An open letter to the people of Ramnad:
Dear Friends,
It has been several years since the death of my father Rajah Iyer, Headmaster, Rajah's High School that I have not visited my native place Ramnad. I have pleasant memories as well confidence that Ramnad possesses in it, great charm, courage and wisdom to be trusted upon the natives to show the way to the rest of humanity. I always admired the huge painting of Swami Vivekananda hanging on the wall of Diwan Balaji Rao's house near to Rajah's High School. The classes that occupy the whole road from his house to the right used to be called granary hall to wonder what the agriculture produce of the surrounding villages of the era that passed by.
The school had a wonderful system of communication as far back as 1955 with speakers attached to each class and we enjoyed the quiz programmes everyday competing one class with the other. The school had all facilities with a marvellous library including Encyclopaedia Brittanica, very many Wisden Annuals, a Grundig tape recorder, National Geographic Magazine to Sports & Pastime, cinema projectors and slides, a roll of honour chart for sports and educational excellence. The annual function with science and art exhibition was an event the whole town looked for. We had wonderful teachers - John Samuel, N Natarajan, Abu Thahir, Gupta and many more.
I cannot think of a single day where our house was not in its all glory for my father was a wonderful conversationalist bringing in amazing facts of life. Original name given to him was Dharmaraja. The day he joined the school he was invited by the teacher thus:, 'who is this chap, emadharmaraja coming into the school?, taking the initial after my grandfather's name, Muthuswamy. He rushed back home to change his name to Rajah as he was anyway called in the house and remained as such. Ramnad always had the glory attached to it, as Vivekananda became very famous throughout India after his Chicago address made possible by the munificence of Bhaskara Sethupathy. In the year 1945 there was a major conference at Trichy when the speaker announced that the Rajah of Ramnad would be the next one to address the conference, everyone expected the more famous Rajah of Ramnad that it embarrassed my father greatly. To differentiate between him and the princely ruler, Shanmuga Rajeswara Sethupathy started calling him Rajah Iyer that stayed ever since.
In 1962 he decided to contest the election for Teacher's Constituency for Legislative Council of Madras. He narrated how all the teachers of De Britto High School of Devakottai formed a V-line to hear his speech before the election. Kamaraj was the Chief Minister of that time that he was appointed in special committees that Kamaraj would intervene during the meeting to say, 'when Rajah Iyer is here we should listen to him for anything connected with education'. MGR, Dr. AL Mudaliar and stalwarts of the era were his fellow-members of the Council. Once he sent his card to see the Vice-Chancellor of Madras University, Dr. AL Mudaliar said, ' what Mr. Rajah Iyer, we were there at the Council an hour back and you could have asked me this information' for which my father replied this is a matter concerned with the Senate that I could not have raised during the Council meeting.' He had a distinct clarity of Responsibility that he never mixed one with the other.
Congress had already lost their position in the Assembly and DMK was keen to contest all the seats falling vacant in the Council. Annadurai not only praised him during the valedictory function in the Council but had earlier given instruction to Karunanidhi not to put up any candidate against Rajah Iyer. This was the only seat DMK did not contest although brother of K. Anbazhagan contested against him as an independent candidate and lost the election. While my father was in the Madurai General Hospital around the same time, Karuthiruman a minister in the Congress government visited him. I was there on that day. My father narrated the discussion with him thus: "As the Congress is likely to lose the majority in the Legislative Council, as an acceptable candidate to all Congress would support my father and would like to make him as the Chairman of the Council." My father had replied him thus: "I have a constituency where teachers had elected me to go and speak out their problems and solve it for them. If I were to become a Chairman of the Council, I would lose the opportunity of talking but will be only listening to others. Hence I thanked him profusely and politely refused the offer." With two daughters yet to be married, with a meagre sum of Rs.500 as salary for the Headmaster and Rs.250 as an MLC the offer of a chair that would get a monthly sum of Rs.1250 as Chairman of the Council, did not in anyway distract him from his responsibility as a representative of the teaching community.
