Sunday, August 15, 2021

Kamal Haasan scores a point on I'Day - releases drama on V P Menon the architect of the modern Indian state

Kamal Haasan scored a point on Independence Day by releasing the digital version of the drama on V P Menon, the aide of Sardar Patel who got all the princely States to join the Indian Union. What is the point  that Kamal scored ?.  The drama shows that if it was not for V P  Menon, India would have plunged into a civil war. Modi said it was the day to remember the horrors of partition.  The play also tells us about how Menon worked with the freedom struggle leaders and British to bring about a peaceful transition of power from princely States to a Democratic government.  The play is available on YouTube..

A book written by Narayani Basu on her great grandfather Menon ,when released created a flutter and brought joy to BJP. BJP who has taken the legacy of Sardar Patel and even constructed a statue that is World's highest had felt happy that the book said that Pandit Nehru did not want Sardar in his cabinet and it was V P Menon who also   served as Secretary to the Governor-General (Public) and later as Secretary to the Cabinet who had prevailed upon Nehru and asked Mountbatten to persuade Sardar to join the Cabinet. This BJP went o town pointing out that Congress and Nehru never liked Sardar and so the party was on the right track. But when Narayani criticized the violence against Delhi students, BJP dumped her and stopped patronizing her on social media.

BJP library has this book - V.P. Menon-The Transfer of Power in India - Princeton that is their reference book on the whole matter.. Now Central Minister Jaishankar said when the book was released  that he came to know about the Nehru- Patel differences only after reading Basu's book. He was a Foreign secretary- IFS officer.

The drama  is part of the series Hearts That wrote History..by  Vriksh Theater Delhi who are the producers and Ajith G Maniyan is the director ( works in AIR) who has scripted. The story is based on the findings of a Delhi based Journalist A J Phillip. The play differs in the historians version that it was Mountbatten - Plan to bring all princely States in one fold. It was the Mountbattan - Menon plan. According to Phillip the  he British would have left granting sovereignty to any state which sought it.“Thus, Menon prevented a civil war,  The idea to have a drama on a civil servant came from veteran drama playwright Omenchery.

The drama was staged at the  competition organised by Kerala Sahithya Akademi in 2016 and won the special jury award. In the same year ,the play, was presented in association with Delhi's Kerala Club (of which Menon was the first president) at National School of Drama, ‘Hearts That Wrote History’ was released as a book. The function was attended by Venu Rajamony, press secretary to President of India, and senior jurist Kurien Joseph besides Prof Pillai and Philip among others. The  162 minute production has its locales spread across the south and north of the country, leading to its characters speaking in Menon’s native Malayalam, Tamil and Punjabi up north, besides the link language of Hindi and,English.

So after at all there was a V P Menon called the Unsung hero of India's unification and what better day than to remember him. A day that  closed any idea of civil wars within India.

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