am certain that he couldn’t have let this mistakes occur without his knowledge.

Fortune favored me as I got an information from a reliable source that a man who was simply roaming around in Bharath’s native village suddenly got an job in Canada, and his only sister who was still then struggling to pay a monthly rent of thousand rupees, now brought herself a posh apartment in Kovai. On further investigation I found out that he was currently employed in an automobile manufacturing company, run by Rajkumar’s friend in Canada; and that he was the son of headmaster of the school in which Bharath studied.

If Rajkumar had sent him out of India, then I was sure that he will have some information that would help me in my pursuit of truth. I some how got the contact of that guy in Canada and made him believe that I am the agent of the Government of a developed nation, who were keen on stopping India’s progress. Thus I assured him that if he gives information regarding Rajkumar he would be safely protected by the security wing of the nation I am representing; the fact that Rajkumar was no longer the CM also helped and he agreed to part with the information. However he demanded huge sum of money, sort of money I could never hope to pay him.

This meant I needed to figure out a way by which I could extract the info from him, without actually paying him any money. I went to the Besant Nagar beach, as I usually do when I try to figure out a solution. When I was enjoying the fresh air there, a decent man in Raymond suite came up to me and said “Leader wants to meet you”. There were only two important leaders in Tamilnadu, and if Bharath had wanted to meet me, his personal secretary would have called me. So now I know that since I had come so close to find out some hidden truth about Rajkumar, I would be either offered a job in CNN or BBC in lieu of keeping my mouth shut, or my newspaper would print news in a small tabular column in third page tomorrow, “Political correspondent died in a car crash”.

I was taken to Rajkumar’s ECR apartment where he usually goes to take rest. “Good morning, how are you” – he came in front of me wearing a causal shirt and shorts, costume in which 99.99% of public in Tamilnadu could never hope to see him; they have to be satisfied watching him in his usual white shirt, white dhoti attire. I bought all my courage to the forefront and replied “I won’t accept your job offers abroad; neither have I want to die in a road crash. Please use some new method to kill me.”

He laughed loudly. “Who said we are going to kill you? I only weed out people when I find the truth they have will affect Tamilnadu at that moment, or things they do may affect the state in the long run. There are so many people who know so many truths about me, but they keep silent not because they are afraid of me, rather because they also understand that it is in best interest of Tamilnadu that the secret remains secret. That headmaster was one such person, though his son betrayed me.”

He continued after taking a sip of hot coffee, “Any way I actually invited you to tell the truth myself, so that that guy doesn’t end up making more money. It doesn’t matter if the truth comes out know, because my objective has been already achieved.”

He handed over to me a big book, perhaps it is his diary, I thought. I opened it and was surprised to find, ‘Mahabharata’. “Do you know the story about Shakuntala that comes in Mahabharata?” – He asked me.

I know that story. Shakuntala was the daughter of sage Vishwamitra, and she lived in the forest under the guardianship of another sage. It was then king Disyundhan came to the forest, and married her on being attracted by her beauty. They spent some happy days together, and Disyundhan left back to his palace to sort some problem, and promised to Shakuntala that he would come back and take her to the palace, once the problem was sorted out; he never came back.

Meanwhile Shakuntala gave birth to a baby boy, and after few years out of desperation went in search of the King. In the palace, Disyundhan said he never knew them, when the holy voice from Heaven informed the king that the baby was indeed his. Shakuntala thus become the queen, and their son went on to become the first empire of India. His name was Bharath.

“Bharath – I don’t know why that cute girl whom I seduced when I was young, named him so, but when I came to know that Bharath, was my son through the headmaster when he held that train boycott, I thought the name was indeed true; that he will be a great ruler like the ancient Bharath.”, Rajkumar said.

“I could have made him the chief minister then, but Tamilnadu at that stage was not ready for a good, just ruler like Bharath. It needed a sort of cruel ruler like me, and hence I had to make him wait so long. Now he could rule Tamilnadu in a just manner and also help the state make huge progress, me having laid the foundation.”- He added.

“But when you felt, Bharath was ready to be the CM, he could have easily declared him as your son and made him the CM. Why you intentionally made so many mistakes to allow him become CM, when you could have followed the easy way, as people would have voted for anyone you pointed out?” – I asked.

“Read the book carefully and find out the explanation given by king Disyundhan for not accept Shakuntala as her wife, when she came to the palace with Bharath. My explanation is also the same.” – said Rajkumar.

I read out loud from the book. “Shakuntala, I know that you were my wife and Bharath was indeed my child. However if I had accepted you just like that as soon as you came to the place, People may doubt your credentials and the credentials of Bharath to become their ruler. So I wanted to accept you only after the God himself said from heaven that Bharath is indeed my child – said King Disyundhan”.

“Who is the God in Democracy?” – asked Rajkumar.

“People” – I said.

“That’s why I waited for people to say that he is their ruler, rather than me saying it” – Rajkumar concluded.