In early 1975, I had applied for the post of Programme Executive with All India Radio. In May,1975 I was selected by the U.P.S.C and posted to Delhi Station of All India Radio. I had to resign the job of Asst. Professor of English (regular) with Govt. Arts College, Mannargudy to take up the job with Akashwani. Initially, I was attached with the Yuvavani of Delhi station and then shifted to the General Overseas Service of the External Services Division of All India Radio. It is a round the clock service in English beamed to all over the world. This was an exiting job involving coverage of national and international events held in India, broadcasting Indian Government views on various international events and issues. This service did broadcast quite a lot of commentaries by eminent journalists, retired Ambassadors and the others specialized in international affairs.
In fact my years (1975-78) with the General Overseas Service gave me ample opportunities to interact with eminent people from across the globe, run through their scripts and keep abreast of the national and international events. It also provided a platform to interview renowned people like Neil Armstrong,the first man who land on the moon, Dr.Christian Bernard, the South African cardio thoracic surgeon, who did the first heart transplantation, H.E Leslie O Harriman, the Chairman of the UN Committee Against Apartheid, the famous Japanese film Director Michale Kurasova, Lord Denning, the Chief Justice of UK and many scholars from across the globe. To converse with them one had to have updated knowledge about various subjects/issues. In fact, this three year stint with AIR widened my mental horizon and developed my self confidence. I extensively covered events relating to non alignment movement, International Film Festivals and International Seminars/meets to condemn the policy of Aprtheid and various issues.
After extensively covering the International Seminar Against Apartheid held in New Delhi in 1977, I wrote out an article entitled "They Speak Out" ( unpublished though). In this article, I have expressed my anguish over the policy of Apartheid and expressed my optimism that it would be eliminated with all out international pressure and criticism. Here, I reproduce the article :
"They are aliens in their motherland; they cherish the ideal that “their country belongs to all who live in it and that no Government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people” – the ideal for which they fight and the ideal for which they are prepared to lay down their lives; they mount a relentless and resolute struggle for the elimination of that crime against humanity, which has brought unbearable misery and suffering on them; they flee their country to join the external struggle and knock at the doors of friendly countries for their helping hand; they practice Mahatma Gandhiji’s view. I quote: “I would a thousand times prefer violence than the emasculation of a whole race. I prefer to use arms in defence of honour rather than remain the vile witness of dishonour” unquote.I again quote
“our Sons measured their height by the length of guns,
The anguish of waiting weighed on us: lie an endless yearning.
Happy are those who live in our time in freedom, building freedom”.
I unquote.
They say it almost in tears – they are the natives under the yoke of the minority and recist regime of south Africa that perpetuates the policy of racial discrimination. Theirs is no longer a cry in wilderness; they are heard: they are helped. Their cherished goal is not denied, but delayed. Every nation that loves freedom and democracy, irrespective of its parochial interests must stand by them at their hours of trials and tribulations so that it could share their happiness later.
I had the privilege of attending the recently held International Seminar on International Struggle Against Apartheid in Delhi. Almost all the seminarists listened to the papers presented by Mr. Mohammed Timol and Mr. Stephen Dlamini, members of the African National Congress Delegation with rapt attention. (The 67-year old ANC is the truly representative organisation that has been spearheading the struggle against the South African regime from the day of its inception on January 8, 1912. It launches underground resistance movements and also acts as an external organ to mobilize international opinion against the abominable policy of apartheid).
Somehow, I managed to get appointments with them for separate interviews. First, I spoke to Mohammed Timol in his Janpath hotel room. Mohammed Timol, a fair complexioned young man with a thick drooping moustache, is a South African of Indian origin. The racist regime of South Africa was and is so oppressive that he fled the country on 1 January, 1978 to a friendly neighbouring country. He declined to name it for obvious reasons. His father Yussouf Timol, almost semi-blind now, left his village Kholvad, in Surat district, Gujarat for South Africa in 1918, when he was 12. I was almost moved,when he told me of his late brother Ahmed Timol, to whom he attributed his political undertaking.
