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"Was Ayodhya a full stop, comma or exclamation?' - The Asian Age

Mahesha Hebbar ()
7 April 1997

Title : "Was Ayodhya a full stop, comma or exclamation?'
Author : Mahesha Hebbar
Publication : The Asian Age
Date : April 7, 1997

"It's him, it's him" came the whispering as young students nudged
each other and necks craned to view a slim dapper Englishman
blissfully unaware of the sensation he was creating.

College kids from all over Britain had forked out hard-earned money
to bear this speaker, it was for many their first glimpse of a
childhood icon and media legend, but for Mark Tully, BBC's former
South Asia correspondent, it was all in a day's work. Padma Shri,
OBE, author of several books on India, etc etc.... the
chairperson's introductory address had Mr Tully squirming slightly
in embarrassment. "I hardly recognise myself," he murmured with
English self-deprecation, as he rose to face the 300 or so
goggle-eyed teenyboppers who filled University College's main
auditorium to capacity on Friday.

"Fifty Years On - Is India Really Independent?" is what the
self-confessed India lover chose as his theme for a bit of good
natured India-bashing. He was, as he grudgingly admitted, essaying
to he "provocative", and his first salvo, interspersed with
generous anecdotes, was directed at the "colonial hangover that
still persists in India," the Indian Administrative Service, which
he said "had not been reformed since independence," the situation
in Kashmir, and the horribly working courts - he beard a judge
telling a lawyer, "I know you bring in paid witnesses, but why must
you bring in the same' ones all the time?!"

"Why are there are only hightech new modern cars in India and no
new modern buses," Tully wonders. He interprets this as a sign that
the poor man's transport is being neglected and that trickle-down
theory is not working. His response is to call for greater
decentralisation from a Central government that "interferes on
every subject in every state."

The greatest applause, however. and the speech's high point, comes
when Tully declares that India should he able to "take pride in
its Hinduism." "Secularism was inherited by Nehru from the West..
Talk of Hinduism today and you are immediately labelled BJP, RSS. I
don't agree with the BJP who want to package Hinduism in a neat
form. But India should be proud of its Hindu basis," he avows.

He is. after all, addressing a gathering of the UK's National Hindu
Students Forum whose uppermost concerns became quickly evident when
the session is thrown open to the floor. "Should Hindus become
more assertive? Should Hindus do nothing in the face of Christian
and Muslim evangelism? Should the Hindu Students Forum confront
radical groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir'? Was Ayodhya a full stop,
comma or exclamation mark in India's history (the last a reference
to Tully's book No Full Stops in India)."

The questions flew fast and thick and the Calcutta-born British
journalist found he had a near case of incitement on his hands.. he
was equal nevertheless, to soothing ruffled feathers. "No
confrontation, but stand up for one's own rights," he advised
gently.

Particularly persistent was a BJP supporter who wanted to know why
the BBC always referred to Mahatma Gandhi's assassin as a "Hindu
fundamentalist." "I no longer have to answer for the BBC," beamed
the wily Tully. He resigned from the corporation in 1994.

He cannot resist one parting shot. His message to the world about
India is still positive, he says, and summarised in the sentiments
of a humble building contractor from Birmingham, L.M. Patel, whose
delivery van is emblazoned with the advertising slogan, "You've
tried the cowboys, now try the Indians!" Tully's own future plans
include producing a series of ten documentaries on the India's
independence, co-producing a film about the threat to the Indian
Tiger, and broadcasting on Radio Four, a radio show entitled
Something Understood.



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