CHENNAI: Srinivasa Iyer ‘Cho’ Ramaswamy, the straight-talking political and social satirist and a practitioner of bold journalism, passed away on Wednesday after suffering a cardiac arrest at a hospital in Chennai. He was 82, and is survived by his wife Soundara Ramaswamy, son Rajivakshan alias Sriram and daughter Sindhuja. Cho breathed his last in the early hours of Wednesday at Apollo Hospitals, of which he was in and out in the last year-and-a-half following respiratory complications. Sources said he suffered a cardiac arrest around 2 am, and the end came at 3.58 am.
As a journalist and the main force behind the popular magazine Thuglak, he never hesitated to express his views and attacked what he considered wrong, regardless of the person on the other side.
He was also a noted force of resistance after the declaration of Emergency by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1976, and joined hands with many, including the owner of Indian Express newspaper, late Ramnath Goenka. Cho had a long association with Goenka, who gave him the rather fitting sobriquet of “intellectual goonda” for his straightforwardness in expressing his views without the least hesitation. The two were in opposite camps when Cho opposed VP Singh’s National Front government, which Goenka supported with equal vigour. However, it was only a brief while before they were back on the same page. As Goenka said, Cho remained an intellectual goonda till the very end.
Objectivity laced with the ability to think laterally enabled him to offer perfect political commentary. One such instance was when the DMK decided to oust MGR from the party. When he learnt about the move from poet Kannadasan, Cho advised him strongly against it.
He told Kannadasan to ask Karunanidhi to stop this plan, as it would not be good for the DMK in the long run. The strength of MGR’s fans should not be underestimated, he warned presciently. Within a month, Kannadasan realised Cho was right.