SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: Arun Shourie is one of the strangest cases on the Indian intellectual landscape if not its most disappointing. A living, walking, moving advertisement of how rabid ideology can addle even the most riveting of minds, stripping it of all its nuance and pretence; its very soul and humanity.
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Once a fiery critic of Reliance Industries as editor of the Indian Express, he was happy to deliver a eulogy at Dhirubhai Ambani‘s first death anniversary; even changing the law as minister to benefit Reliance Industries, as alleged by the son of Girilal Jain, the former Times of India editor who held shares in the company, no less.
Once a symbol of middle-class integrity and probity for various scams unearthed his watch, his stint as disinvestment minister was pockmarked with allegation after allegation (although an unattributed Wikipedia entry claims he was ranked “the most outstanding minister of the Atal Behari Vajpayee government” by 100 CEOs).
A slow, scholarly, Chaplinesque demeanour hides a cold, clinical mind that piles the rhetoric and the stereotypes on the poor, the marginalised and the disenfranchised while taking up high faluting positions on terrorism, governance, internal security and such like, through long, meandering essays whose opacity could put cub journalists to shame.
And, as always, selectively twisting and turning the facts to fit his preconceived conclusion, and hoping no one will notice.
To paraphrase Ramachandra Guha, Shourie has become the Arundhati Roy of the right:
“The super-patriot and the anti-patriot use much the same methods. Both think exclusively in black and white. Both choose to use a 100 words when 10 will do. Both arrogate to themselves the right to hand out moral certificates. Those who criticise Shourie are characterised as anti-national, those who dare take on Roy are made out to be agents of the State. In either case, an excess of emotion and indignation drowns out the facts.”
But what should disappoint even his most ardent fans, and there are many young journalists, is how easily and effortlessly a pacifist penman has regressed from “a concerned citizen employing his pen as an effective adversary of corruption, inequality and injustice” (as his Magsaysay Award citation read) to a hate-spewing ideological warrior with fire blazing through his nostrils.
A son of a Gandhian who now openly advocates “two eyes for an eye and a whole jaw for one tooth” with barely any qualms.
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At a series of lectures in Ahmedabad on Saturday, Shourie bared his fangs some more:
“India is still a passive country when it comes to taking a stand against terrorism….
“It should, in fact, take an extremist stance and must prove that it can also create a Kashmir-like situation in Pakistan.
“There are many places like Baluchistan, where a Kashmir-like situation can be created but, “hum abhi bhi Panchsheel ke pujari hain (We still worship the tenets of Panchsheel)”….
“Pakistan has been successfully carrying out destruction in India for the last two decades and has still managed to escape problems, while India on every occasion has failed to present a unified response to terrorism and has suffered as a consequence….”
Really?
An eye for an eye? Two eyes for an eye? A jaw for a tooth?
In the name of Vivekananda, should India do unto Pakistan what Pakistan has done to us? Is this a sign of vision on the part of a man who some believe should be the next prime minister, or tunnel vision?
Is such barely disguised hatred and vengeance, hiding behind vedas and upanishads, going to make the subcontinent a better place to live in? Should the people of Pakistan, the poor, the marginalised, the disenfranchised, pay the price for the sins of the generals?
Should a great, ancient civilisation become a cheap, third-rate, neighbourhood bully?
Has Arun Shourie lost more than his soul and humanity?
Has Arun Shourie just lost it?
Photograph: courtesy The Hindu Business Line
Also read: How Shilpa Shetty halted the Chinese incursions
Crossposted on churumuri
IJR 
Your views seem biased. Maybe your boss, Antonio Maino( Sonia Gandhi) is still upset with Shourie for exposing the fraud of her husband when he was PM. Arun Shourie is and will remain a hero for India’s urban middle class.
rajinder: Shourie had an awakening – you are still feeling your way in the darkness. Wake up, read, listen, experience – and not only from polemicists like Arundhati Roy. Go to Pakistan, go to a madrasa, a mosque and do some serious writing.
