Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Krishna Iyer on .....err....nothing

Krishna Iyer's column today extolls the virtues of an 'ideological' law reforms commission for Kerala. This op-ed has all the hallmarks of his regular columns, in particular, the use of lofty language to convey repetitive and stale messages of his 'socialist swaraj'. I will not repeat my criticism of his views which I made in my previous post on the subject; it suffices to note that all of them apply here with the same force. One additional point about this piece is its utter lack of substantive content - he does not cite a single specific aim or achievement of this body which he says he chairs. When he is not railing, he is simply moralizing. An example:
I beseech the Prime Minister, and the president of the ruling Congress, not to jettison the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. The imperative perspective of the Preamble obligates pragmatic legal engineering to validate the substantive constitutional propositions beyond vain verbosity...

Hindu op-eds have traditionally offered analytical perspectives coupled sometimes with concrete recommendations for change. Iyer's writing is little more than simply an articulation of his worldview with absolutely nothing new to add in column after column on why people ought to be persuaded towards adopting it. The fact that he gets so much space here reflects the paucity of good columnists writing regularly for its pages.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Fed's Bear Sterns package has enough opposition within the US, but for the Marxist chased out of his stronghold, this is a great opportunity to come out of his hole and howl.

This guy has several awards under his belt, like any leftist who knows how to promote himself does.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/17/stories/2008041755841000.htm

Dirt Digger said...

Pilid,
Anytime I read Krishna Iyer's column, I get a bag just in case the content makes my puke. This one was close, but gave me a raging migraine.
Quotes like these,
crazy after an alien consumerist style of life with contempt for native austerity and sanity

or,
while our legacy makes us the pinnacle of ancient vintage cultural heritage?

or,
I beseech the Prime Minister, and the president of the ruling Congress, not to jettison the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

His statements are hollow with no insight about the past and are filled with untruths.
1. Why is it that Indian culture is supposed to be filled with austerity? We were the richest, most vibrant culture for more than a 1000 years. Where did the austerity come from?
2. What the heck is vintage cultural heritage? Does he want people to run around in dhotis?
3. And claiming the legacy of Nehru/Indira Gandhi is typical Congress sycophant speak. The reason for all the problems can be attributed to the 30+ years of rule by the exact same dynamic duo who put the country on a "socialist track" to hell.
The climax is this statement,
Every Law Reforms Commission in India must obey the socialist, secular philosophy. This is the alpha and omega of the Commission formed in Kerala, of which I am the Chairman.

What happened to democratic? We need to have a rogue's gallery of these chumps.

Anonymous said...

Krishna Iyer's vision is of India stuck in the 1970s. The fact that things have gotten better meaning prosperity has become more commonplace has the fossil seeing red everywhere - he interprets this as the greatest source of danger of people actually wanting to make money rather than remaining stuck in the rut clinging to his beloved ideology. After all, no greater evil than wealth has ever existed for old fashioned commies who are very clear in their belief that the uniformity of poverty enforced through state absolutism is a better policy than allowing wealth generation in the marketplace by tolerating the resulting disparities.

Anonymous said...

Krishna Iyer-typical pseudo-socialist/armchair intellectual/bureacrat-i know everything/i am superior type fellow traveller of N Ram and part of the same cabal.

Anonymous said...

Dear da,
You are right that N.Ram and Krishna Iyer appear to share many beliefs. However, the Hindu editorial position these days has moved away from some of those strongly held socialist positions in the past. While the Hindu does give wide coverage to the left's views on matters such as labor reform, SEZs and privatization of government enterprises, it has shied away from completely repudiating these moves. In contrast, Krishna Iyer continues to beat the old drum with gusto.

The other point they differ on is their support to communist governments. Ram is much more ideological here and willing to go the extra mile in defending communist governments from criticism in times of controversy. Krishna Iyer takes a more humanist/human rights angle and is less willing to give them such a long rope or defend them.

Anonymous said...

beyond vain verbosity...

And what is Mr.Iyer doing out there in the article!


.
airaf

Anonymous said...

Good point Airaf! It struck me as well when I read the article.