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| Sunday, 7 April 2002 |
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The times, they are a-changing. Or I am a Dutchman? Six months ago (or less) would you have conceived of a Minister - two in fact - apologising to us. Never! They were infallible those days - or thought they were. Or they would have considered it infra dig to debase themselves at the feet of the hoi polloi. But what do we see now. Not merely a minister saying simply I am sorry. No, he goes the whole hog and speaking for a colleague (who apparently preferred Mr. Jayasuriya to apologise for him as well) saying we are sorry from the bottom of our hearts that the public has to face these difficulties - the black out and the high out of living. Six months ago would you have conceived of a minister deigning to take notice of a letter to the editor by a not so prominent citizen and, what is more, actually going to the trouble of writing a letter in response. Yet this is exactly what Mr. Choksy, Finance Minister, did in the middle of a multitude of more important matters demanding his time and attention. How different from the reaction of a thirsty IGP who was button holed by an ex-ambassador at a party to seek information which touched thousands of our countrymen, the Tamils. The IGP wouldn't wait to answer because his friends and his drinks were calling. The ex-ambassador, if you remember, asked what law compelled Tamils to carry identity cards all the time. You and I and the IGP know that if a Tamil, man or woman were detected without an identity card, he/she would be thrown into a police cell till help came goodness knows how many hours or days later. I think the ambassador also wanted to know what kind of animal a police curfew was. He didn't get an answer to that either. What surprised me was that the ex-envoy's letter appeared prominently in a newspaper. And there were at least two or three persons above him and none of them too noticed of it either. It seems all lacked ordinary sensitivity. Unless the MoU has made a difference I suppose to this day Tamils continue to be cast into police dungeons for the heinous crime of not carrying their identity cards. Apropos of nothing, it is nice to know that there are people concerned about free and fair elections and have, sad to say, lost their faith in the police to carry out their duties freely and fairly, which apparently they did admirably till yesterday. - Gamarala |
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