B.Shyam Sunder-The Plight of Indian Voters

7/31/2019 B.Shyam Sunder-The Plight of Indian Voters

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B.Shyam Sunder : The Plight of Indian Voters

B.Shyam Sunder addressing the symposium and Sri B.D.Jatti, Chief Minister

The people now throughout the country have been degraded to arank of mere voters- the politician does not see the person in the body

of a man, but tries to see him as a vote r. If the voter can be used to

serve his designs and purposes, then he deserves to be a man, and if

the politician realises that the voter is not going to vote for him, then

to him he now only ceases to be a voter, but also a human being. So, to

every politician the voter of his opponent is not a human being. There

is something basically wrong with our affairs, with our political life,

with our democracy

Published by

H.ShreyeskerPresident

Mool Bharati B.Shyam Sunder Memorial SocietyB. Shyam Sunder Marg . Gulbarga 585105 (Karnataka State )

e-mail shreyesker@gmail


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B.D. Jatti, the Chief Minister of Mysore, inaugural address at the Mushaira

It gives me a great pleasure in ina ugurating this historic function

which is really first of its kind in the country where all the learned

men of our country who no doubt speak different languages but speak

with one soul, are participating. I am grateful to the convenors of this

symposium for inviting me to inaugurate this function. All the great

poets and the writers who have gathe red today in this function.

I am sure, will help the masses at large to play their part in es tablish-

ing a full fledged democratic Government in t he country.Iknow the

poets can play this part ably.

I am neither a poet, nor a writer but as every human being should have

a love for fine arts and eye for whatever is beautiful, I too try some

times whenever I get time, to get myself benefited by reading and

appreciating poetry and literature. Ido not wa nt to count myself among

those about whom, it is

"One who has no eye for beauty nor ear for music

and no taste for poetry's not a man"

Such men are dangerous. So you may not count me among great

scholars but you can take me atleast among one of those who read

these things whenever they get time.

I am glad that Sri. B. Shya m Sunder who is a poet, a writer a nd an

orator, is presiding today. Under his guidance, I am sure our c ultural

and literary activities will spread not only in the cities but into our

rural areas also. He writes in Urdu, Hindi and English.His literary

taste and his polished manners have capt ivated one and all.

In the ancient days, the poets played their part well as the

unrecognized legislators of their times.The Rajas and t he Maharajas,

the Rulers and the Emperors used to invite the p oets in their courts to

hear them. The poets used to recite t heir poems undaunted, depicting

the public opinion, not only about the political, social and religious

sentiments of the masses, but even the questionable character, i f any,


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of the monarch himself. Thus they served as the messengers of peace,

as forerunners of civilization and torch-bearers of trut h and love.They

often proved helpful to bridge the gulf, if any, existing between the

ruler and the ruled. But now, the very conception of the ruler and the

ruled has vanished. We rule ourselves, we legislate ourselves and we

administer not for anybody else,but for our own national c onsolidation

The days of discrimination, between man and man, have disappeared.

We have proclaimed as our goal, the estab lishment of full democracy.

I assure you all that in Mysore, we will try our best to spread such

kind of activities. I congratulate once again the conveners of this

symposium. I congratulate the poets, who have come here to

participate in the Mushaira. It may not be out of place if I sa y that this

modest beginning of our will be ad mired by other States and such

functions will be held throughout our country.

Certainly this is an historic occasion where poets of different

ideologies and different languages have gathered together and to make

us feel one with them and forget the political drudgery.

Now with great pleasure, I declare this sy mposium open and wish it a

great success.

Jai Hind

Presidential Address by Shri. B. Shyam Sunder,B.A. LL.B., M.L.A

On the occasion of the Poets Symposium at Legislators Home,

Bangalore, on Monday t he 11th April,1960,Shri.B.D.Jatti, ChiefMinister of Mysore inaugurated the Symposium

In hearing the speeches just now deli vered by our friends, I am afraid

that they will turn this Mushaira into a Legislature and even a

beautiful speech is a piece o f art and literature. One sentence full of

beauty is poetry. Poets are members of international brotherhood.


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Poets are not only the real interpreters of the human mind and thought

but they are the seers who ca n see into the very life to come. The

tragedies of life, the sorrows wrought by the po liticians, the calamities

brought about by the Governments of the world and the unusual

miseries in which the people are forced to live, all these t he poet

depicts in a line, as if he is sitting in your heart and conversing wit h

your mind. He is a super human being who with his beauty of thought

and beauty of language and t he magic of words, can create a world for

you a new world as new world-as new as the very first ray from the

Sun on the early dawn of the da y, which penetrates, everything which

is dark, illuminates it and turns it into a Sun and with it becomes

omnipotent, and all pervading. The poet in his nature is omnipotent in

his virtue all pervading. Poet is above all barriers as the Sun, above a ll

discretion as the light. To put it in political terms, he is casteless, and

classless, devoid of communal feelings and above all party a ffiliationsThat is what we need today, we need a poet, we want the poet w ho can

make all these politicians feel that th ey are human beings first and

human beings last. The transitory period which is a pe riod of political

play, surcharged with motives and sentiments, which divide a man

from man, is a period created by the selfish motives and aspirations of

a class of people, who by hook or c rook want to be in power at t he

very cost of human life, against which the poets are struggling. We

have gathered here today to search o ur own hearts and see how far we

can contribute to the advance ment of human mind.

