The Yew effect

A large Hindustan Times cartoon from 1966 formed the backdrop to the event  in Kolkata. Oxford Bookstore, the venue of the launch of Looking East to Look West: Lee Kuan Yew’s Mission India, by Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, was chock-a-block on Thursday with the city’s literati and glitterati.

The cartoon showed a gargantuan Nehru sleeping with a minuscule Yew perched on top, yelling “Wake up!” It is this cartoon that encapsulates what the redoubtable SKDR wanted to say in his 388-page volume on India-Singapore relations. For governor M.K. Narayanan, who unveiled the book, it was a “double pleasure” to be at the event for he was an admirer of Datta-Ray and also had the pleasure to know the Singaporean minister-mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

“Though I am not a historian, I am part of contemporary history and from that perspective I can claim that bilateral relations between India and Singapore have been most purposeful and warm,” said Narayanan. Despite neglect on India’s part, the relation with Singapore remained stable largely due to the leadership of Yew, he said.

Full report here Telegraph