Before I proceed further, let me provide some background information to the repressive police force of South Africa. South Africa is a police State armed with the tools of oppression namely the Suppression of Communism Act 1950, “Criminal Law Amendment Act 1953, the General Law Amendment Act 1962 and the Terrorism Act 1967. It brooks no opposition , indulges in legal violence, intimidation, police terror and brutality. Anyone who opposes the apartheid regime is branded “communist” and it comes down upon him heavily. By its brutal force, the Government intimidates the opponents of apartheid or suppresses the growth of effective political opposition in South Africa.
In the land of South Africa, imprisonment without trial has long been established. The police could raid ones house at any hour of the day, arrest persons without assigning reasons and they are under no obligation to inform the family of those arrested as to where they are being held or even that they have been arrested. They use third degree methods and resort to brutal floggings and give electric shocks to elicit more information.
Nearly 50 deaths in police custody since 1963 amply proves that the torture of political detenees continues unabated in South Africa. The late Ahmed Timol was one of the 50 political prisoners died in police detention. Ahmed Timol, a high school teacher in Roodepeoort, 21 Kms. West of Johannesburg was arrested under Terrorism Act in February 1970 on the ground that he was in possession of pamphlets and literature advocating resistance to the Government and armed struggle. Mohammed Timol came to know of his brother’s detention after 2 days of his detention in October, 1971. It was true that his brother was a member of the African National Congress and that he was involved in the underground movements. On the forth day of his detention he was informed that his brother Ahmed Timol had committed suicide by leaping down from the 10th floor window of the Security Police Headquarter of Johanneaburg where he was taken for interrogation. He was not even allowed to attend his brother’s funeral. The police maintained the blatant lie that he being a Communist did not want to betray his comrades and so committed suicide. The actual thing that happened was after he was fatally assaulted, he was thrown out of the 10th floor window. Ahmed Timol’s was not the only case of death in police detention. The late 29 year old Steve Biko, one of the leading exponents of the “Black Conscious Movement” met the same fate of dying in police detention in 1977. In 1965, Lawrance Gandar, Editor of the Rand Daily Mail, brok the newspapers’ silence on South Africa prison-conditions by publishing three long articles by Harol Strachan, a political prisoner who had spent three years in jail. Here is an except from one of them:
“The worst assaults I saw anywhere in jail were those on Africans at the hospital…Non-European prisoners who had to see the doctors were brought at about 6.15 in the morning and it could be freezing cold in Pretoria. They stood naked 60,70, 80 of them at a time, huddled up like birds trying to keep warm ..they had to stand with frost- thick on the ground, barefoot, clutching each other to try to keep warm”.
After Soweto Uprising in 1976, Mohammed Timol was again detained, this time for 4 months for his involvement in the Soweto uprising. It erupted on 16th June, 1976, when 10,0000 school children gathered in
Soweto, the black township near Johannesburg to peacefully protest against “Bantustan Education Act”. But as in Sharpeville in 1960, when the Africans protested non violently against the “Pass Laws”, the police reacted ruthlessly by gunning down the peaceful student demonstrators in Soweto.
I interviewed 62 year old Stephen Dlamini a member of the National Executive of the African National Congress next. Dlammini has studied upto Intermediate and holds a diploma in Methods of Teaching and School Organisation. He took up the job of a textile worker because it was comparatively more remunerative than that of a teacher. He worked as a warper in the textile industry in Durban for 27 years. During that time he was very much involved in trade union activities. He was also a member of the Communist Party and he joined the Africian National Congress in 1945.
At this juncture a word or two about the employment opportunities for the black and the coloured would not be out of place. Employment opportunities for Africans are few; unskilled jobs in the mines and factories, on farms, on roads and railways. In industry, the wage gap between white and African labour is 5 to 1; in mining 12 to 1. African trade union are banned, strikes are illegal and carry heavy fines.
In 1965, Dlamini was arrested for his involvement with the African National Congress and sentenced for 4 years. After a year he was also charged that he was a member of the communist party and so sentenced for two more years. He was released in 1970. But he was banished to a rural area in Polela district, Natal for five years.
