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In Due Season

Kapurusa THESE ladies and gentlemen constitute, as they say, the cream of society. They have read Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, they can quote from an obscure passage in Marx's "Grun- drisse", their eyes light up whenever a recording of Wanda Londowska's harpsichord recital of Bach is played, they

In Due Season

under suspension in connection with the Rajan case) came, He took out his cigarette packet, opened it and, looking at Benher, said: "Please". Benher was about to touch the cigarette when he got a thundering blow on the head. He fell down. For good measure, Pulikkodan gave him a kick.

In Due Season

Kapurusa THE literature of the Left accumulates, and at a furious pace. Read and learn, learn about the nefarious doings of international capitalism. Capitalists at the metropolitan centre do it all, capitalists in the underdeveloped tracts do not really matter, they are peripheral entities. If the neo-colonialists had not plotted and conspired at the centre, there would not be any comprador elements in the lands of the natives either, and exploitation would be an arcane word.

In Due Season


In Due Season Kapurusa THOSE who drafted the scriptures were master craftsmen in ambivalence. Consider the following. If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there sJiall not blood foe shed for him. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep; he shall restore double.

In Due Season

In Due Season Kapurusa RAMA CHAKRAVAKTY is not impressed. She has heard a lot in recent weeks about the extra-constitutional authority which supposedly was instru- mental for Indira Gandhi's ruin. She remains unconvinced; she in fact is outraged. She does not have much formal education. Way back in the early sixties, she had passed the high school examination. Given their financial' circumstances, it was not possible for her parents to send her to college. Fortunately, she got married, and since then her life has conformed to the set pattern of nondescript lower middle class existence. She does not regularly read the newspapers; these days, she cannot afford to subscribe to newspapers, But she retains an earthy commonsense. She relates political issues to the experience she herself has gone through and is going through. Heaping the blame for all that hap- pened in the country in the recent past on the demon of an extra-constitutional authority incenses her, Render unto the czarina, she would say, what belongs to the czarina. Those going for the escape hatch of the eca should recall other happenings, happenings prior to June 1975, happenings, for example, during the railway strike of 1974, If they cannot recall, Rama Chakravarty would help them out.

In Due Season

In Due Season Kapurusa SHOULD one feel outraged? Should one rant against the ingratitude of people? But to do so would be merely ranting against nature. It is natural for people to forget. Memory does not get handed down from generation to generation, like family heirlooms. Besides, Ayilliath Kuttiari Gopalan chose the wrong day to die. On that day, the people, including people in Kerala, were engaged otherwise. They were celebrating their assorted victories; some the reassertion of democratic rights over totalitarian trends, others because stability supposedly triumphed over chaos.

In Due Season

In Due Season Kapurusa THIS hour belongs to the people, Bear with them; there are few occasions in their life which call for celebration. Allow them this sparse moment for a brief gush of contentment. They did it on their own, they did it with their votes, This multitude in rags and tatters, who, determination writ large on their faces, matehed to the polls, represent the nation's dispossessed; for once, their incensed ego decided to hit back. Over the long haul, this verdict may not mean much. Those who would come to power during this week do not by and large reflect a different configuration of class forces from the set who have been summarily ejected. The daily battle of existence will therefore continue; the economic laws will remain what they always have been, The poor and the dispossessed will have to learn, through the hard way, that there is no surrogate to the solidarity oi class. That Marxian cliche

In Due Season

In Due Season Kapurusa HOW easy it is to make money, provided of course the government is on your side. The total production of foodgrains in the country, the authorities claim, is now between 110 and 120 million tonnes. Even were only 40 million tonnes out of this to come to the market, fantastic sums can be made by the trading community through even marginal tinkering with the price. Assume you represent the interests of the trading class, you go into a huddle with a ruling politician

ln Due Season

ln Due Season Kapurusa LET words come out from the depth of truth. Let them. In any event, nobody knows how much time

In Due Season

February 26, 1977 In Due Season HYPERBOLES must have their dominion, even if it be for a few brief weeks. An election that could end all elections? A oncaover choice between democracy and totalitarianism? An opportunity to pinpoint the culpability for the grossness currently afflicting the nation to where it belongs? Alas, it is hardly that simple. A nation does not slip under totalitarianism overnight. There is a process which works, as they say, before your very eyes. Advantage is taken of the majority's absent- mindedness, or of their lack of lustre. Politics, the majority love to assume, is a dirty game, why should we soil our hands, let us leave it to the devious ones. The majority live in a ceteris paribus world, they cling to their own illusions, they place their personal chores ahead of the rest of the agenda. At most, they may be persuaded to troop to the polling booth and vote for this or that candidate in periodic elections. At most, they may be persuaded to feel dejected or elated over this or that particular political development, just as they are by the results of a particular football match. But, most of the time, the average citizen's political instincts are in hibernation. Let the politicians go their way, the average citizen would love to go his, and he would keep hoping that their paths never cross.

In Due Season

gives rise to problems of an altogether different kind. Apart from perpetuating cost inefficiency, subsidies cost resources, resources which have to come from out of the fiscal and monetary systems

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