.......I am a great fan of Cho, fascinated by his intellectual honesty. Even his worst rivals have not accused him of dishonesty and selfishness.
He is a great intelelligent person. But due to self-negation and keeping humility beyond a level, he doesn't possess leadership qualities. So, nobody takes his words seriously.
His contribution during Emergency period, anti-Hindu procession undertaken by EVR, Udayakumar murder in Annamalai University, Clive Hostel incidents in St. Joseph's College, Trichy and his exposing the hypcrisy of people like Karunanidhi, Ramadoss, Veeramani and the like vouch safe his truthfulness in reporting. He has shunned many posts especially in politics and many titles and awards too. He doesn't even spare his fellow-journalists.
Finally, he has never misutilised the large readership Thuglak have for his personal benefit. Perhaps Thuglak is the only one magazine in the world that has readers drawn from all walks of life, along a continuum, touching both its extremes. It is a great wonder.
...
thank you pann.
i think the issue is not about cho's honesty. i agree with you 100% on his personal integrity and not misusing friendships to amass wealth.
re the rest of your tribute, i am not so sure.
sure enough, he started off being politically neutral and did a 360 degree critique. i think in the past 15 years or so, he has moved steadily right wing.
accepting the m.p. post on behalf of bjp, is not an indication of apolitical view of indian public life.
he has been increasingly bleating on the supposed plight of TBs. in this context, cho's hysteria has not been much different from some of the extreme content that we have seen here and which as moderators we have warned against.
cho, i am afraid, does not have empathy for the poor, the downtrodden. he could have used his platform, for social uplift, as a counter to periyar. instead he echoed the certainmost brahminical tenets, which have been inimical to the welfare of this community.
in short, while in his youth, cho was a crusader, since his 50s, he has steadily moved backward, till now, he is just another old fogey, giving armchair reactionary views of india.
definitely, he left his times long ago. another museum piece, our cho.
finally, he could atleast look more presentable.. nowadays, with his overwhelming viboothi, and even more omnipresent pottu, all to top of that mottai... does not inspire in me any confidence... shorn of his garments, he could be one with the thousands of saamiars that roam kasi or gaya.
ps.. all in all, cho is one of the saddest examples of 'what could have been'. early 70s, he was at the height of his potential. i think, he could have maneovered into a movement for social uplift and political clarity.
the first, he seem incapable or insensitive to (he opposed kamaraj free noon day scheme till recently)
the second, he ruined by aligning with bjp (& now with even more dubiuos organizations..perhaps)