While he was working he had to stay away from his family of 7 members in a hotel meant for workers. He could at the most go home once a year on a fortnight paid – holiday. The apartheid labour policy thus kept the husband and the wife apart fro a year denying them each others company. When he fled the country in 1977, three of his children were going to school and the other two girls and a boy were unmarried. “I do not know as to what happened ot them now, we just can not be in touch with each other”, he added. He paid rich tributes to Mahatma Gandhiji for his contribution ot their freedom struggle. He was all in praise of the Indian stand and support for their struggle. He also mentioned that India snapped her tiles with the Pretoria regime at a time when its infant democracy could ill afford it. “Be it at the UN, the Non-aligned Movement or any other international forum, the world has always witnessed India playing a leading role in mobilizing support for our cause”, he said. He condemened the South Africaln Governement, based upon the the political subjugation and economic exploitation of the majority of the citizens of South Africa as undemocratic, dictatorial and despotic. He strongly believes that seminars such as this would help mobilize international opinion against the oppressive regime. He also condemned the multi-national corporations for their support to the illegal regime and their efforts to exploit the cheap Black labour''
My exciting but busy schedule did not deter me from keeping my childhood ambition to get into IAS alive and managed to find time for preparation. However, for the first two years of my service with Akashwani, I was not given leave to prepare for my examinations. Every time I sought for leave, I was denied on the ground that I was looking after one of the most important services of the External Services Division. As I was the only Tamil knowing Programme Executive, I was also put in charge of the Tamil Service beamed to South East Asia.I was nearing 26, the last year I could try my hand in getting into IAS. With determination , I went and met the Director of the External Services Division Shri.Mathur and pleaded with him to help me make atleast one attempt to realise my childhood ambition. Shri.Mathur, having known my sincerity and hard work, acceded to my request on the condition that I should not go back to Akashvani Bhavan to resume my job. He meant that I should make either into IAS and resign or get last for ever. I remained silent for a while and then accepted his condition come what may. Then he also added that one of his junior officers had earlier made into the IAS . With this stiff condition he granted me 58 1/2 days of half pay leave.
At long last, I got some leave to try my hand in making an attempt. With right earnest , I worked for 16 1/2 hours a day barring the time I slept,bathed and dined at the Karol Bagh mess in 12 W.E.A Block. Once I finished the lower papers(5nos.,) I thought I should drop in at my office. I stealthily walked along the corridor and was about to go past the chamber of Mr.Mathur. As ill luck would have it, he came out of the room for some urgent work. Once he sighted me he asked me as how did my examinations go. As wont, I admitted that barring one paper, I had done the rest well. He yelled at me, asked me to get out of his sight and walked away.
In between the higher and the lower papers, there were 10 solid days of gap. I went back to my room with a determination to go all out to clear the Higher Papers on International Law and International Relations. They ended up as a cake walk for me. However, there was a lingering doubt whether my not-all-that-good performance in one of the lower papers would spoil my chance. Thus began my preparation for the competitive examination. It was not all that difficult as I was uptodate with General Knowledge, International Law and International Relations thanks to the exposure I had had as a broadcaster.
After my examinations I reported for duty; but was shocked to learn that somebody else has been posted in my place. Instead, I was posted to the Tamil Service beamed to South East Asia. There was hardly any work for me as a Programme Executive, who had handled the biggest and the most challenging General Overseas Service in English. I took it on my stride by recalling John Milton's lines :
"Just are the ways of God'
Justifiable to men."
The less-work assighnment in the Tamil Service was a blessing in disguise. For the next three months , I could sit in my office and prepare for my interview hoping that I would get through in my written examinations. It turned out in my favour. I got through the examinations and I started preparing for the interview. My elder brother Somasundaram, who was then a Probationary Officer with the State Bank of India, Hyderabad came down on leave,sat with me and coached me for 15 days before the interview. He ran mock interviews, selected the clothes that I should wear for the interview and ensured that I took proper food so that I did not fall ill. I was grilled for 45 minutes by the Interview Board headed by the Chairman,UPSC Dr.Kidwai. For few questions, I admitted that I did not know the answer and for the others I answered boldly. Immediately after the results were announced and I figured among the successful candidates, I sent a telegram (there was STD nor mobile phone available those days) to my father saying "I am blessed with IAS". After submitting technical resignation on 11 July,1978 I left for the IAS Academy, Mussouri. Sh.Malaichamy IAS of the Union Territory Cadre posted in Delhi those days helped me get a black bandh gala coat and a full suit , the basic requirement for an IAS Probationer.
