The greatest son of ancient India, Gautama Buddha a Hindu ardently preached of Compassion. In essence it meaning is "do to others what you would like to be done to you" and its negative version is “do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you".
Late Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India adhered to this principle and espoused the policy of ‘non alignment’. All successors, except the present government of Sonia-Singh, followed the holy principle or the Golden Rule.
This government led by an Italian Roman catholic turned Indian Hindu displayed gross neglect of duty of care to the sick and infirm elderly when Indian immigration officials at Chennai air port deported 81-year-old Mrs. Vallipuram Parvathi on 16 Friday April 2010 when she arrived there by plane from Malaysia. Mrs. Parvathi was the ailing mother of the late LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan. She travelled from Malaysia to get admitted to a hospital in Chennai for specialist treatment for her numerous ailments one of which was hemiplegia or partial paralysis. The cruel part of this episode is that she was even refused landing permission by airport officials after travelling a long distance by air in her sick condition purportedly with a valid visa issued by the entry clearance officer at the Indian High Commission in Malayasia (Uthayan news).
She was sent back to Malaysia in the same aeroplane. The notion of compassion nurtured and practiced by Lord Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had gone with the wind. The immigration authorities at the Chennai airport were surprised to see Parvathi, mother of slain LTTE leader Prabakaran, when she landed from Malaysia with a valid six months medical visa at the airport on Friday night. She was accompanied by a woman helper. Instead of taking a humanitarian view of the situation the government officials at the airport took a political view of the situation. www.Colombopage.com reported that Mrs. Vellupillai Parvathi (nee Vallipuram) was considered by India as a threat to law and order situation in the country. The state officials at the air port would not have dealt this unkindest cut of all without consulting higher authorities in the government. They could hide behind law for this cruel behaviour. They could say that Mrs Parwathy’s name was in the black list of persons who were supposed to be security threat to India. Mrs Parwathy and her late husband Veluppillai were put in the security risk list since 2003 on the advice of the then chief minister of Chennai film actress Ms Jayalalitha. The reality of Mrs Parwathy’s condition and situation makes this decision of the government a mockery of Justice and fair play.
Last May, Pirapaharan’s Mother Parwathy and father Mr.Thiruvengadam Velupillai (now deceased), who were living in Vanni and went into IDP camps. From there they were taken to Panagoda military camp and were detained there. Both were denied good medical facilities and were allegedly humiliated while in detention. Subsequently, without any insider knowledge of his situation Mr. Thiruvengadam Velupillai, the father of Mr. Pirapaharan passed away in Sri Lanka Army detention at Panagoda in January this year. This lady also had shock of all these life events which amounted to post traumatic stress disorder. She was a diabetic and had complications from it such as high blood pressure and semi paralysis. No one could expect a security threat from such an invalid woman except of course political ill feeling for not helping a lonely woman to get the required specialist medical care in Chennai. It is a fact that people from countries that are politically in logger head with India such as Pakistan and Bangladesh are visiting India on various errands without being detained or deported as security threat.
Mrs Parwathy stayed in Malaysia for some months without any security risk to that country and the Indian High commission had issued a visa after necessary screening for security threat etc. Then why is this turn around at the air-port? It is second thought for petty political reasons.
This is evidenced by the statement issued by ex Minister Subramaniam Swamy (biracial Brahmin). He misappropriating state power supposed to have declared that India is not a public free Inn (Dharmasala) for every body to come freely and stay and go and that Mrs Parwathy should condemn the killing of Rajiv Gandhi first and thereafter he would think of the possibility of admitting Mrs Parwthy to India. What do you think of this idiotic argument of an ex-minister? It is vanity and conceitedness at its highest. One cannot punish the parents for the wrong doing of their grown up children having a separate life of their own. If Swamy insists on this remedy it will be proxy punishment which is a terrorist act.
What a reasonable democratic government should have done first was to admit Mrs Parwathy to a hospital for necessary treatment on compassionate grounds. If necessary she might have been guarded for 24 hours. If Varatharaja Perumal ex para military leader and chief minister of Northern Province could be accommodated in India for years on at Indian Government expence why cannot the Indians reduce the security threat of a sickly 81 year old woman by putting guards and that for a short period till she completed her treatment?
The world has come to know the hypocrisy of the present Indian politicians in power. They learnt a bad lesson during the last war in Sri-lanka due to faulty advice from Malayalee Narayanan and Siva Shankar Menon. Their wrong advices gave away sri-Lanka to Chinese dominance and influence to the exclusion of India though a super power in the region.
This time round India had made a big mistake in refusing to allow an octogenarian sick person Mrs Parwathy to take medical treatment on humanitarian grounds. UN, UNHCR and Amnesty International should take this matter up at international level.
Tamil organisations are organising protests marches and fasting to arouse the consciences of the world population because this issue affects the aged and the infirm not only in India but elsewhere in the world.
Albert Einstein on elderly "A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
Professor Luke Gormally said in September 1998 “the elderly are our ancestors, most of them parents of one or more who follow them. Children should honour their parents. Many are no longer disposed to do so. Our generation is in danger of conspiring, or colluding by indifference, in the criminal neglect and even killing of many of the elderly. We need to do more than name this conspiracy for what it is. We need to redeem our times. In this sense we are the ones who need to love our elders.
“we need to love the frail elderly because we need to relearn the conditions of accepting debility and dependence as ways to spiritual transformation”.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on 16 Friday April 2010 while inaugurating a workshop-cum-consultative meet on 'empowering elderly people'said her government is committed to providing all possible help to the senior citizens in the city. She further added "The elders must be given due respect in society. Our government is committed to provide all possible help to them by sincerely implementing various schemes meant for them".
The care of the elderly becomes more important in view of the demography in India. In 2001 there were some 77 million people in India aged over 60. By 2013 that figure is expected to have increased to 100 million. 90% of older persons have no social security at age 60. 30% of the elderly live below the poverty line and a further 33% live just above it. 55% of women over 60 are widows, many of them with no support whatsoever.
We must learn to respect the elderly rather than taking revenge on them. This is important in view of the demographic trend. Mahatma Gandhi said “You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
*The Golden Rule is an ethical code that states one has a right to just treatment, and a responsibility to ensure justice for others. It is also called the ethic of reciprocity. It is arguably the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights, though it has its critics. A key element of the golden rule is that a person attempting to live by this rule treats all people, not just members of his or her in-group, with consideration. It is derived from the philosophies of ancient India, Greece, Judea and China.
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