S. Charu Hassan - Lawyer - Actor
Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

S. Charu Hassan - Lawyer - Actor

The fact remains we are all born corrupt. Corruption does not originate from the bureaucrat, politicians etc, it originates from the common man......... S. Charu Hassan

S. CHARU HASSAN ( Actor & Lawyer)

Charu Hassan, son of a freedom fighter and brother of Kamal Hassan a great Actor who has worked in 175 odd films. Meeting Charu was a blessing and the interview was an eye opener. We started with discussing the moral values, he said "We Indians had moral values, then how this Corruption has become such widespread. Corruption was inherited from the British when India became Independent. It was at a low level generally confined to a beedi or a chicken to the Police Inspector, generally it was on a human level, but today it has reached such a level that every politician is corrupt, every bureaucrat is corrupt and even the people of this great Nation are corrupt. Actually the concept of Freedom is lost, we wanted to get rid of the white man and that is what we fought for. We felt that freedom is needed to decide what is right for me and the white man did not belong to my family.

After Independence the problems became multiple and this lead to the attitude of regionalism and parochialism. We did not have a common force to bind us and the meaning of nationalism was lost. We remained a nation to get the Britishers out of this country. The bureaucrat made life difficult for the Common Man and did not leave him to peace and the Common Man wanted to find a way to evade the taxes and the government servant always thought that the Common Man is dishonest.

Today Religion and Politics have come together and there is no difference between the two. Earlier the prophet used to tell us what to do and what not to do, today it's the Parliament which tells us what to do and what not to do. This is one of the major problems we have in the constitution which I feel was written out of resentment. Constitution classified us as Backward, forward tribes all in the guise of reforms which was one of the greatest mistake done by our founding father. Well I would not say that the reservation was not made with good intentions, it was, but the way it has been implemented and politicalised is the question which one should look into. I would say if you meet a Brahmin and a snake, kill the Brahmin and leave the snake. Indians have been polite and not as arrogant as the western society. In the present day contest we can equate the Brahmins to the Britisher who claimed superiority and Hindus to Americans who destroyed Red Indians for their own benefit. You see the constitution has been one of the culprits in bringing us to this stage where Cast has started to play an important roll. I remember an incident while I was in college. When I was in college I wrote my form that I was an Indian and when I was doing my law I wrote the same thing, by this time the constitution had come into force. I did not receive my degree and when I went to the hear of the institute he said that it was retained as I had not filled my cast and Religion properly. So what happened After the constitution came into existence, the Common Man was made to brand himself into Hindu, Muslim, Brahmin, Schedule cast and tribe.

Constitution was probably framed with the best of intentions, but if you see many articles were framed by fear or anger. Take clause 18 (1) (2) the state will not confirm any title except academic titles or military titles. We are prohibited to give any title, not to get titles abroad from other country. But even today the civilians are getting titles like Bharat Ratana, Padma Bhushan etc and the state is giving it. Well I would not say the state is wrong in doing so but this amounts a conflict between the state and the constitution. Therefore even the states hypnotically feel that the Britishers were right who gave titles left, right and centre and the freedom fighters were wrong. The time has come when the constitution needs to be re-written and I feel there is nothing wrong in doing so. As last I would say Our values and the values of the Common Man are in doubt, at one place we say that eliminate corruption but on the other hand we give 10% of what we earn to the Lord or give him a coconut and money when we visit him. When I am paying to the god to help me in Business how can I produce a non corrupt government. Interviewed on Film for the series The Common Man by Yati Jindal

Email: kireet@bom2.vsnl.net.in