Obituaries

[Peter]

Thought it was ironic and saddening that the good Doc who started this thread is no longer with us.

We miss you, Bhushan (April 19th, 2009 at the tender age of 58). RIP

[jai_in_canada]

Yes, I still can't believe that Dr. Bhushan Sharma is gone. There is that silence in this forum where he wrote.

BTW, how come no one has said anything about Michael Jackson's passing? Very special talent. The world is poorer with his passing. His music & dancing are so special. Yes, he was different. Not sure if the many allegations against him were valid. But I feel that he was treated very cruelly by the media and led a lonely Peter Pan like fantasy life in a dreamy world. I am sure he saw-smelled-heard-felt-tasted the Universe very uniquely.

RIP, MJ. And thank you so much for the great music. Your music will live on for ever, and children of all ages will enjoy it 1000 years from now and more.

[gbelday]

RIP MJ

[Peter]

Farrah Fawcett, at age 62 after fighting cancer since 2006. Farrah handled life's ups and downs with grace and charm.

She was the earliest pin-up girl i remember (almost 3 decades ago).

[gbelday]

I am not sure how many of you read about the Indian woman who drowned over the July 4th weekend at Virginia Beach. Sujana was well known in the Washington area for her work for the underprivileged. She was also quite active in the telugu community. Although I have never met her, I spoke to her on many occassions. May her soul rest in peace!

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/s ... 05/278094/

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/repor ... py_1272762

[jayakris]

Sorry to hear of the AP chief minister's tragic death. Though I had never liked him from day one as he announced the "free power" gimmick, I think he was a hard working CM - and anybody who gets elected a second time from a state deserves credit ... Condolences to the families of YSR and the four others with him in the ill-fated chopper trip.

Meanwhile, here is something that is strange - Cabinet resolves to name Kadapa district after YSR .. Huh? Why do our politicians always overdo things. State and districts are not to be named after politicians. We are going to have a "Rajasekhara district" now? (and I am sure there will be those who will only call Kadappa as "Samuel" district after that, too!) ..

Jay

[gbelday]

It's a pretty tragic and a sad incident. One of the pilots, Mr. Bhatia, was from our area in Secunderabad. YSR was known to be hardworking but I never saw him as a visionary. Naidu is the only CM that I still hold in high regard when it comes to setting vision (and development). I also hope that they don't make YSR's son, Jaganmohan, the CM. 100+ MLAs have been lobbying with the "high command" for his appointment.

[Sandeep]

I am deeply hurt by the loss of YSR. We surely lost a great leader. Whoever will be the next CM, I just hope he will take YSR's ideology forward. No Indian chief minister has done more than him to the poor. Let it be free electricity, IITs for poor, free medical insurance, lakhs of people are having a shelter to live now (Rajiv and Indiramma gruha kalpa schemes), Rs.2 rice program etc etc. Above all he will always be remembered for his vision to build irrigation projects. He completed 17 in the last 5 years and 30 are in pipeline. Not many people credit his role in eliminating Naxalism in Andhra Pradesh. That would have made farmers rich forever (which is the backbone of our economy). A mass leader and a humanist whom every section of Andhra Pradesh has felt their own. He touched the hearts of so many people that there will not be a single person in AP who will say he is a bad person (believe me there is not a single one). We surely lost a great great leader. A leader par excellence. May his soul rest in Peace

PS :

(and I am sure there will be those who will only call Kadappa as "Samuel" district after that, too!)

..

Jay, there is no Samuel in his name. In case, yu are among those who thought 'S' in YSR stands for Samuel

[jayakris]

I know. I believe the "S" stands for "Santindi" (his mother's name - though I have never heard a name like that) ..

But what is your problem if he is called "Samuel" by those who want to make sure that people understand that he is a Christian? He is a Christian, and he didn't deny it, did he? ... Yes, it is in poor taste for anybody to call somebody by a name he doesn't have - and that's all there is. If he truly wasn't a Christian, then I would really object to those guys creating a wrong story on a guy within their circles with that nickname "Samuel". To me it is just like TexasA&M fans calling the Univ.Of.Texas as "texas university (tu)" (in small letters) to remind themselves that UT is not "The" university of Texas. In some cases, it shows their own insecurity, though in YSR's case, it shows some truth.