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svegali: Poorly thought out and even more poorly written article. This is one of the worst sentences I have ever read:
“A slow, scholarly, Chaplinesque demeanour hides a cold, clinical mind that piles the rhetoric and the stereotypes on the poor, the marginalised and the disenfranchised while taking up high faluting positions on terrorism, governance, internal security and such like, through long, meandering essays whose opacity could put cub journalists to shame.“
What the heck?? Where did you learn to write?
Where is the source for the quote you attribute to Shourie : “two eyes for an eye and a whole jaw for one tooth.”
Other than your post and the questionable original post by the “eminent historian” Bharati Jaganathan there is no record that Shourie ever said that.
I think this is a biased write up. I think Shourie has been vociferous about how the nuclear deal is not good for Indian defence, and while you have singled him out on other issues, you have conveniently ignored his contributions to exposing Pratibha Patil (which were quieted down) and his contributions to creating the very free media you subsist upon to write this blog.
How is it a sad and pathetic decline if a journalist stands up for his own country while exposing what the enemy state has been doing all along?
Looks like some die-hard BJP/Hindutva guys are miffed by this article.
I was in Mumbai when Shourie began his campaign against Antulay and had admired him. But, as time past by and his ideology reared its head, I have been disappointed as he is very partisan, always with an axe to grind and very openly and obviously one-dimensional in offering solutions to a country as complex as India. In other words, Shourie has sadly outlived his utility and relevance for India today.
one should not be biased dear writer!
How ignorant can you be if you are still dreaming humanity!
I say, Humanity starts at your own land, your own country! We cant stand attrocities in the fear of being called a bully. What about the people killed everyday in J & K? Are they not humans? The Kashimi Pandits (hell yeah, i am a rightist)and Kargil… dont they ring any bells for people (ostrich) like you. Pakistan has done enough damage and I dont think any other nation would have so patiently tolerated… Strategic strikes or International Pressure, wahtever it takes, people of this nation deserve a solution. And if Mr. Shourie has the guts to say it, i would rather appreciate that than hiding behind the fake curtains of humanity.
Decline? Shourie has only improved over time. You are not just biased but I must say you are completely ignorant.
I see that Shourie is a true nationalist and knows exactly how to keep this nation one.
People like you, are the one who pretend to be nationalists but actually are real jerks, intellecutally as well as philosophically.
what kashmiri pandits there were about 200 pandits killed in kashmir n indian army killed more than 100,000 kashmiri muslims among them children n women,but u cant c that b coz ur prejudice has blind u.kashmiri pandits where not chased,they left with there own free will becoz jagmohan told them to do so,his plan was to wipe out all muslim population. if kashmiri were so cruel there wouldn,t be still some pandit familys living here,wake up n shake urself up n dont justify of killing thousands of muslims in gujrat by saying that kashmiri muslims killed few pandits.
Arun Shourie is a man even his opponents would not like to know. Apart from his social nitiatives, his views are for the benefit of country. WE have only heard constructive things from him and even the points on which you chose to criticise Mr Shourie, they make me proud and also safe that someone is there to speak on behalf of us ‘the ignored’ nationalist.
This writer is commenting on all and sundry using rhetoric and no facts and claims that shourie is indulging in rhetoric. Shourie is far too intelligent and learned about all aspects and you cannot really understand him. So please shut up.
Antulay is one thing while foreign policy on pak is another. Both need to be understood from the prism of INdia’s interest. Period.
he is so intelligent that he quotes religios scriptures out of context so he can fuel the fire n let the innocent hindu,muslims kill each other.
Arun Shourie has inflicted a festering wound on the psuedo seculars and the eminent historians. Hence such ad-homienem attacks against him. Shourie sadly for these people quotes facts extensively. He basically punctures the huge fals propoganda build up of the leftist (non)thinkers.
Laughing my brains off. The person who has written this article could not have carried Arun Shourie’s suitcase! Shourie fought against the establishment in the infamous Bofors scandal, got fired from Indian Express by establishment pressure and came out a winner. He has championed against corruption and government inefficiency relentless and in the face of ugly and desparate attacks like this one. When someone is attacked by establishment propaganda, like Shourie has been in this article, people’s respect for that person goes up. Keep going on, the small people of churumuri 🙂
there is no objective argument against shourie in this article. its just rhetoric and vague allegations. apart from one point, about creating a kashmir in pakistan (which is quite debatable), there is no point against shourie. please make a more point by point analysis.
shourie is the man! free market, nationalism, & sovereignty 🙂
I just hope he gets some knowledge before he writes… especially about nationalists like shourie….
