The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : War veterans get nostalgic

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

War veterans get nostalgic

The war veterans of 1971 had a pleasant evening on the lawns of Bison House on Sunday in an event held to commemorate the surrender of Pakistani forces to Indian command. Major-General Anil Chait and his better half hosted the event which had the erstwhile Chief of Army Staff General K.V.Krishna Rao addressing the gathering.

Old yet going strong, General Rao took pains to attend the event in spite of the recent demise of his wife. Hearing him describe his Burma stint in World War II as better than any training, and by his dismissal of Kargil war as just a “confrontation”, one would almost think that he was extolling the real time war situations. His intention, of course, was to caution younger generations to use the peace time to learn about wars in the past. At the same time, it remains an indisputable fact that he enjoyed fighting wars like many of his colleagues did.

They do a yeoman’s service, but it never gets recognised. The sniffer dogs of the police security wing invariably are pressed into service whenever there is a bomb threat. They not only do a perfect job, but their discipline is unquestionable.

They obey the commands of their masters to perfection and they make a perfect salute to the senior officers whenever the master orders it to ‘heel’. It was certainly heartening to see a DCP patting the faithful sniffer dog, when many of the senior officials do not even return the ‘salute’ from the dog. According to the traditions, any senior officer is bound to return the salute from the dog. Sadly, not many officers seem to be aware of this.

The meeting to discuss road widening in Cantonment had its moments of mirth because of the voluble Siddipet MP Survey Satyanarayana. He was the last to speak and had a field day praising or taking pot-shots at others.

Cantonment’s political strongman J. Pratap was hailed as the ‘Chief Minister’ of the area but in the same breath, he said: “He also gives regular statements about abolition of toll tax and Octroi” yet nothing happens as p eople suffer!

SCB CEO V. Premchand and DEO S. Balakrishna were praised for their ‘competence and honesty’ therefore, he cannot seek their transfer. But, if they were allowed to have their way, he would surely ‘lose the next election’ and the ‘government too would get a bad name!’

K. Janardhan Reddy, MLC, and SCB ex-vice-president was described as a ‘senior politician and a crorepati’.

“He is also president of all the function palaces which are the root cause of traffic jams!” The MP did meet his match in ex-SCB member Vittal Reddy.

When he began praising him as a ‘legal luminary’, Mr. Reddy pleaded he was a ‘small man’ so did not warrant such high glorification. Mr. Satyanarayana was unstoppable: “He does not want to be put on a pedestal. Anyway, not to worry I am not going to ditch you”!

The doctors’ strike had literally pushed the political parties into a tight corner. While the MIM stoutly opposed the strike, its arch rival, the BJP supported the doctors’ demands for arrest of the legislators for the assaults on doctors. The Lok Satta had unequivocally supported the doctors and criticised the Government. The Communist parties had adopted a touch me not stand on the issue.

But conspicuous by absence was the Talli Telangana party leader Vijaya Shanti who created quite a scene during the first spell of the doctors strike following the Niloufer incident.

The actress-turned politician rushed to Niloufer hospital and holding the body of a child shouted at the doctors, staged a sit-in at the hospital entrance, as the news cameramen and videographers went on a shooting spree.

However, the latest agitation following the Nayapul hospital attack on doctors, Vijayashanti was no where to be seen. Perhaps, Vijayashanti could have been a little bit unnerved at the reaction she elicited from the Niloufer doctors.

SWATHI.V, K. SRINIVAS REDDY,

V. GEETANATH

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