I am of course against any Indian politician who easily turns a blind eye to foreign money pouring into India SOLELY for the purpose of being handed over to the uneducated poor in India willing to change religion as "humanitarian help in education and medicine". There is no other Hindu country out there to send money like that to India for hindu evangelization (though some foreign Hindus do send money to Hindu causes - which is not even a minuscule fraction of what is sent by the rich Christians abroad). To say, "well, tough!" is not an answer. Any politician who calls himself "secular" and stands by watching this go on, probably happy too at so many misguided Hindu souls seeing the Lord's right path, is nothing but an evangelist (or at least an opportunist). YSR would come right at the top of politicans in India who made it so much easier for the evangelization activity to go on. Then there are issues like what was happening in TTD etc, but I will let that go for now.

Yes, this may not be the time for me to mention it, but since you brought it up, I would say that I always hated YSR for that. He did a lot of good things in AP, from all I can see. He was not half as bad as I thought he would be, when I first heard of the "free power" scheme that I felt was regressive to the extreme - but he gets really bad marks from me, for helping the evangelization of the poor in AP with foreign money. Of course, the press in India will never argue the case against evangelization properly - the intellectuals simply asking why the Hindus cannot help people like the Christians (totally forgetting the foreign $$$ angle). It is totally unfair for a religion to take over whole region's peoples with $$$ power that the poor native religion cannot withstand. So somebody like you will first get angry at the Hindu mouthpieces calling him "Samuel" than at the Malayali priest in Kadappa handing out leaflets saying free food and medicine at the church camp - paid for by foreign $$$.

I am not saying that evangelization is wrong at all. I am talking about balancing the money equations only. I am not going to say that a great religion and its philosophies that emerged in India is all wrong; and neither would I say that the teachings of religions that originated in the middle east are wrong either. But religion of the rich of the world should not be allowed to eradicate other great faiths. And governments that turn a blind eye to one religion clearly having an upper-hand due to foreign money, and facilitating the activities, are NOT secular. It is against the Indian constitution, just as is a government with Hindu leanings allowing the state police to stand and watch when people of a minority religion are burned to death. This part of YSR did not endear him to me, for sure. But, religion is not all that matters - which is why I said, if people who elected him liked him and what he was doinf for the state, then he deserves all respect and that should be his legacy.

I might move this whole thing to a different thread, as it is inapprorpriate to discuss in an obituary page.

Jay

[Sandeep]

Jay, whatever you have posted is utter nonsense. Ultimate BS I have ever heard. Sorry, but that is what it is. Where did you get this information about him supporting spread of Christianity and all? I am sorry Jay, you were misinformed about him. May be he didn't oppose it but definitely he didn't facilitate the process. Jay, believe me, he has touched every heart irrespective of their religion. I don't know if he is a secularist or not (no point in being secularist and not serving people). He is a leader par excellence and if some one can take forward his ideologies, AP will be a model state forever. At least for this to happen I want his son to be the next CM. Hindu nicely printed a neutral view about him. Here is the link

http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/04/stories ... 780900.htm

I largely agree with that article if not everything.

PS : His full name is Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy. Yeduguri Sandinti is his family name and everyone in family has that surname (his father's name is Y S Raja Reddy).

[PKBasu]

The Hindu is neutral???!!!
YSR's father was a mining tycoon. He himself was a medical doctor (who practised his profession in a Christian mission hospital before becoming a full-time politician), but he did seem to have lived a more simple public life -- which enabled him to paint himself as a "man of the people" (all the while benefitting from the super-profits of his family's mining ventures in Rayalaseema, the poorest and most crime-ridden part of Andhra Pradesh). The rich who use tax-payers' money to buy themselves a reputation as "protectors of the poor" are particularly despicable -- because they are actually jeopardising the future of the poor by building up government debts that will eventually have to be paid off by taxing them and their children more (through regressive taxes like a sales tax that falls disproportionately on the poor).

