Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
As someone who has done nothing except beating the metallic keyboards of typewriters–lately struggling to keep up with the electronic Joneses — for six decades plus, I have often wondered why fellow metal-beaters – they used to be punishers around the time I started -tend to fall back on the state of health of men and women holding prominent places in our public life when they would be probably be better off pursuing that other more attractive preoccupations involving high passions and, of course, lots of sin, sex and sleaze.
Ageing,I may assure is a sin, as long as you continue to be positive in thought and action. Why pick on a Mr. X or Mr Y because you believe he is ageing or has just come out of about with, say, common cold. Yes, the aged and the ageing are not supposed fall sick or see a doctor,even for a routine check-up, but why on earth start questioning his ability to deliver in the field of activity of his choice.
At 84 I don”t feel I am less capable than many of my younger colleagues although it does give me a funny feeling that I may in some respects have fallen behind the generations between now and when I first put pen to paper as a reporter in 1950. For one, I know the idiom has drastically changed. Amercanisms were “banished” from the paper I loved and prospered with during my over 30 years association with it. I don’t feel even slightly hurt when someone laughs at some of the expressions I continue to use.
My journalism, even as a feature writer or even as a political/diplomatic reporter, had always told me that I was a communicator. And try I always did to say things simply and possibly with a light touch. That’s how I got away with describing a crucial session of an international conference attended by three score heads of government cricketing parlance.
And it beats me no end now when I hear newspapermen, particularly from Jammu and Kashmir, some national papers included, giving free rein to their imagination, suggesting that Mufti Sayeed, the Kashmir Chief Minister is indeed a sick man; the speculators don’t stop at that. They even see his daughter, the doughty Mehbooba Mufti,the PDP President, shifting from her parliamentary responsibilities to virtually take over as Chief Minister.
It goes without saying that Mehbooba Mufti has played a stellar role in the growth of the PDP from a scratch to its present position as the largest Single in Assembly. It is equally well known that the daughter has been an immense source of strength to the Mufti. It is could well; be that the Mufti at 79 is finding the daily grind of running a difficult coalition a bit wearing but knowing Mufti Sayeed, the strong-willed political fighter, who has held charge of difficult portfolios both in his home State and in New Delhi I can never see him as a quitter.
Mehbooba is of course available to assist him – and a natural successor as the Chief Minister if the need arises. The Mufti would indeed do no harm to his cause if he were to induct some of his more competent party men into his Cabinet. Those that are already in may be good but the performance of his team as a whole has not been quite up to the mark.
It is not easy to sell such ideas to politicians, particularly to the ones well grounded in the art and craft of run of the mill politics but I don’t have to tell the Mufti that he needs to drastically improve the quality of his own party’s team. The Mufti is known to be a man of strong loyalties and he is equally known for the less seen tough streak in him.
I remember the days when as a Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s Government he was torn between the contrary pulls of loyalty to the Prime Minister and and his strong personal beliefs which eventually led him to quit the Rajiv Government.
Mufti as I said above is not a quitter. I did ask him directly at my last meeting with him a few days ago in Delhi if he was really unwell as a New Delhi paper had suggested , a thread subsequently built on by some Srinagar papers and later a national daily as well.
A hint of a smile crossed his face as he stretched his hand to the traditional Kashmiri kulcha lying on the table lying between us. “Khayiye aur ,kahiye kaisa haid’.
I had arrived a half hour late for my 11 O’ clock meeting with him, thanks to a traffic jam on the Guragon-Delhi highway; the Mufti was at full stretch that hot muggy morning briskly walking up and down the largish lawn of his Prithviraj Road place.It was from there that we went to the waiting qahwa and kulcha in the drawing room.
Yes, he had seen his old doctor-friend at AIIMs for a routine check-up. Nothing serious. “You should know, you are a few years older,” he added with a smile and a wink that said it all. Yes, I am going to Mumbai and maybe to Bangalore,as well. His son Tassaduq, as far as a I remember, is a very successful cinematographer. I hope I am not wrong but I know his daughter’s in-laws are from Bangalore although she spends a lot more time in the US with her husband.
If spending time with a son or a daughter ,even for Chief Ministers, is one of those “NO”,Nos” I wonder what to make of the British Prime Ministers retiring to Chequers on week-ends . Or, if Mufti is really too old to stay on as the Chief Minister Ronald Reagan should never even have been considered for a eight-year Presidential tem.
Why,nearer home how old were Comrades Jyoti Basu of West Bengal and Achhutanandan of Kerala when they were Chief Minisers of their respective States. Mr. Bosu incidentally was the Chef Minister for almost a quarter century The Kerala comrade was well into his 80s when made the CM. Mufti Sayeed has a long way to go. Should he so decide. And I am not talking only in terms of Chief Ministership. He has a political role yet to fulfil.
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