>From:
Ashok V Chowgule
Kanchanjunga
72, Dr G Deshmukh Marg,
Mumbai 400026.
July 16, 1998.
Sir,
Reference "Shourie is wrong" (July 7) by Prof K N
Panikkar. As is to be expected from him, he has made a
desperate effort to confuse the issues raised Arun Shourie.
Various publications have sought to say that it was the
present government that changed the word 'rational' to
'national' in the notification on ICHR. And this mistruth
was used to go on another tirade against the BJP. Shourie,
I am sure, has no complaints about the tirade against the
BJP. What he, and many others, objects to is when it is
based on mistruths.
Regarding the Towards Freedom project, here too the
objection is not how much honorarium the historians
associated with it have received. A project which should
have been completed in ten years. It is more than 25 years
now, and there is no end in sight. There has been a huge
wastage of funds in that the administrative expenses have
continued for so long. The moneys could have been better
utilised in other projects.
The main point in Shourie's article, that the ICHR has been
dominated by the leftists, seems to have been accepted by
Prof Panikkar. In the process, he makes an arrogant
assumption that this is the birth right of the communists.
We need to understand the history of the communists to
understand this arrogance. They actively opposed the Quit
India Movement, they wanted India to be partitioned in 19
countries, they said that the freedom was a false one, they
supported the Chinese invasion. The list of their anti-
national actions can go on and on. It is this record that the
Towards Freedom project would have highlighted that
caused the delay in its publication. And it is this record
that Shourie has highlighted in his various writings that is
the reason why the communists hate him.
Yours sincerely,
(Ashok Chowgule)
To:
The Editor, The Asian Age,
210 Surya Kiran,
19 Kasturba Gandhi Marg,
New Delhi 110 001.