The political silly season is well on its way!!

The institution of Indian presidency now “pratibhapatilised”, is looking for a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and merits/demerits/political acceptabilities of different candidates are being discussed in every newspaper, TV channel, coffee houses and at middle class dining tables.

S & P has downgraded India’s rating. Inflation is on the rise. The dollar is about to hit Rs60. The diesel prices, if the expenses on my poor generator are any indication, have gone up into the stratosphere. Not something that I would normally know, but because my nephew recently got married, I note that gold has gone beyond Rs30,000 per 10 grams (I recall it being Rs50 per ten grams).

The only uplifting news concerning India in the last month has been Vishwanathan Anand’s unrivalled feat. My felicitations to this giant. He has served to give all of us enormous joy in these troubled times.

It is therefore unusual that I should chose to comment on news that has no direct bearing on our country and which occupies page 6 in most national dailies. TV channels have mentioned it in passing, if at all.

Aung San Suu Kyi is in Europe where she is being widely felicitated for the fortitude she has displayed. And rightly so.

Before I write about Daw Kyi, I have to declare myself. I happened to know her late husband Michael Aris reasonably well right from my days as a young graduate student at Oxford. It was through him that I gained insight into Tibetan spirituality and his books continue to occupy a prominent place on my bookshelf. We remained in touch and I have in my possession the nice letter he wrote to me when I was appointed to the Indian Institute of Advanced Study Society, the body that governs the apex institute for humanities in India, IIAS, Shimla. Michael had spent some time there as a Fellow – as had his wife who wrote perhaps the most erudite book on the position of women in Burmese society while in residence at Shimla. Daw Kyi was already in house arrest in the mid-90s and there was no real prospect of an early release. Sadly, Michael was never able to meet with his wife again. And she was not able to attend his funeral.

I write about Daw Kyi as the apathy of the Indian media and the population worries me. Here is a remarkable person who symbolises the triumph of the human spirit over oppression like no other. And while the West has greeted her with due deference, apart from one piece by Suhasini Haider, I have not come across any real interest in the country that should be celebrating most with her – India.

I recall the sixties, seventies and the eighties. After Che was killed, the icon for our generation was someone who was languishing on Robben Island – Nelson Mandela. We almost worshipped this man. And the international support he engendered was unparalleled. He was put up for Chancellorship of London University while still serving a life sentence and only barely lost to Princess Anne – now The Princess Royal.

I forget the name of the group, but recall a song called Free Nelson Mandela making it to the Top 10 in the Top of the Pops in the eighties. I am proud to have participated in nearly all anti-apartheid marches in the UK. To us, Mandela was a symbol of resistance and his release in 1990 meant an awful lot to the entire generation that was born after Gandhi’s assassination.

Mandela was a state guest all over the world after his release – including India. He was decorated with over 200 honorary doctorates, which may have earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records (I am not sure about that). And he was decorated with the Bharat Ratna.

And while I am one of the foremost supporters of Mandela, I have always been conscious of the two problems I have had with his actions. I have never been able to reconcile the treatment he meted out to his first wife when he met Winnie. While that does not detract from his greatness and I applaud Mandela for not making any attempt to conceal this flaw in his autobiography, it certainly left me with a fleeting sense of disappointment, which I must admit, was pretty ephemeral. The second was Mandela’s very ill-informed support of the Emergency. Coming from a freedom fighter,this did and still does trouble me.

Daw Kyi is free of even these minor hitches.

Daw Kyi’s accomplishments are no less noteworthy than those of Mandela. Here was a woman from a relatively unknown country. It was only after her Nobel that many of my students came to identify Burma on the globe. Here was a lady who had to fight her battle alone – without any significant support even from the country that she must have expected it from – I of course mean, India. Here was a lady who was separated from her husband and children and yet never lost her sense of direction.  I salute her.

Her links with India go long back when her mother was the Burmese Ambassador here. She attended the Convent of Jesus and Mary and later Lady Shri Ram College, can understand the vernacular and is well-versed with Indian culture. Later she spent time at IIAS, Shimla.

I have for the last few weeks been trying to make a case for Daw Kyi to be awarded the Bharat Ratna. I believe she deserves it as much as Mandela. Perhaps, even more.

Our generation is fortunate to have icons like Mandela and Daw Kyi to look up to. Let us decorate this remarkable human being with the Bharat Ratna. The only real problem is that some recipients she would have to share the honour with are most undeserving and have in a sense demeaned the award. Daw Kyi is not going to be elevated by this gesture – she instead would elevate it.

And with an enhancement of the award by this gesture perhaps people would think twice before putting forward some very undeserving names that are sure to come to the fore in coming years.

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