January 14th saw the 48th annual meeting of Thuglak readers at the Music Academy, Chennai. The editor, S.Gurumurthy, said the next annual meeting is likely in Coimbatore.
As usual, the meeting started sharp at 6.30 p.m. though Arun Jaitley, the chief guest arrived 10 minutes late. Gurumurthy referred to punctilious punctuality of great people like Morarji Desai. Relative to Cho, Gurumurthy is dour. Yet, the magazine's readership has not dwindled proving the strength of the editorial team. The Academy was overflowing with people even one hour before the scheduled start of the meeting. Video clips of Cho's speeches in earlier annual meets were shown. Cho had prophetically declared that no one would be found guilty in the 2G- scam. Cho's sarcasm on Manmohan Singh and P.Chidambaram was a delight to experience once more.
Responding to readers' queries, Gurumurthy condemned the press meet of four judges of the Supreme Court wondering what would happen if the High Court judges also followed suit. In his view, the four judges need to apologise for their errant behaviour. He was all praise for Rajanikanth and his proposed style of spiritual politics.
G.Viswanathan, the educationist, sought consistent and more punitive measures against corruption. He supported simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. GV was one of the confidants of Cho.
Jaitley had come with a prepared lecture. But after listening to various readers and partly understanding their views, he decided to dump his prepared text and focused on where the country is headed. He lamented that the Congress party has lost its moorings and only adopts the agenda of other forces. He blamed this sorry state of affairs on over-reliance on a family. In his view, a family-dominated political party can succeed only if the family members are great leaders themselves. Inevitably, he compared the present generation in the family with Pandit Nehru and hinted at the chalk and cheese difference. Admiring Indira Gandhi's nationalism, he pitied Rahul Gandhi's support to divisive forces. (Arun Jaitley was also imprisoned during the emergency.) Joint effort by jihadi and left elements to bring about chaos in the country was pointed out by him. Predictably, he referred favourably to bold steps taken by Narendra Modi, be it demonetisation or GST or anti-benami legislation.
Coimbatore will be luckier than Chennai next January 14th.
As usual, the meeting started sharp at 6.30 p.m. though Arun Jaitley, the chief guest arrived 10 minutes late. Gurumurthy referred to punctilious punctuality of great people like Morarji Desai. Relative to Cho, Gurumurthy is dour. Yet, the magazine's readership has not dwindled proving the strength of the editorial team. The Academy was overflowing with people even one hour before the scheduled start of the meeting. Video clips of Cho's speeches in earlier annual meets were shown. Cho had prophetically declared that no one would be found guilty in the 2G- scam. Cho's sarcasm on Manmohan Singh and P.Chidambaram was a delight to experience once more.
Responding to readers' queries, Gurumurthy condemned the press meet of four judges of the Supreme Court wondering what would happen if the High Court judges also followed suit. In his view, the four judges need to apologise for their errant behaviour. He was all praise for Rajanikanth and his proposed style of spiritual politics.
G.Viswanathan, the educationist, sought consistent and more punitive measures against corruption. He supported simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. GV was one of the confidants of Cho.
Jaitley had come with a prepared lecture. But after listening to various readers and partly understanding their views, he decided to dump his prepared text and focused on where the country is headed. He lamented that the Congress party has lost its moorings and only adopts the agenda of other forces. He blamed this sorry state of affairs on over-reliance on a family. In his view, a family-dominated political party can succeed only if the family members are great leaders themselves. Inevitably, he compared the present generation in the family with Pandit Nehru and hinted at the chalk and cheese difference. Admiring Indira Gandhi's nationalism, he pitied Rahul Gandhi's support to divisive forces. (Arun Jaitley was also imprisoned during the emergency.) Joint effort by jihadi and left elements to bring about chaos in the country was pointed out by him. Predictably, he referred favourably to bold steps taken by Narendra Modi, be it demonetisation or GST or anti-benami legislation.
Coimbatore will be luckier than Chennai next January 14th.
1 comment:
I was fortunate this time to attend this event but unfortunate that I missed cho
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