Cho Ramaswamy, veteran journalist, writer, actor, political leader(?) and philosopher had died in Apollo Hospital, a day after his (sort of) protégé Jayalalitha died in the same hospital.
Who was Cho?
When the fiery father-son due of DMK were afraid (apparently, Stalin was beaten in front of Karunanidhi) to take on Indira, who already was transformed from being Durga into Kali during Emergency, When MGR changed his party’s name to All India Anna – DMK, so that it is not banned, Cho Ramaswamy was flirting with the tiger, Censor board by pulling its tail till it starts flinching.
Perhaps, Cho was the only one who ran a magazine successfully during Emergency, opposing the Emergency. And the Magazine is “Tuglak” a satiric name representing all Indian politicians, across parties. Like the true western cowboy, he kicked left, right and the centre, whoever was within his reach and exhibited hypocrisy.
The first copy of Tuglak had a cartoon in which two donkeys were talking to one another about their food inside. Of course, these donkeys were supposed to be politicians. Cho had nothing but black on Tuglak’s cover when Emergency was declared.
In the days, when DMK played the role of being the anti-establishment party, his play ‘Muhammad Bin Tuglak’ made DMK look part of the establishment. One can gauge the level of irritation he caused to Karunanidhi & Sons, by the way DMK cadre tore out screens displaying the film.
When Sanjay Gandhi died, Cho released stamps in memory of one Saxena, also believed to be died in the crash. Even the postal department could not recognise that they were duplicate and approved them for some time.
Lead actor in his play ‘Tuglak’ (played by himself in the play and even in the film version), decides to become Prime Minister of India, after being rescued from his casket in which he was for four centuries. When he becomes PM, he makes all 450 people joined his party – Deputy Prime Ministers. To solve the eternal problem of whether a north Indian language should be the national language or one from south, he proposes a ‘foreign’ language – Persian, so that neutrality is maintained. To eliminate corruption, he legalises bribes so they are no more illegal. And of course, he addresses the nation directly to convince them of his brilliant schemes. Tuglak’s once poor girlfriend Kanthimathi, whom he makes a minister in his cabinet takes lots of bribes and celebrates her birthdays with much pompous.
Now, if anyone saw any similarities between the acts of Tuglak with Arvind Kejriwal, Mayawati and even Modi, they are purely incidental, for the play was premiered in 1968 and the film version was released in 1971.
An excerpt from one of his interviews:
Q: Do you agree with the view that a country called India was born only because of the British, and if were not for them we would have remained as small princely states?
Cho: Yes, it would have been true administratively and politically. But culturally we were one nation even before the British came here. The Mahabharata speaks of the participation of the Chola and the Pandya kings, and there is a Chera king who is reputed to have fed both the armies (Pandava and Kaurava armies). So, I don’t think it was an act of kindness on the part of the British to have brought us together. We were one nation, but not administratively.
Q: We talk in different languages.
Cho: Yes, we speak different languages, but we celebrate the same festivals. We speak different languages, but we utter the same prayers. We speak different languages, but have the same values.
By the way, his full name is Srinivasa Iyer Ramaswamy.
And why he didn’t fear Indira Gandhi during Emergency? Because he didn’t have even hair on his head to lose!!!
He was liked by the people because he was perhaps one who gave unbiased opinions. Well, I think most of the times, considering his changed stances with respect to Jaya, Indira and even Modi.