PART TWO

Personalities

Needed Another Chhotu Ram

NOW don't get excited. I am not going to write on Sardar Shaukat Hayat's book, The Nation  that Lost its Soul  (the title says it's). For the purposes of this piece, Sardar Sahib's book is being used merely as a peg to hang an interesting story on.

          Sardar Shaukat Hayat, when he refers to Sir Chhotu Ram, is almost dismissive in his tone, as if the man was no more than a personal assistant to Sir Sikandar Hayat. He credits the latter with having conceived the law against rural indebtedness in the Punjab.

          Ved Mehta who now lives in the United States (or at least did till 1984 when his book, Daddyji Mamaji - that was published by Pan Books) belonged to a Lahore family. On PP 285-86 of Mehta's book, the following account has been given of Sir Chhotu Ram's rise to fame.

          "Babuji (Mehta's father) and Sir Shadi Lal had but to meet to start discussing local politics and comparing notes. One evening, Sir Shadi Lal turned to Babuji and said, "Congratulate me, brother. Today, I cooked the goose of two Punjab Muslims. You know about the vacancy for a Muslim judge on the High Court? Well, His Excellency the Governor called me and asked me what I thought of Sir A and Khan Bahadur B-the two Muslim candidates he was considering for the vacancy."

          Shadi Lal then went on to describe how he had poisoned the governor's mind against the two Muslim candidates. He extolled Sir A to high heaven and Khan Bahadur B's work, in the assembly, he also praised lavishly. He then advised the governor to interview the two to find out who was better suited for the job.

          Having established his impartiality in the eyes of the Governor, Shadi Lal went to Sir A and told him that he would soon be interviewed by the governor for the High Court job, and that his main rival was Khan Bahadur B. He advised Sir A to paint as black a portrait of Khan Bahadur B as he could and the job would be his.

          Then Shadi Lal visited Khan Bahadur B and gave him much the same advice he had given to Sir A. So the trap was set and the two fell in it hook, line, and sinker. When the deed had been done, the governor met Sir Shadi Lal and said, "What awful men those two are!" Shadi Lal was to boast later: "Today, I got the governor to appoint a good, compliant Muslim of my choosing, from Allahabad, to the judgeship."

          Mehta's father admonished Shadi Lal . He said Sir A and Khan Bahadur B were prominent Muslims and if he had got one of them appointed, he would have had an eminent Punjabi Muslim in his pocket. Shadi Lal said: "I have the Allahabad judge in my pocket. What more do I need?"

          "But you have two powerful Punjabi Muslims as your enemies."

          Shadi Lal retorted: "Let Sir A and Khan Bahadur B cut each other's throats. Punjabi Muslims deserve each other."

          Ved Mehta goes on to write that the issue was a perpetual subject of discussion between his father and Sir Lal for a long period. Some years later, the two were in Simla where they called on Sir Fazle Husain "whose ambition to become a Muslim judge of the High Court had (also) been thwarted by Sir Shadi Lal."

          During the course of the meeting, Sir Shadi Lal asked Sir Fazle Husain, "Can you do something about Sir Chhotu Ram? He is downgrading fellow-Hindus badly."

          Says Mehta: "Sir Chhotu Ram was in Sir Fazle Husain's Unionist Party, which included both Hindus and Muslims. Born a peasant, Chhotu Ram forgot-even after he had been knighted-how village moneylenders had harassed his father. In fact, he was blighting the careers of Hindu moneylenders exposing their nefarious activities, and helping to institute harsh laws against them."

          Sir Fazle Husain's answer was: "If you, Shadi Lal, can produce a 'good compliant' Muslim from Allahabad for the judgeship, I, Sir Fazle Husain, can give birth to a Chhotu Ram among the Hindus."

          After leaving Sir Fazle Husain, Mehta's father said, "If you had put one or two powerful Punjabi Muslims in your pocket at the time of those two judgeships, you would have had a card to play today in the matter of Chhotu Ram."

          Mehta concludes: "Sir Fazle Husain's remark about giving birth to a Chhotu Ram was repeated by his private assistant, who had overheard it, and it became part of the folklore of officialdom."

          So much good was born out of Shadi Lal's evil and Chhotu Ram broke the back of Hindu moneylenders in the Punjab, and I think more Muslims benefited from the laws piloted by him than his own co-religionists. We should raise a monument to honour his memory. He was a great son of the soil.

          Talking of Sir Chhotu Ram, I think the Third World needs a man like him against powerful moneylenders like the IMF, the World Bank, and individual donor countries. International law needs to be amended and made justiceable in this regard. The plight of debtor countries is as bad, if not worse, as that of the landholders, and peasants in the Punjab of the twenties and the thirties.

          I SAY, what's gone wrong with the United States ? Having nothing to do at home, Mr. Clinton is playing the policeman abroad. Recently, he has had the cheek to call Iran  a "'Rogue State." The kettle calling the pot black? Let the world have no trade links with Iran. Why? Because Tehran is "sponsoring" terrorism.

          Where is the proof? As the French have asked. Even former U.S.  secretary of state Alexander Haig says that intelligence agencies in his country have "no evidence of terrorist acts linked to Iran in recent months."

          When a country accuses another of harbouring terrorists, it should go to an international forum like the UN, or International Court of Justice, or whatever. Just as an individual cannot take the law in his own hand, so can't countries even if they are as powerful as the U.S. Large doses of power, as those of alcohol, lower self-control; and lead to aggressive behaviour. Power-drunk, Mr . Clinton?

Friday, May 5, 1995