Burial rights

The government’s major concern after Chandra Shekhar’s death was that the former prime minister be cremated at his Bhondsi farm in Haryana.

The government’s major concern after Chandra Shekhar’s death was that the former prime minister be cremated at his Bhondsi farm in Haryana. There is a space crunch on the Yamuna ghat meant for VVIPs since most of the river frontage has been appropriated by the four large samadhis dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi. The modestly sized Ekta Sthal which has been carved out of Shakti Sthal is getting overcrowded. Former presidents K.R. Narayanan, Shankar Dayal Sharma and Zail Singh are cremated there.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil tried to convince Chandra Shekhar’s family that there was no space at Ekta Sthal, but to no avail. One of Shekhar’s relatives gave a tongue lashing to a very important government functionary. He warned that his family would not tolerate any insult to Chandra Shekhar as happened with Narasimha Rao. He threatened that if the government did not permit Chandra Shekhar’s body to be cremated at Ekta Sthal then the family would perform his last rites at the public crematorium at Nigambodh Ghat, without a state funeral. The government retreated. The funeral was held at Ekta Sthal and the samadhi is appropriately named Swabhiman Sthal.

Footnote on samadhis

There is an interesting footnote on the subject of samadhis. In 1991 Chandra Shekhar as prime minister had tried to persuade the Gandhi family to accept a garden near the Nizamuddin bridge as the cremation ground for Rajiv Gandhi. A furious Priyanka Gandhi ticked off Chandra Shekhar’s cabinet, pointing out that there was a rubbish dump (land fill) close to the spot. She announced that her family would prefer to make its own arrangements. Rajiv was cremated at his mother’s Shakti Sthal samadhi instead.

BJP for Third Front

National parties have per force to tie up with the DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu if they want to have a foothold in the state. After the BJP broke with the DMK and Jayalalithaa it looked as if it had totally burnt its boats in Tamil Nadu. But now the BJP sees a ray of hope in the popularity of film star Rajnikant whose latest release Shivaji.

Rajni Kant films throw enough broad hints. In one scene the hero in the movie is standing in front of a calendar which changes from 2007 to 2009 with the hero remarking “If I tap my skull the entire state will shiver”. This is taken to mean that Rajnikant plans to enter the political arena in 2009. Insinuations about corruption at the Centre and the state suggest that DMK and Congress are his targets. The BJP hopes that the actor will join politics and believes that he has a soft corner for the party. For instance, most of the bad guys in Rajnikant’s movies sport beards and wear caps.

Rear view concern

Employees of Rashtrapati Bhavan have a special affection for President Abdul Kalam. He is the first president to be concerned with the rear portion of the Rashtrapati Bhavan estate where the junior staff live rather than just concentrating on the grand ceremonial front entrance. Kalam has initiated tree planting, allotted land for children’s parks, constructed new pavements and renovated or re-built flats for the lower division and upper division clerks.

Unjust re-employment

JNU Vice-Chancellor B B Bhattacharya may crack the whip with students but he seems a pushover when it comes to faculty demands. The VC seems unable to block a move by some influential retired professors to wangle their way back as visiting professors, although university policy forbids re-employment. The four seeking re-employment had joined JNU in the early 1970s. Let alone a PhD, they do not even have a single publication to their name. The students are planning to raise the issue with the HRD ministry.