Another blind man criticising Shourie.Yawnnn !
Dear SHARANYA:
You are a pathetic publicity hound. If you had something useful to say, you could have said it without maligning a true patriot like Arun Shourie. Instead, you had to malign his motives and twist his words in order to reflect some undeserved publicity to yourself. I hope this article provides some needed notoriety to your name rather than any positive respect for your opinions. Next time, try writing something original that would improve the country!
Dear Sharanya,
The overwhelming barrage of scorn poured on u,is not shocking or for that matter even a surprise. I hope you would be thouroughly enjoying it.Shourie fanatics in their enthusiism ,always end up giving a back handed compliment to the Talibans.it goes without saying that they are fully entitled for their views but then so are the other(s) who beg to differ with Shourie.Infact, if we go by the whole body of work of Shourie and more importantly the modus operandi employed by him to castigate individuals/organisations/institutions, almost all his work always ends up,throwing out, an equal amount of question marks on Shourie and his intentions.History & for that matter even contemporary issues can never judged in black & white.But in his perennial haste to create villians out of everything,save for the RSS and the people,politics & issues associated to it/employed by it,Shourie almost ends up(and that’s a habit), presenting to the other side an opportunity by default to get back to him.We have never read/heard him addressing such issues which the other side(s),have raised, in response to his.Shourie’s writings always have underlined the contradictions,of which we do not think,he would be unaware.His silence on the same,speaks moreloudly than he would have pains in explaining /justifying his writings.Sharanya, your example of the volte face of Shourie on Reliance, is just a tip of the iceberg.The responses,by Shourie fanatics,to u are not surprising,to say the least. While they have no qualms in throwing generous amount of barbs on the other side(s), however,they are everready to call blasphemy, of any attempt by the other side(s),to even remotely suggest/advise of the ‘new cloths” which their emperor is wearing (and which they claim,with such rabid pride as his pristine quality).Well, if the rule of the game is “to each his own’ than I think, Sharanya, u too are supremely entitled for the same.
here is another heap of rubbish just as the author of this piece of rubbish.
Blah blah blah blah….and the moral of ur story is??….grow up yaar…
The entire blog praises Arun Shourie !whatever you say he is HERO ! so this blog failed to taint Arun anyway ,,, suckup nipple and sleep tight !
Nice try mate….better luck next time….in the process,dont worry about me,suck ur thing tight and yeah somebody will surely wake u up to tell the news!!!!!!!!!!!
bono are u on payroll of isi or the vatican….marxist maybe? if not than i hope u read his books. he maybe too much of a neo-con, but do desperate times not call for desperate measures.
please donot be a sheep
p.s. i have spent 2 years in the valley, have a bullet graze on my ribs.
Sharanya,
Your assessment on Arun Shourie is retarded! Having said that I am still mystified why the ‘super patriot’ Shourie wrote against the Nuclear Deal !! That was the time I realized clowns like Jaswant Singh who actually fought hard for N Deal during Vajapayee’s Govt suddenly started disowning the Nuclear Deal. It was very hard for me to accept that BJP as a Nationalist Party would join hands with the Communists to torpedo the Nuclear Deal. From then on I lost respect for Arun shourie for peddling donkey twaddle on Nuclear Deal.
Arun Shourie remains the last bastion of the independent, free, scholarly intellectual with integrity and honesty that can move to tears. Indians should be proud of him. The breadth of his intelligence and his fearlessness are remarkable attributes. The above piece is I am indeed sorry to say, is a remarkable feat of ignorance and shockingly poor analysis. Shourie’s views have always remained secular much as the Hindu tradition has always been since time immemorial. Just because he advocates a (much needed) realpolitik approach to dealing with India’s perennial problems with Pakistan does not brand him a fundamentalist. Anybody who does this only exposes their own stupidity. This is not any different from other nations all over the world who find solutions to problems not wallow in them for decades and centuries while people waste away.
