Writing a good obituary is an art. There are several unwritten rules like avoiding speaking ill of the dead, the act of selective forgiveness of those who passed away. But the late Hunter S. Thompson broke all those rules when he wrote about the death of Richard Nixon in a piece 'He was a crook' in the Rolling Stone. Some excerpts.
Another nugget,
Coming to the main topic, the passing of YSR. Most major media outlets sang praises of this corrupt leader who put petty sectarian politics ahead of state priorities, a leader who ran the state treasuries to the ground to serve personal interests, a leader who was a puppet of the Christian missionaries to abuse state authority, machinery and coffers on an agenda of conversion. Good riddance of this asshole. The country is better of the departure of YSR.
Richard Nixon is gone now, and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing -- a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family.
Another nugget,
If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.
Coming to the main topic, the passing of YSR. Most major media outlets sang praises of this corrupt leader who put petty sectarian politics ahead of state priorities, a leader who ran the state treasuries to the ground to serve personal interests, a leader who was a puppet of the Christian missionaries to abuse state authority, machinery and coffers on an agenda of conversion. Good riddance of this asshole. The country is better of the departure of YSR.
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12 comments:
Sir,
Well said. How can you expect the socalled secular mainstream television channelsthat are controlled by christian fund managers to be honest about a politician of this genre.
He was a crook,
rocks
I agree. I like your honest point. As in the Ramayana, you should not talk the ill of the dead but we should not forgot what a daemon he was. Crooked to the core and cunningness runs to his toes. A perfect missionist and a tool for the Vatican and Sonia.
Shri Aditya Sinha of the Indian Express almost did an Hunter S Thompson in his "Dont let this Son rise". He says "It was more nauseating than the continuous eulogies of YSR for having been a mass leader, which he was, without any mention of his darker side. It was more disrespectful to the departed leader than any mention of his ruthlessness or his financial acuity. No wonder Congress president Sonia Gandhi was looking teary-eyed."
And much more at
http:// bit.ly/12gSBi
Anonymous,
Thanks for your thought.
You are right, the media has vested interests and this blog is trying to hold one of them accountable.
Sloganmurugan,
Thanks for your comment.
Srinath,
I disagree with the thought that ill should not be spoken of the dead. Does that mean one cannot talk ill of Hitler/Stalin/Pol Pot and their actions because they are dead?
Ramayana is a tale where one of the antagonists was evil incarnate and is now dead. Does that mean Ramayana should not be told?
Deshabhakta,
Thanks for your comment. It is good to see the Congress not listen to the riff raff Jagan and his supporters.
Do you think Aditya Sinha will be invited to the YSR Christmas party?
Deshabhakta,
thanks for the article. it is a surprise that someone could write such a brutally honest piece on a powerful family. i hope this article is translated in telugu and published in the vernacular press.
what a shame that a leading corporate house has been pulled down by the corrupt congress to fund its election campaign. it turns out, raju is just the fall guy.
DD, i have been trying to understand Aditya Sinha for some time now. But he does not seem to be that straight forward. Sometimes he sounds very nationalistic but most of times writes in negative about 'the nationalists'. But certainly an interesting person! YSR family, known for its criminal past, might already have Aditya on their bad book for this article.
Dear HF, you described it very well - BRUTALLY HONEST :) I was surprised a lot the morning I read this article. Even Prataap Simha of Vijaya Karnataka, known for fiery writings, has not written anywhere near to this.
They anyway swallowed mithyam but brazen was the trouble given to Ramoji's enterprise.
Apologies for the late comments ... actually, I have been scanning newspapers to see a version of whay I would consider a honest obituary - writing the good, bad and ugly of this man (instead of just the good, or just the bad).
Out of interest, at the time of the recent elections, I wrote a 2000 word article comparing YSR and Naidu (don't worry, am not publishing that here :P), in which I made an attempt to balance their good and bad works.
Quite expectedly, not one article was seen in the whole of the media providing a balanced view.
In YSR's case, like I have been maitaining for the past 5 years, the damage he has done to the administration and the state is far more than the good things he has done.
He let go off any corruption case that came to his notice. He gave a free hand to all his ministers'mla's/councilor's etc in minting how much ever money they needed. He condoned many lapses in the administration, even his personal security officer (who is not a police btw) was let off with just a "be careful next time" advice, when he was involved in a 1 crore scam.
Quite surprisingly, the spin masters told the people of AP that this just shows how much YSR trusts his loyalists!!
Not one officer was held responsible for Hyderabad blasts. Not one official of GAMMON India was arrested after the flyover collapse. Not one official was held responsible, when pipelines of this pet projects, Jalayagnam, were just breaking. Everybody involved minted money and produced low quality work, yet it was all passed off as normal.
Practically any criticism was dismissed with cynicism. And then his son suddenly became MD's of steel companies, mining companies, newspaper and now a TV channel.
Now, if you are wondering how come he won again - here comes the good part! When he took over in 2004, the only thing the farmers/poor were concerned was how their livelihood will be affected. YSR's best scheme was the health insurance scheme "Rajiv" Arogyasri. It became a very big hit, and I must accept that it is indeed a very good scheme. Providing health care in private hospitals to the poor; it did work as a lifeline to many people.
His other project was "Indiramma" houses, which benefitted at the most some 4-5 lakh families, but the program was just a complete bogus. But people just hope they would get free houses sometime soone. Now, the only people who bother to vote are these folks. Urbanites don't vote.
For all these schemes, obviously the government needs revenue, which it garnered by auctioning of lands to exorbitant rates ( 1 acre in Hyderebad went to 14crores at one point of time!). This increased greed in all real estate guys, and more importantly was a source of extreme tension for all those involved.
And the worst part of his campaign - he sentimentally hit the people by saying if he is the CM, it will always rain!
One more point that a lot of people actually missed was the total cluelessness of the system, as in no one knew what to so, when it did not rain for 2-3 months this year and for about 1 month last year.
YSR's best legacy is his health scheme, crop insurance scheme and partly the Jalayagnam.
His worst legacy is corruption, a arrogant attitude in the administration, care-a-damn about critisicm, total breakdown of the system during crisises, and encouraging sycophancy.
Sorry if the post it too long, but for sure, this one is my honest obituary :)
- Sudhir
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