A Pen and a Word is mightier than a Sword – Cho

When Tamilnadu still unable to grapple with passing away of sitting Chief Minister, another big blow to the politics emanated again from the corridors of Apollo Hospital – An era of honest and bold journalism was over.

Cho Ramaswamy , hailed as Chanakya of TN Politics passed away the very next day.  Political Satirist, Lawyer, Humorist having acted in many movies, Drama artist, Rajya Sabha M.P, a multi-talented  faceted personality in Cho Ramaswamy , a saga of sorts passed away into eternity.

Born into a family of luminary lawyers, his grandfather’s works came to be known as Ramanathan Lexicon, Cho got the name after a character he enacted in one of his plays. After donning the mantle of a protagonist in the movie Thuglak, he brought to life Mohammed Bin Thuglak reborn in 70s and expectedly faced lot of protests from DMK. It stood the test of time and is relevant even now.

After his brush with movies, he founded the fortnightly called Thuglak magazine in January 14, 1970. The first cover of Thuglak magazine had two donkeys talking to each other poking fun of the magazine, one informing the other that the arrival of the magazine will mean a lot of food for them.  He was conscious and confident that in his magazine Content and Delivery will remain as the focus and not on the sizzle and sensationalism.

His quick repartee and humor won the hearts of many including those with opposing views.  His cartoons were incisive and many used to look up to the forthcoming releases while preserving the old ones. Many in 70s would remember during the distressful Emergency days, the magazine was published with a black cover in the front page. He repeated that one more time during Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.

He would take on friends and foes in all political parties alike not even sparing himself in criticism. His famous quote was one during Congress vs Left parties standoff “If Left has future in India, India has no future left”. He has acted nearly 90 movies penned screenplays, directed 5 movies and has wrote on some later televised serials like ‘Engey brahmanan (Where is the Brahmin?), and wrote religious seminal works like Hindu Mahasamudram, Valmiki Ramayanam etc. Many of his contemporary actors recount that Cho used to shun political encouragement to become Chief Minister and avoided all glitterati. An autorickshaw wala once saw him and fell on his feet saying ‘Sir..its great having met you and Cho reciprocated with  falling at his feet saying ‘Sir its great having met you”.

There was none to match his political satire and quick repartee unflinching and sparing none. He was bold enough to say once that election is a process to elect the lesser thief among the bigger ones. He was equally at ease to propagate unpopular narrative in his own style and also never shied away in expressing and admitting openly about his bias towards his friend Jayalalitha’s party.

A very unique event is the yearly anniversary of Thuglak magazine during Pongal well attended by readers, citizens, officials and politicos from various parties. His last one was Jan 2016 with a tube on his throat and spoke with the same vigor for 30 minutes. The program would start off with his introducing all editors, contributors, peons, drivers etc. Readers used to ask pointed questions and he used to answer them in his style laced with humor and satire devoid of rancor! It was during one such event, he would introduce the then CM of Gujarat, now the PM of India as ‘Merchant of Death (a diatribe used by Sonia Gandhi on Narendra Modi during Gujarat elections) to Corruption, Nepotism, Merchant of Death to Poverty, Merchant of Death to Official Inefficiency , Darkness and Despair! Once BJP stalwart L.K. Advani openly admitted that his biggest weakness was humor and that he envied Cho with whom it was abundantly bestowed.

He was hailed as Chanakya and felt the pulse of the people and would express his views for or against his party of choice. He helped forge an alliance even with whom he bitterly criticized i.e DMK against whom he was supporting ADMK as he felt passionately about what was right at that time. He was also one among the first to propose the name of Narendra Modi for the Prime Minister of India.  There is none to match his acerbic wit and the sense of proportion and his journalistic ideals that in current years are seen as long lost virtues in the rat race.

Cho will make Heaven even more heavenly with his comedy and satire. He may be found busy penning his own eulogy and it may read like this “I have kicked the bucket, hopped the twig, ruffled some feathers, though here I come to meet the Head of Political Satire in Swargam and will give him a run for his money! “