The Congress Party in urgent need of getting reacquainted with its roots

(Randeep Wadehra's speech at the Taj, Chandigarh, on the occasion of the release function of Law, Lawyers & Lawmakers on 22 February, 2015)

 

Hon’ble Chief Guest, Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Mr. Pawan Bansal, Mr. Harbhagwan Singh and friends, it is a pleasure to have your audience on the occasion of the release of Mr. Harbhagwan Singh’s autobiography, the Law, Lawyers & Lawmakers. Today also happens to be Mr. Harbhagwan Singh’s birthday. Greetings to you sir.

While editing this manuscript I was presented with a wealth of information regarding Mr. Harbhagwan Singh’s personal, professional and public lives. I hope I have succeeded in my task of structuring the three strands into a reader-friendly narrative. There are some very interesting facts in this book that should attract a discerning reader’s attention. These facts were either not presented before, or were not given due currency. For example, many of us are not aware of the exact place of birth of Maharaja Ranjit Singh; you will not find this in any standard history book either. We all have read about him, often cite and celebrate him in one context or the other, but seldom pause to ask about his place of birth. Probably for the first time, this book provides this information. Among the more recent facts is the one related to an incident, which underscores the deep-rooted democratic ethos of the Indian National Congress that allowed even a grassroots leader, which Chaudhry Charan Singh was at that time, to give a piece of his mind to the party seniors, including Pt Nehru, without being interrupted even once. In fact, the Chaudhry’s criticism of Nehru’s land reform policies was heard in pin drop silence. Remarkably, this was a normal practice in those times to allow party members, whatever their status in the party pecking order, to have their say on the national as well as party issues.

The Law, Lawyers & Lawmakers provides us with dramatic glimpses of the days of India’s freedom struggle when idealism and patriotic zeal pervaded the subcontinent. Mr. Harbhagwan Singh’s account of his student days, including his arrest and subsequent confrontation with the daroga, vividly recreates that atmosphere. So inspired were the freedom fighters by Gandhiji that they vied with each other to sacrifice their all for the cause of India’s freedom. Indeed, today, we find it difficult to believe that there was a sparsely clad man walking through the length and breadth of India and wielding no clout, other than sheer moral force, with the singular mission of freeing India. Unlike today, Gandhiji did not have to go to Delhi to stage protests. Wherever he decided to launch his Satyagraha, such place became the country’s, nay the world’s, focal point. Even if he went on a fast in some remote corner of the country, alarm bells would start ringing right from the Viceroy’s palace in New Delhi to the Whitehall and the Buckingham Palace in London. Such was Gandhiji’s persona that the mightiest power of its time dared not treat him lightly. It is no wonder that Mahatma Gandhi inspired millions of Indians. One among such patriots was Mr. Harbhagwan Singh’s father, who made several sacrifices for India’s freedom and betterment of fellow Indians. Yet, when India attained freedom, he quit politics, because he felt that his job was done. He did not hanker after rewards and lucrative political posts. He just quietly stepped back. Such idealism is rare by any standards, and an excellent example of giving practical shape to the Gandhian values; only a true follower of Mahatma Gandhi could have done this. This book is an excellent historical record as it gives several accounts of events and incidents during post-independence India, which provide insights into the working of judiciary and other organs of our great democracy, especially in the region comprising the present day Haryana, Punjab, HP and Chandigarh. We get invaluable information regarding several interstate disputes, the days of emergency, the Punjab terrorism, the Sehejdhari conundrum and much else in which Mr. Harbhagwan Singh was either professionally involved or was a witness thereof. Moreover, the discerning reader will be able to note the signs of rot – in the form of parochialism, petty politics and much else that is undesirable – that had begun to affect the party adversely. Mr. Harbhagwan Singh has provided a ringside view of the happenings within the party that had direct impact upon the party’s political fortunes over a period of time. Therefore, this book is of special relevance for the Indian National Congress today. 

