We had the spectacular deep dive
into the Indian History and a day to rejoice the life of the crown jewel of
legal fraternity in India. Sri Nanabhoy
Palkhivala.
He was brought live back on stage,
into the court rooms and to the political arena of India that spoke volumes of
the great son he was to India and as the safekeeper of Indian Constitution as a
tribute on his Birth Centenary Year 2020.
I am sure Sri Nani is all smiles in the heaven, blessing his disciples,
and enjoying his Dronacharya moments seeing the team of Dummies Dramas crew
bringing his life to 1000s of audience who were blessed to witness the
docu-drama
Jan 16- 19 2020 -the auspices of
MFAC and full support of Sri. Varadarajan of MFAC, dummies Dramas presented the
life of Palkhivala as a centenary celebrations tribute to the great son of
India.
In words of Srivotsan, Drama is
an experience. This doc-drama runs close
to 80% during the era where mobile phones were not even known. He pays his grateful thanks to Ms. Shobana
Ravi for lending her voice and team of Karthik, Ashwin, Ananya, Sowmya, Dakshi,
Giridaran for providing the BGM. The
sets by Padma, Sejas Kanna and make up by Vijay and Perambur Kumar.
Srivotsan shares his experience of going to
Madras University to listen to Nani on his budget analysis in a scooter with
his father, was fascinated by the illustrated weekly articles that used to come
in Times of India with RK Lakshman Cartoons.
This play is a fan boy moment and tribute. He calls it is Gurudakshinai to Nani Palkhivala
and take inputs from several books of Kamath, Solim Sareja, Dharmendra and many
others for his research. He explains
that the team tried their level best to bring in the court room scenes and
thanks to the marketing of Kavasam Connect.
50 awesome actors on stage individually and collectively they are known
as Dummies Drama’s perumai
Now starts the summary of the
great docu-drama we witness in the recent times.
The Parsi family from where Nani
hails are Palanquin creators who believe in perfection and quality. Nani’s father stands as an inspiration in
telling to do it to get things registered in mind than telling it and standing
as an example. He mentions that the
great treasures are found after deep researches only.
Nani as a child struggles with
stammering issue and he takes it as personal challenge and participate in the
debate competition. His father
inculcates the habit of sharing what ever he has. He calls it humanity to share things and
books become his biggest treasures. The bookstore
owner becomes his destination to lend books for Nani to read as much as he can
and that helps him gain abundant knowledge
Prasanna as the Young English
Professor and adult Nani makes his mark on the stage. He calls being independent as the real
freedom. He calls for Building India
and give back for generations to come.
He writes a letter to the Best
Swadeshi who was a parsi – Sri JRD Tata and plans to publish/ send the article
to Tata, inspired by the letters that Nehru used to write to Indira Gandhi from
the prison. He goes on to tell that
there are 2 types of speeches – one to give knowledge and other as if others
don’t have that knowledge. At this
stage, referencing to Shakespeare, Nani is called as India’s unshakeablesphere
for his wonderful ideology coupled with literature.
There is a reason behind every
strong experience and as he moves on from being an English professor to pursue
law, he undergoes a writer’s cramp before the exams. God’s design is unpredictable. That’s when Nargis comes into his life as a
writing assistant for his entrance exam and makes an entry to his life as his
wife. Love on law takes him to the love
of his life.
That was the era of Jamshedji Baramji
Kanga who sets example in law. Iron goes
towards magnet and the whole of India was going behind the Iron Man of India
Sri Sardar Patel. Nani makes all
attempts to get into Kangaji’s law firm and learns that the 360 degrees of case
through understanding is required.
Right interpretation matters.
Those were the times that the
Democratic India was going through rapid changes. Democracy is said to have 2 oppositions –
one inside the Parliament and other of intellectuals who criticizes what
governments does which actually helps progress.
Nani participates in the Income
Tax commentary and brings out his book ‘Law and Practices of Income Tax’. No man under the sun is right. At this stage Sri. N.H. Bhagvathi comments
that a ‘New Lawyer is Born’ referring to Nani
Nani always insists that the law
should win, and not the lawyers.
Chennai based Sri Sampath Iyengar files a case on the book written by
Nani and issues a legal notice on the IT commentary on Nani, Kanga, and the
publishers. Finally, with his detailed
facts and figures, Nani does a brilliant argument and wonderful presentation
and makes Sampath Iyengar emotional and lose the battle
Nani goes with his ‘Forum of Free
Enterprise’- a lecture in 1958. He comes
up with wonderful statistics, proves as a great economist and insists that
Democracy is indeed a boon and knowledge is power, and it is the combination of
democracy and knowledge that the Nation can reach to greater heights. Nani proclaims that we India are not Underdeveloped
Country but ruled by the underdeveloped minds
At this stage, Nani meets JRD
Tata after 45 years after the first letter that he wrote and kept it with
confidence as his brother said, that one day he will meet the great man. With this Nani, meets Mohana Kumaramangalam
and expresses his understanding Constitution and later started TCS with Nani’s
idea. He gets to meet Smt. Indira
Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India as an expert in Indian Constitution
Nani advocates capitalistic way
of economy. And many times, ends up in
logger heads with Indira Gandhi. Indira
government appoints Nani as Attorney General of India which he refuses to
accept after deep introspection. His
respect to his profession and knowledge revered by the entire legal fraternity.