Anyone who is pro India like Arun Shourie is sitting duck for ‘secularists’ who are instrumental in bringing the miseries India is living in today. He is the only patriotic icon left in India of today. Today, the whole country is wrapped by the secular media in to a brawl between Shahrukh Khan and Thakares as nothing else is happening in the country.The culture of corruption propagated by the Gandhi clan and Congress has weakened the country immensely. Now even if you bring these facts before citizens you are termed as Hinduvadi reactionary. May God bless Arun with healthy long life to take on the traitors.
arun shourie has been one of india’s finest editors — and he is one of india’s remarkable public intellectuals.
in his politics, mr. shourie sees the larger picture and relies on evidence for his arguments. he is a persuasive writer/orator.
the man clearly has his his heart in the right place. i have always loved mr. shourie’s journalism — from the very time he took on rajiv gandhi despite the congress’ brute majority in the lok sabha in the 1980s. in the last few years i have also admired his courageous politics.
The author has at least agreed on two points here about Shourie, that he is an intellectual, and also that his writing skills are great. And regarding “essays whose opacity could put cub journalists to shame” what can better this article of yours?
Arun shourie is a great person with a true integrity. He has done wonders to the journalism which has now been degraded by NDTV and CNN-IBN chrishtian islamic militant media..
Arun shourie states facts and even has bibliographies stating that, if you can counter his facts than I will believe but surely a very bad try to write against him..
Arun Shourie represented one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated in the name of investigative and whatever journalism in India. He tried to pretend himself as a voice of down-trodden and masqueraded to champion against everything evil with the congress government of Indira Gandhi. It was a spectacle to see his mask come off so-easily and hard-cored chauvinistic features were in open display. Did Ram Nath Goenka know that his one-time protege is a literal wolf in sheep’s clothing and that he would be one day a shameless defender of a criminal like Narender Modi. A slight deeper analysis would have easily revealed that given the chance Arun Shourie would be an ideologue of saffron movement par-excellence and given his way with words and his capability of distorting facts at some point he would have become more dangerous than the devil itself. Fortunately things didn’t go the way Arun Shourie would have liked and after humiliation of sangh brigade in last election he even went to the extend of pleading with his RSS masters to bombard BJP head quarters. I remember in one of his holier than thou column in the Indian Express he had preached the idea of a limited democracy with an empowered chosen executive. My answer to his preachings would be that Indian nation should be thankful to the divine conjunction that people like Arun Shourie’s wishes don’t (always) come true. One of the biggest contributors to what some people think (including Arun Shourie) as economic boom has been the chaotic Indian parliamentary system. Even to the extent it has been this very system, with all its intrinsic flaws, that let country survive through difficult and turbulent periods when at times everything seemed to be lost. The country survived those times when prophets of gloom like Arun Shourie predicted nothing but doom. People like Arun Shourie occasionally come up with the idea of jettisoning the very system that has enabled country to survive. The sole agenda in such arguments is to assure survival of ‘parallel’ elitist India. So that what Arun Shourie calls an empowered executive can protect the vested elitist interests. The mere fact that a Dalit woman could become Chief Minister of the largest state in the country is by itself is an achievement, which people like Mr. Shourie treat as a threat to their agenda. In the world history examples are galore with consequences of strong executives. I am sure Mr. Shourie knows when an elected European leader in 1930s decided to do away with the parliament and rule his country directly with his henchmen. I hope Arun Shourie and his ilk don’t have that kind of executive in mind. The problem in India is not its democratic system (legislative) but rather the attitude and doings of the elite class which Arun Shourie and his ilk would like to protect. Why don’t elitist encourage their children to serve nation by joining politics. Certainly answer to that question is not in the removal of the system but rather in strengthening it. Experience of past decade has definitely shown with all it flaw the parliamentary system works even in the era of coalitions. One of the fundamental requistion for prevention of descent of a democracy into totalitarian system is built in grid lock that makes making any change in the constitution a herculean task. Any keen observer would draw satisfaction that finally Indian democracy might have arrived; the bill on women’s reservation is an example. No government shall be able to push through any amendment without building a true consensus. That is a sign of a healthy democracy and not a sign of inefficiency as the ignorant elite may think it to be.