The party was the most potent political movement during India’s freedom struggle. It was an epitome of idealism, patriotism and such values as mutual respect and tolerance, uprightness and honesty as well as inclusiveness. Indeed, the evolution of the Indian National Congress presented a mirror image of the evolving India. The Congress party was able to fashion a secular, socialist and democratic polity that became a role model for other newly independent countries the world over, especially the Third World. This ethos helped the country overcome various daunting challenges, even to its very existence as a united democratic India. Indeed, the Congress party was like a banyan tree, which was home to a unique eco-system, which accommodated conflicting viewpoints and ideologies. Where people might disagree with each other and yet unite in the face of threats to India from outside and within – be these wars, insurgencies, or natural catastrophes. It will be a tragedy if this banyan tree is reduced to a bonsai showpiece. The Congress Party owes it to the nation to reinvent itself, reconfigure its policies and reclaim its premier position on India’s political stage. For this, they must reacquaint themselves with the party’s history. Because, if they were aware, they wouldn’t have let the 56-inch chest challenge go uncontested. Contrast today’s chest-thumping politicians with Gandhiji, who converted an elitist club into an all encompassing and powerful people’s movement. A movement that remains unequalled in its size and success. Gandhiji humbled the mightiest colonial power on earth without having to thump his chest, or resort to boast and bombast. Inspired by him, the Congress party’s stalwarts willingly bore bullet and lathi wounds on their chest during the freedom struggle. And how did the pseudo-patriots express their gratitude? The father of our nation was shot in his chest by Nathuram Godse, in whose name temples are being planned now. The party owes it to the nation to push back the lunatic fringe. Obviously, there is an urgent need for revisiting the Indian National Congress’s roots and core values. 

This book can be of great help.

About Randeep Wadehra's latest books

Appeared in the Hindustan Times, Chandigarh edition, dated 10 February, 2014.

Dr. Iqbal Judge's Reaction to the write-up in Hindstan Times

It was good to see your pics...and you standing up straight!..along with your family, though I don't need a newspaper to endorse you all as being heroes. You look as if you're all set to walk along the Leisure Valley or for a poetry mushaira to recite your poems!
The bit about the insensitive politicians' poems reminds me... sometime back I found myself at this very arty (or should I say 'crafty') do ; a book release function of Kapil Sibal's claims to being a Muse. He was inspiring enough for me to try my own hand at 'worsification', and I sent the following attempt to my young friend who'd sent me the invite:


you weren't there
the 'interesting affair'
lost most of its flair
Sibal left nothing to chance
from woman as lioness to the lion-less environment
the nameless to the shameless
from shooting stars to cricket wars
the nano to nanny
he embraced them all in his dance
of (er- forgive me)
witless wit of the rhyming couplet
though Dua raved about his wide ranging mind
and his naughtiness, often amorously inclined,
I wondered --was I blind?
Deprived of discussion 'literary',
I left; a little early.
Mum accused me of being a snob
so, chastened,
I hastened
to learn from the rejected repast
poems have 'paragraphs', I learnt
not stanzas--that's la-di-da bombast!
Mock not a Sibal
when you can pen not even a syllable
you're just a silly nobody
but He has a blackberry!!
He has a Blackberry
and is famed literary.....