The eulogy after his death in a resolution passed by the Council Chief Minister Karunanidhi, K.Rajaram, Sa.Ganesan, S.Jayarama Reddiar, K.S.Abdul Wahab,S.S. Ramasamy Padayachi, S.Muthusamy, Ma.Po.Sivagnanam, have uniformly highlighted his great quality to bring out the matter of importance to the Council however difficult the subject matter be, in the most decisive and forthright manner guiding the government the ways and means of approach to resolve the crisis and overcome the stumbling blocks.
I am a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and I am proud to be so, for this is the only body internationally affiliated with IASB - International Accounting Standards Board with a professional code of conduct. There is no other body available for any other profession anywhere in the world with such international magnitude. In my career as Internal Auditor I had to report against the Managing Director of WIMCO Kamaljit Singh for corruption to the Head office Sweden in 1976. An Accountant is the trustee of the public wherever he/she is employed. My personal case study is not to be construed as whistle-blowing but performing one's duty. An Accountant undertakes social responsibility quietly fighting for justice where 'matsyanyaya' is prevalent. Matsya means fish and nyaya means justice, where the big fish swallows the small one.
Today you as a voter is the King and collectively you elect a person to the Legislature who within the confines of the law is bound to act in your best interests. Rajah Iyer communicated with his constituency by way of monthly news letters, carrying loads of complaints to the Director of Public Instruction and other departments to solve the multi-various problems many had. It is your responsibility to whom you entrust your property. Kural quoted clearly indicates that you retain the powers but delegate the authority to the person whom you elect.
After my father's death reading the life history of George Washington Carver from the Reader's Digest 50th Anniversary Book that I cut out the epitaph portion and attached to the photo frame of my father: “A life that stood out as a gospel of self forgetting service. Could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honour in being helpful to the world.” Such men who set an example are not for glorifying their deeds but for others to follow., a simple way of living without any complication. You must also note without losing hope that never in the history of mankind so many such dedicated people as on to-day, serve and struggle to establish a humane society around the world, men and women, including many within the government, who have relentlessly pursued for transparency, Human Rights, Anti-corruption, environmental protection, whistleblowers protection and Right to Information, whose grace on this planet enable the dumb eloquent and the cripple cross mountains, You as a voter should realise by electing a wrong person you lose your power and abdicate your property. My father many times used to say quoting a Chinese proverb, if you find any student wrong find out who his teacher is and punish him. If you find corrupt politicians roaming care free in our country you must realise that it is you who are responsible.
Our Constitution is the instrument of freedom handed over to you empowering you to elect a representative to the Legislature who in turn creates good laws, good institutions, good order to give that power stability. Freedom without responsibility is no freedom at all. A party candidate takes your powers and hands over to his chieftain who has no connection with you whatsoever. A doctor or an engineer, a teacher or a worker, a lawyer or a judge, a military or a policeman, a farmer or a fakir, a moulvi or a priest, go and search for the person within the confines of your own town and do not be surprised if you find 100 Rajah Iyers. Boycott the political public meetings, surrender your party cards and take responsibility in finding a Trustee out of the 100 able men and women who desire to serve you and protect your property. Give him/her the authority and retain the powers. Our Constitution permits a person to contest the election as an independent candidate. When Rajah Iyer stood up and spoke in the House everybody listened to him without any intervention and with rapt attention. Your representative when gets up and talks, the House will have to listen as he holds the power of attorney from you and not his own. Your representative has no powers, the Chief Minister has no powers, the cabinet has no powers, the government machinery has no powers and it is you and you alone have the powers. Your representative is your Trustee who is not to show his powers to anyone but be friendly with all the parties ruling and opposition alike so as to get what the people of Ramnad want for their town, good drinking water, education, employment, housing, good order, good roads, good facilities. Using the powers entrusted to you is your ethical responsibility. None of the government functionaries have any risk attached to them whatsoever at any point of time and you are the only one shouldering all the risks in its entirety.
It is my aim and I am in touch with several organisations around the world to establish an International Ethical Standards Board that would function on similar lines to Institute of Chartered Accountants. There will be trained professionals in certifying the Representatives you elect as well the public servants of the government machinery as persons within the confines of set ethical standards. You have nothing to fear when you vote openly to the candidate you have chosen. That is your Liberty, freedom to do what you feel with responsibility. Do not wait for the election to be announced. Prepare your candidate.
Yours truly,
_______________________________
Jayaraman Rajah Iyer"
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