Political Diary
New Delhi, 3 October
2017
Gandhi’s Parables
DOES HE MAKE A
DIFFERENCE?
By Poonam I Kaushish
“What
do you think of Gandhi? You mean Pappu,” dismissed a 25-year old disparagingly.
“Silly, I am not talking of Rahul, but the other Gandhi. Oh, I get it, you are
talking about the strange old man we read about in history and get a chuutti from school,” giggled an 8-year
old boy. “The one they call the Mahatma, incidentally what did he do?”
That
my fellow countrymen, is what Gen Next thinks of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Mahatma Gandhi who we reverently
address as Father of the Nation. Alas, he has been buried in the dustbin of
history to be aired every 2 October for his annual ‘autumn cleaning’. A
ritualistic visit to Rajghat, singing his favourite hymns followed by our
leaders pledging to follow in his footsteps. Sic. Obeisance paid duty over its
back to the business of democracy and rule by
law.
Look
around and see how far removed we are from Bapu’s vision of India. Indeed, we
have come a long way from what he espoused 70 years ago. Today, Gandhi has been
reduced to intellectual indulgence whereby his ideals are forgotten and much of
what he stood for remembered selectively or misunderstood. Like his belief in
simple living and high thinking, sense of right and wrong and his value system.
What
else can one expect from a politically, socially and morally bankrupt nation?Nowadays,
all I see is almost hysterical greed and ambition by our netagan for kursi and paisa, disillusionment with our leaders,
frustration among the jobless youth, grumpiness among the middle class and
increasing polarisation between different castes and sections of society.
Sadly,
India is bereft of genuine leaders of
the people and genuinely from the
people. “Let them not arrogate to themselves greater knowledge than those who
have unrivalled experience but do not happen to occupy their chair,” said
Gandhi. Today, it’s power at any cost, a kissa
kursi ka and paisa pakro gaddi rakho
all times. So much for upholding his tenet of holding offices lightly, not
tightly!
Bapu
had said, “Ministers should not live as ‘sahib
log’ or use private work facilities provided by the Government for official
duties.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. Yesterday’s princes have made
way for the neo-Maharajas, read Ministers and MPs who see themselves as
winners, replete with the power trappings that go with it. All in the crippling
morass of a jee huzoor feudal mindset
Not
many are aware Gandhi was opposed to the Westminster model of Government that
we follow as it implies existence of two classes: rulers and the ruled. The
British Parliament, according to him was a “sterile woman” as it couldn’t do
anything with finality and MPs had to obey their Party’s whip, reducing them to
rubber stamps. It is unfortunate that independent India did not heed his
advice.
This
has led to our netagan being only for
themselves, good governance be damned. All suffering from Acute Orwellian
syndrome: “Some are more equal than others”. Their hierarchy gauged by
gun-totting commandos surrounding them, jumping traffic lights and causing
accidents. Funny isn’t it that they need protection from the aam aadmi they assiduously swear to
represent and serve.
Worse,
the rip-off culture has arrived. Whether its basics: roti, kapada aur makaan prices are off the wall. The value for
money culture is all pervasive. It’s all about being successful. In Gandhi’s
era we Indians had to struggle for Independence and basic survival. Now,
everyone has to struggle even harder to live with alleged prosperity. Be it swacchta , toilets sans water, saubhagya
bijli without bulbs and ujwala
chullahs sans gas.
Wherein,
Gandhi’s teachings have been reduced to mere straws that fly about in the
political wind, courtesy our parochial leaders. Pious platitudes and inane
speeches to paint a halo round their heads. The fire and zeal of Gandhi’s
“do-or-die” slogan died an early death, replaced by a rent-a-crowd show of
strength. What else can one expect from our paper tigers?
He
also wanted to disband the Congress Party because rot had set in. It was led by
leaders who wanted to rule over people like the British, were taking money from
businessmen to get them licences, indulging in black-marketing, subverting the
judiciary and intimidating officials to secure transfers and promotions for
their protégées in the administration. Hence, he wanted to stop the Congress
from capitalizing on the freedom struggle in which the nation as a whole had
participated and replace it with a Lok Seva Sangh.
Sadly,
today’s rulers are just chips of the old blocks. Depressingly, nowhere does
ideology, principles, Party interests or policies even rhetorically figure in
our netagans’ vocabulary. In the
past, the leaders at least used to camouflage their intentions in ideological
garbage. Today, even that fig leaf or verbosity has been discarded.
Ironically,
even as Modi extols his colleagues to follow Gandhi, though Deen Dayal Upadhya
is the current hot favourite, both their beliefs converged in giving up
conspicuous consumption as “money does not grow on trees…return to simplicity,
efficiency and commitment to national goals hold the key to self reliance!” His
brave words taunt the seven-star mesmerizing celebrations every anniversary of the
BJP-led NDA Government.
Contrast
this with the harsh reality of half of India’s 1.1 billion people not having
enough to eat with over 700 million living below the poverty line. And nearly
one million dying every year due to inadequate healthcare facilities and one in
every five children is malnourished. True, Modi has shifted his politics and is
busy projecting his Government as pro-poor. But fighting malnutrition is a
pre-requisite for building human capital.
Bluntly,
‘broken society’ describes what one sees around. Okay, inclusive growth is a
buzzword, but most people think it happens in no man’s land instead of mega-cities
that are supposed to lead the charge which will make India a superpower.
Why
should people die of primitive diseases in the 21st Century and
struggle even harder than previous generations did to survive? It’s high time
we stopped blindly celebrating success, and paid attention to what’s happening
to people’s lives, and our society.
If
ahimsa cast a Mahatma’s halo around
Gandhi universally, himsa is the ugly
universal truth for our society. India is angry, very angry. The aam aadmi’s angst has morphsized from gheraos and road rage to shoe-cides and
slaps directed at our netagan. Thanks
to sky-rocketing prices, unemployment, ghooskhori
and the in-your-face behavior of our political mai-baaps.
The
worst thing is nobody seems to care. The middle class has too many problems of
its own to be bothered about the poor, the poor are getting angrier and
desperate, the rich, as always, don’t care. For a while now, ‘feel-good’ has
been the holy grail of media and establishment. It’s almost a national
conspiracy, let’s ignore the warts and bad things, focus only on those glitzy speeches
and idolise success.
Bringing
things to such a ludicrous pass that Gandhi seems an alien from a different
planet. Succinctly, he was revered as a saint and Indians today are more
bothered about survival.
In
sum, what should one say of a polity that swears in the name of Gandhi but doesn’t
heed him. Instead, practices the seven sins he abhorred: Politics without
principles; wealth without work; commerce without morality; education without
character; pleasure without conscience; science without humanity and worship
without sacrifice. Our experiments with untruth! ---- INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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