What do you say????
Regards
Iqbal

A write-up in the Hindustan Times

A web of all things nice by Nuggehalli Pankaja

This collection of poems is rich with the vicissitudes of life...
Silken Web’! What an entrancing title, so apt for the array of poems sprouting effortlessly from the creative landscape of the featured poets’ hearts. The poems speak in accordance with the emotion generated by some special experience, and sensitive angles unfold— queries unasked before, empathy unfelt hitherto, surface and hover. This collection of poetry proves right the observation made by Leigh Hunt, eminent critic of the Nineteenth Century, “Poetry includes whatsoever of painting can be made visible to the mind’s eye, and whatsoever of music can be conveyed by sound and proportion without singing or instrumentation.” The mother-daughter relationship is taken up in a different form in the poem, ‘Lying in wait’ by the established poet, Sivakami Velliangiri, which voices the hard reality in every mother’s lives as the daughter grows apart, chalking out her own life. The pathos of old age and a listless frame of mind is also effectively portrayed in her other poem ‘Sway’. ‘Lasting memory of me’ by Ambika Ananth is profoundly moving with its easy flow and content— ‘I see her walk away/ Into her new world./ I know one thing for sure,/ She has a womb of great promise./ She will bear a daughter,/An extension of herself,/ Who will make/ A lasting memory of me...’ No parent can read this last stanza and remain untouched. Male poets are not far behind in bringing into focus reflective thoughts and emotional resonance. Randeep Wadehra’s— ‘Rama’s woman, and mine’— is one such poem with a fine, impacting closure. ‘Perhaps I pay the price/For your excesses/When my woman /Looks me in the eye/And says/She will go to another man/Coz I say ‘Yes dad’/Too often’ Rohan Korde’s ‘Death’, Avinash Subramaniam’s ‘Out of my life, inside my head’ and the humour-tinged ‘Ideal husband’, Rumjhum’s ‘Memory’, ‘Shore’ of Vikram Deish, etc, all display depth of feeling. ‘Childhood’ by Santosh Vijaykumar brings into focus the vulnerability of childhood and the poignancy of experience etched in the last sentence— “Did your grandfather snatch your childhood away from you?” Speaking of childhood, the vacuum caused in the lives of children by the sudden disappearance of that important figure— father— and the bewilderment which follows is depicted effectively in the last stanza of the poem, ‘What Father left us’ by K Srilata— ‘Father left us a couple of unpaid debts/And this vacuum in my children’s lives,/Marked ‘Maternal grandfather’. But an entirely different view is presented in ‘Leaving’ by Manu Bharati! The emotional conflicts of one setting out in quest of his life, and the guilt-feeling at leaving perforce the old-dependant parents behind, is brought out well. Completing the circle of sensitive familial-relationships. Another current topic— ‘Mass wedding’ is dealt with finesse in ‘Monsoon Wedding’ by Chandini Santosh— ‘All grooms look alike/White on White/And nervous/Like caged cats/A hurried exchange of garlands /Fast!’ And these four lines— ‘My hour old groom /husband/Call him what you will/Stranger yesterday/Future today’ The poems of Christine Krishnasami are intricately woven with myriads of elusive thoughts and sensitive snatches. Her poem ‘Cranes alighting’ with its central figure of ‘mama’ makes an impact, while ‘Retirement Home’ succeeds in imparting nostalgic waves. Payal Talreja’s poem ‘Rush’ brings out another angle of a mother— the loneliness as the boy dependant on her once upon a time grows up and grows away from her, caught in the rat-race of survival. Adultery, one of the social problems, is also dealt with subtly in ‘Perfidy’, of Nirmala Pillai, the last para inducing deep contemplation. Many other noteworthy poems are also there; To put it in a nutshell, this collection is rich with the vicissitudes of life bringing to mind Bacon’s viewpoint— ‘Same feet of nature treading in different paths’. THE SILKEN WEB A collection of poetry, Edited by Karuna Sivasailam Published by Unisun Publications Pages-168, special Indian price-Rs 125/only.