One of the common refrains that viciously circles elite living rooms is that everything connected to politics is unclean and every politician is a corrupt. The advent of mass media instead of spreading information has been as a matter of fact used by vested interests to spread ignorance. The emails detailing criminal cases pending against members of the parliament circulate among those who never pause even for a smallest moment to earn by any means. Is corporate corruption any lesser evil evil than political corruption or it just a difference that the latter are out in front of press and former get help from pliable accountants to cook their books and look savvy so that they can pass themselves as above any law. The last economic crisis was not caused by the corrupt politicians but by rather greedy corporates and their captains whose despite bringing down the entire world down still remain unpunished and what is even amazing they brazenly remain unfazed and given another chance they will repeat it all over again. Those are the very elites whose welfare bleeds the heart of men like Arun Shourie.
It can’t be more candid than this.Kudos to you for making an effort to warn the ‘Worshippers of False Gods’ – I mean the demi-god like status given to him by the shameless, arrogant, sangh supporters-the dangers of allowing such ‘intellectuals’ to have their way in the corridors of power.
The ‘conscience of India’ is the most corrupt one.No parellel in this world.Handful of cunning religious bigots ruling over the majority, by subverting everything in the name of Patriotism/Nationalism.
It seems he is on the payroll of RSS to do investigative history on all issues/personalities with the single agenda of promoting a particular line of thinking.Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.People who are blind to the travails of the millions suffering under the yoke of Caste’ take up only the patriotic issues to divert the attention from real issues.If this nation is anti-human in its thinking and actions then this nation need not exist as it exists today. The road to Indian Revolution, is not far off.
Yeah!!.I know you personally paid agent Rajiv Kumar….. are the airs of Sweden and Germany feeling good??….paid bootlickers of Syed Ali Shah Geelani anyway don’t know much about honesty…What in hell’s name do you know about investigative journalism..huh!!!…
very bad blog post, of course a good way to publicity is to attack a good person, because you cant dare to attack the bad going on in the country
This article by SHARANYA KANVILKAR is one of the weirdest, stupidest and pathetic pieces that I have read in recent times. It is a living, walking and moving advertisement of low journalists can stoop in their ignorance, stupidity and self-promotion. She seems to have written this piece to get some kind of publicity for herself. A reader here has rightly asked: “bono are u on payroll of isi or the vatican….marxist maybe?”
The best way to know for anyone that he is bang on the right path is when any RSS hidden wolf in sheep’s clothing ( and in the garb of exotic christian names..)…accuses one of being on the “payroll of isi or the vatican…marxist”…..A staple modus operandi of the online saffron jehadis…but also makes me really ponder of what will happen of these johnies if indeed the isi/vatican & marxist come together…???
No, we should follow the path you are hinting at and just let pakistan to do whatever it wants. I am even proposing of giving the whole of India to pakistan as the ONLY solution. People of pak are so innocent – its people here who are troubling them. I will go a step further and even say that the whole trouble is created by Indian Government who, for its vote bank, are growing and using militants as proxy for pak. People of pak are so peace loving people – each one deserves a Nobel for tolerating war from India for last 63 years.
HAPPY? or should I write more for shourie too? on a second thought I guess you must have written this article to get noticed by and appease your worshiped ones? or even might be paid to write this? nice try though 🙂
Shourie is the conscience of India. Try spitting on the Sun and you know where it will land- on your face.
Sorry for the late reply on this article.
Honestly, I did not understand the problem with two eyes for one eye and jaw for tooth statement. He had also said it at one of the lectures in Bangalore (i guess – i had seen the video on youtube). This was said with reference to Terrorists and not for everyday life.
For terrorists you have to raise the casualty level. Not like the congress way of Hazratbal and Charar-e-Sharif or Afzal Guru when that joker of a home minister, Shivraj Patil told Delhi Govt of not to move on query by Rashtrapati Bhawan on leniency on Death Sentence.
The problem has been that BJP has not been able to use Shourie effectively. Had they been smart enough they would have cleaned up congress. He is very smart speaker and does his home work very thoroughly.
Somehow calling spade a spade has become communal in this country.
The person who wrote this article does not have much between the set of ears and god help The Hindu if they continue publishing such crap of an article.
