How Power Holders Failed Gandhi
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava
02 October, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Today WE THE PEOPLE of India remember Mahatma Gandhi. The great mass mobiliser in the modern world. He was the first person in the Indian soil to have recognized the importance of collective resistance against the evils of any sort of. Political independence was important but elimination of social evils were equally important feature of his life long struggle against the power holders.
His message was to practice the truth and non violence. How much his political inheritors learnt this message , is quite debatable: look the hate speeches , low quality speeches in the last general elections, look the upper caste cleansing of the temples even after a Chief Minister visit or killing of young ones as decreed by many Kangaroo courts, all these speak volumes about the fact that India at a wider spectrum has not respected his message. There are multiple examples which show that power holders of different domains have disowned Gandhi in many ways.
Gandhi had emphasized that after independence all the ministers should live in the small houses. They must demonstrate by real practices in the public life that they were real servants of the people. The reality is just in contrast. Even a small Parshad or local ward member in the municipalities or the Panchayat members of local bodies become suddenly rich, how ?. This remains unanswered. The wealth of a legislature, standard of living , the big mansions, the fleet of vehicles all tell us that Gandhi’s message has no relevance to these servants of society.
Gandhi asked for the pure public life. He opined that people at top echelons should be icons of the great service. They must be real role models to all those whom they serve. What did in actual terms modern India get?
A Chief Minister that too a female is lodged inside the bar on his birth day 2nd October. A great irony of the Indian democracy is that she is the first CM to be disqualified for amassing the huge wealth. Two points need more investigation in this respect that already one ex CM has been put behind the bars for. corruption and one upper house member was convicted for the same. Two former CMs have remained under the scanner on this issue. More important is, when the President had to sign the legal base of imprisonments for the tainted politicians. The lobby of tainted ones cobbled together dissolving all party affiliations. Though President’s reluctance and efforts of Rahul Gandhi saved the nation from the disaster. The tainted ones have now less respite but their lobby is flourishing and their tribe will flourish. Gandhi will have to live only for one day i.e. 2nd October as his preachings have now only the symbolic values for these people. This is the real face of the respect being accorded to Gandhi.
Gandhi talked about sanitation. Today government has undertaken the programme of sanitation ‘Swasha Bharat’. A real, needful and praise worthy effort of the government but cleaning is only namesake, government sweepers in many places rarely appear on the streets. They must be asked to discharge their task of cleaning more effectively. Equally important is to stop the government officials and workers who spit in the premises of the offices or nearby places. They must be taught that it is not good to stop the running car , open the door and spit out the betel and tobacco. They must also be taught that they should not throw the litter from their houses outside on the roads. They must also be taught when driving in a car. They must not throw out of speeding window the wrappers and litter out side. Do they do so in their drawing rooms? Unless we treat all India as our drawing room, all roads as its main component, nothing is likely to be changed. This teaching is not only for the government employees but all the people but former ones owe greater responsibility as being direct part of the government. Gradually this message will percolate to the common people. Gandhian message is easy to implement if in real terms we respect him. The whole respect is in fact only in the form of lip services.
Why Gandhi could not exercise his full impact on Indian society? The answer lies in the philosophy of Hobbes. He stated that man is basically brutish, nasty, self centered and focused towards the maximization of his or her individual interests. Gandhi is for collectiveness, for masses to come together. He is a believer in the spritualisation of politics. He gave the human society the ideals of great values but Hobbes dominated many of those who acquired the power. Many in societal level were born as diehard followers of Hobbesian philosophy.
The day of 2nd October is not the birthday of Gandhi. It is a day of fight between Gandhian values and Hobbesian truths. More responsibility lies on the political world. They must reflect what harm they have done to India. They must look inside and ponder over the vast masses which still live in deficiencies of many counts. Gandhian message was , when you have to decide anything ,look the poorest person as your benchmark, whether your decision and actions will help the destitute. That is main base of Gandhian decision making. Do political leaders pay heed to it?
Gandhi is no more but his message lives. It is up to us to link with each other, else the political power holders and crony capitalism and retrogressive thoughts at the societal level will defeat him. How can it be prevented? ,that should be our main thought on this great day.
Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava is presently Assistant Professor in CSJM Kanpur University[affiliated college],Vice Chairman CSSP; Recent Paper- UP By-elections are a Lesson for BJP, Mainstream Weekly,29th September 2014,www.mainstreamweekly.net; email: [email protected]
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