Chandrababu Naidu did far more for Andhra's poor than YSR. But the latter borrowed from the future to shower short-term "gifts" on the poor, the former delivered tangible benefits (better infrastructure including power and water on a sustainable-funding basis, and of course a quantum leap in urban amenities for businesses in Hyderabad and other urban centres) that would have longer-term pay-offs. Unfortunately, in politics short-termism always pays better. (And similarly on Naxalism, with which YSR made a Faustian pact in order to oust Chandrababu five years ago).

[Sandeep]

the former delivered tangible benefits (better infrastructure including power and water on a sustainable-funding basis, and of course a quantum leap in urban amenities for businesses in Hyderabad and other urban centres) that would have longer-term pay-offs.

Then why did he shower "all-free" promises in the current elections if his tangible benefits really helped everyone??? Naidu was good but only for educated circle and middle class families. He did nothing for poor especially farmers and that is the reason why he lost two consecutive elections (in fact the first time he was a CM he didn't win it!). There is no comparison between him and YSR as leaders, YSR is far better and most of them acknowledge it including the national media.

[shibi]

From the time it was confirmed that YSR has died, I was wondering why Jay hasn’t raised his usual rhetoric about religion, conversion and the stuff. Jay, you didn’t disappoint, you never do.

There are scores of people in the US and other western countries who convert of Hinduism. One may say they do it because they have discovered its greatness but if an Indian convert to Christianity, it is always for money. Nice argument! But if it is true, one should also say that these Goras are intellectually superior for they yearn for truth and find enlightenment in Hinduism whereas these Indians are shameless, greedy and have low intellect, for they easily discard their faith original and convert to a different faith for few Rupees.

[prasen9]

I have no clue about what YSR did because I did not follow him closely. But this is an interesting conversation going on. At first blush, we have a social/religious conservative, an economic conservative and an economic liberal arguing --- simplifying the labeling, of course, but at least for this argument that is more or less what it seems like. And the points are going across each other. Reading the above I would try to raise a few questions.

1. If it is a choice between religion and food/medicine, I would have to choose the latter. The government could not finance proper food/medical facilities for the people. Now, should it prevent someone who is bringing money to help poor people albeit under conditions of conversion? If I had to choose between my child dying or my getting a proper meal after going hungry several days, I would gladly convert to idiotism or satanism or whatever my helper wants me to. People for whom religious convictions are deeply rooted would convert in name only, for I would never really believe that, but put up a charade to indicate that The Idiot is almighty and created the world in two days or wrote my dissertation or whatever people want me to say. That charade is largely inconsequential. For people who are really confused and do not care, if they accept some -ism in order to stay alive, that is fine too, because they will continue to remain confused. Food/medicine trumps religion. For the spiritualists who would rather go hungry than convert, you have your choice. YSR was a pragmatist in this sense and did not stop the rich helping the poor under their conditions. It is surprising that we complain when things have to do with religion, but, are largely silent, when the IMF puts in conditions that favor the western countries or large multinationals dictate conditions to smaller governments or basically help seat their puppet governing body. Any money flowing in has terms and conditions.

2. The second argument is between Naidu and YSR. They had different policies. Sandeep says that what YSR did helped the poor, but, PKB asserts that this is short-term help only and not sustainable. Naidu was trying to build a more sustainable economy. I am paraphrasing and simplifying, but, that I believe is the essence. Now, PKB needs to say what Naidu did and how it helped the poor. And why what YSR did do, as Sandeep says, to develop infrastrucutre should be discounted. Sandeep needs to say why what Naidu was ineffective and why YSR's efforts will help in the long run. Of course, none of you need to say anything more, but, I am just trying to keep the debate going for me to learn what is going on.

[Kumar]

hmm, Prasen you have a nice future as Moderator or Facilitator in the debat