Comparison with Arundhati Roy was a pathetic reference. Arundhati keeps on shouting down the state and wishing it away without giving an alternate form of government that should be brought in. Her favourite line is power to people – how and when no mention – no mention because no idea.
Mr Shourie on the other hand gives implementable solutions to the Internal Security concerns.
Not mentioning anything about the Kashmiri Pandit remark. The so called secular nature of J&K struggle is for all to see. Out of 3 regions of J&K only K wants Azaadi (even they dont know what Azaadi means though – since never spelt out properly) J and Laddakh want to be with Indian State.
Mr Shourie I am a great fan of yours and please continue the good work.
Pretty interesting take on Arun Shourie
A hatchet job on Shourie. Pathetic.
Arun Shourie is the man who saw today 30 years ago. A true visionary. His unmasking of the Indian intellectual’s fraud and chicanery is in substantial measure responsible for India’s emergence as a growing economy. In “The Only Fatherland” he laid bare the Indian communists’ collaboration with the colonial administration in the 30s and 40s showing up the likes of Jyoti Basu to be little better than informers of the British. While an angry “left” railed and ranted, communism fell all over the world, and is now ready to collapse in India as well. Before that the left’s stranglehold on our intellectual life has been slowly untangled. In his “World of Fatwas” Shourie alerted us to the simmering extremism within the Islamicist Middle East, well before the emergence of the Taliban. Today 10 years after 9/11 the world wiser. Shourie then set about writing the first comprehensive history of the christian missions in India, which he presented to none other the Catholic Bishops Conference of India. He showed us how the christian missions came to India as a vanguard of the colonisers and how little they have done for India compared to professionally run organizations like the Ramakrishna Mission. That was 15 years ago, years before people in the West began to assail the church establishment. Today atheist authors like Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Loftus outsell bible-freks like Dinesh D’Souza 10:1. And then in two devastating accounts on Ambedkar and our “eminent historians” he recounted the myths that we have grown up on. Today Shourie’s scholarship is mainstream history and finally recognised as the work of an academic genius.
it is your article which is sad and pathetic….shourie is a man with impeccable integrity…..you want even hear an allegation against shourie by his opposition….your article leads us to a link to the times of india coverage of the shourie seminar at ahmedabad….what justice shah pointed out was wrong and shourie was rights….no such exception is made in the judgment…i was present there…shourie himself mentioned this incident in his book ‘we must have no price’ ….
The most stupid and one-sided article masquerading as an elite one. What sort of intellectualism is this when one should not talk about Ambedkar ? How can someone be faulted for his opinions based on historical evidence ?
Pls read his books :
“Eminent Historians”
“Worshipping false Gods”.
What is being quoted in his books are authentic references and not what the ELM ( English Language Media ) types of the JNU varient would want to hear.
As someone rightly said in their reply “The person who has written this article could not have carried Arun Shourie’s suitcase! “
You are not only stupid in writing this, but also too judgmental. Shourie has not declined, it is you and your propensity towards flawed version of nationalism and utopian leftist mindset that has eaten you up from within. At the end your hollowness shows. While you are entitled to hold an opinion, in terms of frankness and incorruptibility Mr. Shourie stands out. He is one of the frankest Indians ever. Few douchebags who have done nothing for this country can only react so cheaply.
Sad to call SHARANYA a writer… she is clearly writing these articles to hold on to her job and get promotions pleasing her white bosses, who want to see India poor, unthinking and un-rising… shame on you lady – quit the job and help the country and its people, don’t kill your own people slowly for selfishness…
This is just the kind of rabid writing we could have less. Shourie is one of the few honest writers we have in the country who have the guts to take on the corrupt establishment. Your write-up is biased. For eg., sure, we have had plenty of terrorism from Pak, retaliation can be done in self-defence and is advocated in the Gita. Can’t see what’s wrong with that.
This article was written in 2009 and Arun Shourie is still relevant and writing amazing books and giving speeches.This is a sad and pathetic article.
Those who don’t have level to even speak Shourie’s name are writing articles using fancy words.. He is India’s foremost journalist who brought down Rajeev Gandhi’s govt with the pen .. He has set benchmarks on investigative journalism.