He keeps telling his wife, that
when ever sleeps disturbs, there is a great reason for mistakes. He proudly declares that you don’t need to
be born Hindu, to be a Hindu. The great
epic case Rann of Kutch Vs Pakistan brings him closer to Indira Gandhi. He politely declines Rajaji’s offer to join
the party saying that he cannot do political justice as he cannot be Justified
Political!
The landmark judgement of
Goraknath Case on Land Reforms act where his counterpart was Mr. Pai and the 11-bench
jury is argued, and Nani calls for sudo-socialism and insists that socialism
should be for passing money from rich to poor.
He goes on for prospective overruling so that the judgement effects the
cases going forward.
He roars that Government is
subordinate to Constitution. Just
because you are elected, you cannot select laws that favour you. Nationalization of Banks by Indira Gandhi
Government was strongly condemned by Nani and he made his brother Behram move
the petition against the government when one individual whose share holding got
effected and none of the banks came forward to fight against this government
move.
Nani emphasised that Government
should govern and not to do business against the power-driven policies and
should not forget people welfare and Constitution. Power should not be misused. Freedom to do business should be the
fundamental right. Compensation should
be to make good enough for the loss if the loss is in the National
Interest. Government’s meaningless
takeovers will kill efficiency. With
this case and R.C. Cooper Law, Nani proved that the strength of the
Constitution is to protect even the individual right
Nani is also known for his
philanthropy and was instrumental in establishment of Bhartiya Vidhya Bhawan in
Chennai. Currently, he meets Gwalior
King Madhav Rao Scindia and emphasize on laws are to protect people and
governments are to govern people.
One of the most important and
landmark cases handled by Nani which remains as the landmark judgement is the
Keshavanandha Bharathi Vs Union of India (Kerala High court) on the Kerala Land
Reforms bill. He roars again saying that
we should not allow government to lay hands on private property, speech,
writing and people’s behaviour and makes this a fundamental rights issue. He insists in the court that Constitution is
superior to the Government.
Nani Palkhivala was and is
regarded even today as the Crown Jewel of Law, even if it means being the enemy
to the ruling government. Politics
create their own enemies. Despite of
his ideological differences with Indira Gandhi, he takes up the case to support
her and reaches out to V.R. Krishna Iyer – moving with the vacation judge on
the Indian Elections case in Allahabad Court.
He smiles and tells that the
downfall starts when one behaves arrogant because of being powerful, successful
and super pridefully arrogant. Despite
the Interim Relief to Indira Gandhi in the election’s cases, President Fakhruddin
Ali Ahmed declares emergency and Nani pleads Indira to stop this
‘Sarvadikaram Thalai Thukina
Thalaigal Urulum’
Constitution is immortal whereas
lawyers and politicians are not. No life
immunity should be given to the politicians who may take advantage of the
same. Nani fights against the reopening
of the Keshavanda Bharathi case. Indira
feels that arresting Nani or someone like Lawyer Cho Ramaswamy should not be
done as they are very honest, self-less and very special. Moreover, she feels that she should not get
them arrested and make them big
Nani is known to fight for Indian
people and Indian Constitution till the end of his life. He was keen to preserve constitution till
last breadth. He keeps questioning if
the Democracy is a boon or a bane? On
insisting and fasting treat from Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Nani accepts to be
the US Ambassador and goes on to develop Indo- US ties. During this period, the iconic Nuclear
Energy Accommodation agreements happen strengthening the Indo-US
relations.
Nani is also known to have
supported Dr Badrinath in bringing up Shankar Netralaya in Chennai. Nani applauds Dr Manmohan Singh as the best
Finance Minister and calls him the Architect of Modern India.
Despite his differences he had
with Indira Gandhi, Nani goes heart-broken on her assassination. He regards her as the powerful Prime
Minister and Iron Lady of India.
Nani Palkhivala thus becomes the
God’s gift to the country, crown jewel of the legal fraternity and is amongst
the top 10 lawyers in the world even today
A big thank you to Dummies Drama
for bringing this amazing docu-drama and Nani Palkhivala live to all of us and
cherish his great memory. May DD be
blessed with more and more powerful stories and keep their theatre journey ever
shining! God bless.
And now you can find me and Raghu in the engrossed audience:-)
Long live the legacy of Nani Palkhivala…economist, advocate and India’s most favourite citizen. Jai Hind!
