A Matter Of Dates

view of life. The Asian Age imparts the optimism in bright colours and a good layout, the next week is always going to be wonderful. The Hindu is invariably pessimistic with a drab layout and that brings him down to earth. The other papers, taken together, are invariably vague and mutually contradictory and he decides that the future is going to be no different from the past. My friend is educated, most politicians are not. If the former takes horoscopes and astrology so seriously, surely the latter cannot take a decision except on auspicious dates. I returned home, mulling over this angle and thinking about the ides of March.

The initial research didnt help. March 30, was an unimportant date, on which very few significant events had taken place. The state of Rajasthan was created on that date and Satyajit Ray received his Oscar. There seemed to be absolutely no connection with politics. After a couple of sleepless nights, I realised that I had not factored in variables like old age and amnesia. Perhaps the date was meant to be the 30th of some other month and old age had taken its toll. The letter was sent on March 30, by mistake. I had it now. The letter was meant to be sent on August 30. What is special about August 30? Need you ask? On that date, Aurangzeb killed Dara Shikoh in 1659 and Peshwa Narayan Rao was murdered by his uncle, Raghunath Rao, in 1773.

August is the month for politics and intrigues. On August 1, Annie Besant started the Home Rule League (1916) and Gandhijis Non-Cooperation Movement was formally launched (1920). On August 2, the administration of India passed from the East India Company to the British Crown (1858). On August 6, Indias first tri-colour flag was hoisted in Calcutta by S N Banerji (1906). On August 7, the Indian National Congress declared a boycott of British goods (1905). On August 8, the Quit India resolution was passed by the Indian National Congress (1942). On August 9, the British Crown gave power to the East India Company to declare and make war and peace in Asia (1683) and the Quit India Movement was started (1942). On August 13, Pitts India Bill was introduced (1784). I need not mention Partition and Independence. But on August 19, President Shankar Dayal Sharma was born (1918). On August 22, Mahatma Gandhi made a bonfire of foreign clothes.

On August 24, the first ship of the East India Company touched Surat (1600) and Job Charnock landed and settled in Calcutta (1690). On August 29, a committee was set up to prepare a draft Constitution for India (1947).

You are likely to argue that I have been subjective. I have arbitrarily chosen events to suit my hypothesis. But arbitrariness is the hallmark of all good research. Take the Lefts argument that the nominal value of external debt has gone up because of the reforms. There is correlation between the two and that establishes the hypothesis. The Left, of course, ignores the even greater correlation that exists between the number of rape cases and the nominal value of external debt. I suspect that the causation is something like the following. If people are increasingly going around raping women, they cant work at the same time. This reduces the volume of goods and services produced and there are supply shortages. We must, therefore, import these products and to pay for such imports, we need to borrow. Hence, the value of external debt goes up. However, I havent been a good researcher and I have not been arbitrary. Have you ever wondered why there was a flurry of reforms last January? It was not because of a DCM

(Deve Gowda-Chidambaram-Maran) meeting. January is always a good month for liberalisation, with liberalisation broadly defined. Let me establish this proposition.

On January 1, money orders were introduced (1880), privy purses were abolished (1972) and commercial advertisement appeared on TV (1973). On January 5, central sales tax was introduced (1957). On January 11, the East India Company obtained permission to establish factories in Surat (1613) and Indias first newsprint production started (1955). On January 14, the 20-point programme was announced (1982). On January 15, Indian Airlines had an all woman crew for the first time on a commercial flight (1986). On January 20, Hindu College was established in Calcutta (1817) and the first atomic reactor was inaugurated (1957). On January 23, air transport and airmail services started (1920) and Durgapur Steel Plant was commissioned (1965). I can go on and on. The lion probably doesnt know that from his whims will emerge the first successful attempt to predict the Sensex.