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Mr. Shourie should really examine his command of the English language prior to commenting on the ability of others to communicate in English. Mr. Shourie is incapable of writing an article in acceptable English (i.e. standards of George F. Will or Michael Kinsley or say Somerset Maugham). He is another Dan Quayle. Nitin Sharma (nitin@cs.washington.edu) wrote: : This week's article by Arun Shourie. : This is only available on http://www.indiaconnect.com/ : Pl feel free to forward to friends if you think it is worth reading : for them. : On request from so many of sci'ers, I'll put some of his previous : articles on web soon. : -nitin : --------- : [IndiaConnect] Arun Shourie's Column : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Arun Shourie is among India's best known commentators on current : and political affairs. His writings are backed by rigorous : analysis and meticulous research. He has been an economist with : [Image] the World Bank, a consultant in the planning commision and the : editor of Indian Express. Among the many honours and awards, he : has received the Magsaysay Award, the International Editor of the : Year, the Dadabhai Naoroji and the Astor Award. : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Updated on 27th June,1996 : NO POINT SAYING, "BUT THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE" : There is a difference, Gandhiji used to say, between Raja : Harishchandra and an actor on a stage playing the part of : Harishchandra. So also there is a difference, we are being taught, : between a simple, humble farmer and Deve Gowda playing "a simple, : humble farmer" ! When, in a burst of humility, a man modest the way : Deve Gowda is modest bends and touches your knees, the one thing to do : is to make sure that your knee-caps are still there. Hegde has : recounted how Deve Gowda had bent low and touched his feet -- and look : what he has made of Hegde at the very first opportunity. Even the : secularist editors -- who had been so delighted at his ascension to : power as the harbinger of "regionalism", as the man who knew the : problems of the "common man" -- even they have been stupefied into : silence. How come our simple farmer, our humble man always pledging to : seek the "guidance" of "my senior leaders", how come he turned so : vicious and vindictive ? And, after all, that little bit of revenge : must have been in his heart for long : how else could the man have : acted it out so soon after such a busy week ? But that would mean not : just that the man is vengeful, it would mean that he can be saying one : thing -- "Please, I am new to Delhi, do favour me with your kind : suggestions" -- and plotting something altogether different. A trait : that must have taken the breath out of all those "federalists" who had : picked him from nowhere in the expectation that they would run him, : but also out of the resident intellectuals : nothing unnerves them : more than the jolt that the ruler they had set out to shepherd may be : cleverer than they had hoped ! : And look at the irony of it : he has had Hegde expelled from the : Janata Dal for engaging in "anti-party activities" for the last five : years. For four and a half of the last seven years, Deve Gowda was out : of the same Janata Dal, denouncing it up and down the length and : breadth of Karnataka ! : Not just that, in the remaining period he went around Karnataka : swearing that he would never, ever again act against Hegde. That shows : not just vengefulness. It tells us what weight to put upon his word.