DECCAN HERALD

A profile in courage by Aradhika Sekhon & Varied shades of life by Aruti Nayar

A profile in courageAradhika Sekhon

"NOT only do you look like Napoleon, you also talk like him," said the Brigadier as he towered over the diminutive Indian-Army aspirant. This young man had the temerity to demand to know the reason for his non-selection to the Forces. And throughout the 48 years of his life, he has demanded answers to the tough questions that life has posed to him and come to terms with tough setbacks.
Randeep has a wealth of creative output to his credit. A regular columnist with a leading daily, Randeep has reams of poetry, reviews, short stories and satires to his credit. Only recently, his first book of short stories, Walls and Other Stories, has come out. "Its been published by a Chandigarh-based publisher but, please, its not a vanity publication," clarifies Randeep. In addition, he has two books of poetry coming up for publication. "One of them comprises pure love poetry and the other has a variety of themes like nature, society and humour." Randeep says that the love poetry "has the feeling of deep romance, passion and also some bitterness"
"In India it is hard to publish something unless you know someone or have won something big in the West," he quips. However, his never-say-die attitude has got him thus far and he believes that he has miles to go before he is done. "Appreciation has been my muse," he says. "I wrote for some publications and then I started posting my poems on the Web. That’s where I got some praise and slowly my confidence as well as my stock of poems started growing and finally when my publisher showed interest in printing my work, all I had to do was select from the work I had ready." In fact, a few of his short stories included in his recent book have already been published in some British and Canadian magazines.
However, all of his poetry did not generate appreciation. "There was a poem that I wrote some years ago, an ‘intellectual’ one that I was really proud of and I sent it to a local paper through my father," he recollects with a grin. "First, my father totally disowned it. Said it was too obscure. Then the editor tore it apart`85there was a red mark or a circle in every line and I was kindly instructed to write poems that people would understand. I licked my wounds for a couple of days and as you see, I am at it again, this time, hopefully with more comprehensible stuff."
Randeep has had more than his share of hard times. A chronic spondylitis attack froze his hip joints completely and it’s been almost 20 years since Randeep has been able to move his body. The attack happened just when he was settling into matrimony and fatherhood. After the illness, not only did his wife divorce him but he was also removed from his job at the Bank of Travencore without any emoluments or gratuity.
However, his family has been very loving and supporting. One of his sisters has even decided not to get married till Randeep is on his feet again. "Our mother was the source of our strength. She was the backbone of the family. When she died it seemed as if the bedrock of our existence had slipped and we were left floundering," says Randeep. "Some of the best poems in my compilation are inspired by and dedicated to her."
Randeep has had eclectic influences directing his creativity. When he was six, his teacher in a school in Kanpur, Mrs. Philomena Fernandes, gave him the opportunity to star in the role of Abraham Lincoln, "in spite of my short and roly-poly stature". In Central School Delhi, his was considered the best rendition of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s Jhansi ki Rani. The Principal of his school in Bangalore introduced him to Enid Blyton and most remarkable of all, it was his milkman in the same city who got him hooked to Leo Tolstoy.
Although confined indoors for the last couple of decades, Randeep’s love for life has remained intact and although he is not "out there doing it", his window to the world affords a view of far horizons.

Varied shades of lifeAruti Nayar

Walls and Other Stories
by Randeep Wadehra. Unistar Publications. Rs 195. Pages 124.

Randeep Wadehra’s anthology of 15 short stories, Walls And other stories, does not have a single theme or linear thread that binds them. With deft strokes and a skilful pen, he writes with a vigour and passion that is a natural’s. Written primarily in the realistic mode, they are descriptive and evocative. Whether it is pain or joy mingled with pathos, the writer captures fine nuances of varied hues of life in an eminently readable style. Since the canvas is vast and the range wide, reading the stories is experiencing an entire gamut of emotions—from anger, self-pity, humour, pathos and simmering violence to tender, almost lyrical, love, ardour and seething passion. If The rendezvous in Cyberia is a riveting and poignant tale where a father ‘encounters’ the daughter he has never seen on the Net, A parched rose and Our house atop the lonely hill and Images, resonate with loss, pain of separation and resentment. They deal with the betrayal, be it by death or by circumstances and fickleness of the beloved.
It is the title story Walls that reveals superb craftsmanship and a psychological realism, with the narrative shifting back and forth to synchronise with the memories and thoughts of the protagonist. It is this story, well structured and racy, that gives the reader a feeling that Wadehra’s strength lies not in the realistic mode but in capturing the landscape of the mind and the psychological ebb and flow of the subconscious—an area that he needs to explore in later works.The bare walls of the the empty flat in Bombay are a metaphor for the main character’s barrenness and the abrupt end of his rocky marriage.
Up the star-spangled garden path, The French Connection and Dreams gone awry make a tellingcomment on the way institutions have been subverted by individuals. He builds up humourous situations and etches well-rounded characters with an economy of expression. Veiled irony and subtly sardonic tone help sharpen the effect. Be it Ricky, an aspiring poet’s ambition, rather desperation, to be noticed and the entire web of deceit and hypocritical attitudes of the so-called aficionados of poetry who are supposed to talent hunt but in reality are racketeers is amazingly true to life.
At times, however, one feels there is no objectivity and no distance between the mind that suffers and the mind that creates. If nostalgia and an intensely felt recollection of trauma experienced gives Wadehra’s fictional landscape the ring of sincerity and cadence of the spoken word, it also hinders his growth as a consummate story teller. It is important for a story teller to objectify the situation and make it transcend from a personal outpouring to a universal truth.
Comfortable with the rhythms of language, his art as a story teller is indisputable. It is the structuring and the craft that needs honing.
Well brought out with an evocative cover, Walls And other stories, holds the promise of many more riveting collections to come.
THE TRIBUNE