In ancient times, in the form of bards in European countries as we ll as

in our own country, the Poets played an eminent role. They made the

people to revolt against tyranny. They raised the people to heights

unknown and by their inspirations the people overthrew the M onarchs,

destroyed empires and put to death several t yrants. Now we are

supposed to be in a world which a ims at the establishment of a

Government of the people, by the people and for the people.

We are wedded to democracy but how the world, will achieve its a imis still to be seen - here lies the duty of the poet. Poets are of the

people and for the cause for the cause of the people can ce rtainly

contribute for the advancement of the de mocratic thought and the

fulfillment of our object.


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The people now throughout the country have been degraded

to a rank of mere voters- the politician does not see the

person in the body of a man, but tries to see him as a voter. If

the voter can be used to serve his des igns and purposes, then

he deserves to be a man, and if the politician realises that the

voter is not going to vote for him, then to him he now only

ceases to be a voter, but also a human being. So, to every

politician the voter of his opponent is not a human being.

There is something basically wrong with our affairs, with

our political life, with our democracy.

Here, the poets like the bards of the ancient days, like the Pawada and

Lavani singers of our ancient times, can approach the masses and use

their influence in shaping our democratic ideology. The poets here are

not only representing different parts of our country b ut speak differentlanguages. They have gathered here to recite their poems in Marathi,

Kannada, English, Urdu and in Hindi. The different languages are the

result of segregation of people from other people. When people were

segregated, by circumstances, from each other they were forced to live

in different groups and by a slow process different dialects came into

existence and different languages came into being. Again if all these

groups come together and live like one family, I am sure the barriers

which created different languages will disappear and our different

languages by their fusion will give birth to a new language to

understand each other easily. Urdu language is t he result of such

fusion of languages and if Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and o ther

languages are brought together then we are s ure, we will have a

language of which we could be p roud.

Our Hon'ble Chief Minister, Shri. B.D. Jatti, who has been kind

enough to come here to ina ugurate this function of ours, will, I hope,

encourage functions of such nature. There is no dearth of practical

vision in the country, but it requires its due place in the society of

ours. The Chief Minister will, I hope, encourage the fine arts of ourState and will also give them chance s to organise as poets, artistes and

musicians.

Jai Hind


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B.Shyam Sunder 10,Sudaarshan Guest House

Date 21-3-1962

To,

The Honourable Members of t he

Mysore Legislative Assembly,

Bangalore.

Dear friends,

May I seek your support in the fulfillment of my desire to serve the

country as a member of Rajya Sabha?

You are probably aware that I was a n independent M.L.A. from a

reserved seat in the Bidar district. In the last elections, my voters

were physically prevented from exercising their franchise in my

favour through terrorism, false propaganda & ot her questionable

methods unworthy of a democratic country. Friends then advised that

I might try for a seat in Rajya Sabha. Hence my approach to yo u.

You would naturally like to know wh at I stand for. This letter is

intended to provide an answer in broad o utline.

1. The equitable sharing of river-waters is a topic requiring

careful study and forceful advocacy on behalf of t he State of Mysore. I

propose to devote myself whole-heartedly to a fair solution of this

controversial question.

2. The Planning Commission at present holds unchallenged monopoly

of directing the economic life of t he country leaving nothing for

private initiative and enterprise. This grip needs to be loosened so thatdemocracy may not degenerate into veiled dictatorship.

3. While it is agreed that t he Planning Commission should lay down

priorities and the basic needs of the people should be satisfied first, in

actual practice, we have been noticin g that more money is spent on

spectacular projects to attract foreign aid a nd attention and secondary


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importance is given to the fundamental under-starved millions in the

country. Is it not a disgrace that, even after 15 years of planning and

development, clean & healthy drinking water is not a vailable to the

people in lakhs & lakhs of villages a nd prices of food-grains are so

prohibitive that poor people have to carry on only with one meal a

day.

4. Great hopes were entertained when c rores of rupees were voted for

community development programmes in all the states in I ndia.But the

net results have been disappointing; work was done mostly for

showing round foreign dignitaries and visiting journalists. A minute

probe seems called for on a nation-w ide scale and on all-party bas is.

5. Loans advanced to co-operative societies or individuals in the name

of industrial development have been pronounced to be almostirrecoverable. They have neither enhanced productio ns nor relieved

unemployment, but have just helped the Party in po wer during the

elections.

6. It will be my constant e ndeavour to secure for the minorities, both

linguistic & religious, the rights and privileges to which they are

entitled as self-respecting human beings. The minorities are

consistently being ignored in the name of secularism, which slogan

was intended to shield them from the co mmunalism of the majority. I

shall also continue to oppose castetism and narrow communalism,

whether of the majority or the minorities. State bo undaries have also

to be adjusted amicably.

7. I propose to place relevant facts and figures before the Rajya Sabha,

so that a corrective may be applied in time. I shall also co-ope rate

with all those elements in public life that are striving to stop further

drain of India's resources on works of ephemeral value

If you agree that this endeavour is la udable, I solicit your vote in theforthcoming election for Rajya Sabha.


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B.Shyam Sunder-The Plight of Indian Voters

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