TIOL-DDT 238 · the untouched capture
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<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <strong><font color="#663399" size="3">TIOL-DDT
238</font><br>
10 11 2005<br>
Thursday</strong></font></p>
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<p align="center"><font color="#006633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>The
interview with the Mahatma that Times of India did not carry</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A
young poor Dalit boy after completing his graduation from Kerala landed up in
Delhi in search of a job, basically because his caste overshadowed his brilliance
in his native Travancore. He secured a temporary job as an assistant in the
Foreign office. This was around the time the Central Excise Act had come into
force, 1944. He didn’t like the job and so applied for a Tata scholarship
for studying abroad. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">He
applied directly to JRD Tata. The application was shabby with a lot of scratches
and overwriting. All his efforts to get a clean sheet of paper failed and he
posted the dirty letter. A month later he got a call from the Tatas, where a
lady got his application typed and put up to JRD Tata. Ten months later
he got that Tata scholarship, but his next ship to England was after six months
and he did not know how to support himself during that period. So the Tata lady
got him a job in the Times of India and accommodation in the Tata Institute
hostel. She also arranged some suits for him. While with the <i>Times of India</i>
he interviewed Mahatma Gandhi and can you believe it, the <b>Times did not carry
it! So much for editorial acumen!</b> But the interview is available in volume
86 of “The Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi” which we bring to
you here</font></p>
<table width="90%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
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<td><p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>April
10, 1945</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Q.
Do you still hold that the Harijan problem is only religious and social
and that it has no great political significance?</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>A.
It has political significance but indirectly.</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Q.
The Congress as an organization has not taken up the Harijan work. Will
it not be better if that work is taken up by the Congress and not by the
Harijan Sevak Sangh?</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>A.
It is wrong to say that the Congress has not taken it up.</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Q.
But it seems that leaders like Jawaharlal and the Rashtrapati are not
keenly aware of the Harijan question?</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>A.
Those two are immersed in that work.</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Q.
The Harijan Sevak Sangh after years of work had not yet produced even
a dozen leaders from among the Harijans themselves.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>A.
That charge is only partly true.</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Q.
All great men have a passion for simplification. You have simplified the
nature of human conflict as between violence and non-violence, truth and
untruth, right and wrong. But in life, is not the conflict between one
right and another right or between one truth and another truth? How can
non-violence deal with such a situation?</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>A.
That is a matter of application.</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Q.
In the Hindu-Muslim question where the conflict is between the rights
of the Hindus and the rights of the Muslims, what technique of non-violence
can be employed to solve the problem, especially when these rights seem
to be irreconcilable?</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>A.
That awful situation can only be dealt with properly through satyagraha.
Your questions show that you have not studied it. If I am right, Pyarelal
will give you a list of the books. My advice to you is that you should
seriously study the literature on the subject.</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Q.
How can a Harijan who goes abroad best serve his country and community
from abroad?</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>A.
He cannot serve the one without serving the other. Abroad you will say
it is a domestic question which you are determined to solve for yourselves.</strong></font></p>
</td>
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<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">He
landed up in the London School of Economics under the legendary Harold Laski.
The Tata scholarship was about Rs. 16000/- and when he got a first class, the
Tatas sent him 100 pounds to see the continent. The Tata scholarship was not
free; the scholars were to return the money after they got jobs. In his case
an exception was made because of his poor background. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">He
came back to India with a recommendation from Laski to one of his illustrious
students, Jawaharlal Nehru. What a recommendation was that! Nehru knew the value
of appreciation from a scholar like Laski and so persuaded the young man to
join the IFS. And there he went on to become the Secretary – in a department
where he worked as a temporary assistant. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">He
could not meet his sponsor JRD Tata yet – that he could do only 35 years
after he got the scholarship – again when he was about to go abroad -
only this time as India’s Ambassador to the United States!</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today
he is no more, but what a great life it had been. From Uzhavoor to Raisina Hills
was certainly not a pleasant excursion. Incidentally he was the President
of India during the 50th anniversary of our Independence Day and Republic Day.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">He
had two room mates in London – a Mauritian and an Indian. One of them
was later known as Sir Veerasamy Ringadoo, President of Mauritius and the other
is the famous Indian Economist KN Raj. What they say about birds of the same
feather flocking together is after all true!</font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>REVISED
KYOTO CONVENTION WILL COME INTO FORCE IN THREE MONTHS –INDIA RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE HISTORIC EVENT</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
revised Kyoto Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs
Procedures will come into force in three months. For the convention is to come
into force it was required that at least 40 members give their instrument of
accession. The Kyoto Convention originally came into force on 25 September 1974.
After undergoing an extensive five-year review involving all Customs and trade
stakeholders, a revised Convention was adopted by the WCO Council on 30 June
1999. And the requisite magic number of 40 had not been reached till now. It
has now been done with India’s Ambassador Dipak Chatterjee depositing
India’s instrument of accession with the WCO. The Indian Cabinet had given
its approval in the last week of September. Please see <strong><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=bnews_detail.php3&newsid=2690">TIOL-DDT
213 - 30 09 2005</a></strong>.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Implementation
of this revised instrument extends the existing simplification and harmonization
of Customs procedures to encompass even more Customs operations and contributes
favourably to global trade facilitation efforts. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">WCO
Secretary General, Michel Danet, said: </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>“Not
only will this revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) patently facilitate world trade
even further; it will also provide more predictability to the business community
and the international trading environment as a whole. The RKC represents the
standards that Customs administrations will have to implement if they are to
play a meaningful role in a world increasingly challenged by globalization,
security concerns, and other international developments. This great event is
living proof of the Customs community’s commitment to promote trade given
its tangible benefit to social and economic development around the world”.</em></font></p>
<p align="justify"><em><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“These
key elements include the maximum use of information technology, a partnership
between Customs and the trade, the application of risk management techniques,
the coordination of interventions with other agencies, and the provision of
a system of appeal in Customs matters. With so many positive provisions, I am
quite positive that entry into force of the RKC will act as a catalyst for many
other WCO Members to deposit their Instruments of Accession in the near future”.</font></em></p>
<p align="justify"><em><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“The
entry into force of the RKC will strengthen the hand of the WCO and ensure international
recognition for Customs as an essential player at world trade facilitation negotiations”</font></em><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For
those righteous leftists who are opposed to India joining any of these initiatives,
China deposited its instrument of accession in 2000.</font></p>
<p align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#0000FF">The
deprivation of education continues to be the worst and most insidious aspect
of backwardness and underdevelopment...<br>
</font></strong><font color="#0000FF"><strong>KR Narayanan</strong></font></font></p>
<p align="center"><strong><font color="#0000FF" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/image/stories/K_R_Narayanan.jpg" alt="K R Narayanan" width="120" height="157" border="1"></font></strong></p>
<p align="center"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>The
brilliant native is gone</em></font></strong></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#FF6666">Until
tomorrow with more DDT</font></strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Have
a nice day. </font></strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mail
your comments to </font></strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com">vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com</a></font></font></p>
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