THE LEGACY OF NATHURAM GODSE . . .

30 th January, this year fell on a Saturday. Many of us were ruing the fact that, had it been on a Friday or say on a Monday, we would have had a longer weekend. The National holiday is to commemorate the death of M.K. Gandhi. (Unbelievable as it may sound but quite a number of Indian citizens are unaware of it) He was assassinated by Nathuram Godse for his hatred towards the ideology of Gandhi. I am aware that it is a tad late as few days have passed since his 62nd death anniversary but I wanted to escape the 'date specific media circus' full of b/w photos, bhajans and few old clippings of Gandhi.(that too only if they do not have to cover any of the so called 'big' stories)

Contrary to the title of the post, what I have to SAY is not anything about Nathuram Godse or even much about M.K. Gandhi , it is essentially about us. Even after being the typical thick skinned, ignorant, ungrateful, short sighted, selfish, shallow, moral less -Indian, I for once could not bear the extreme insult of Gandhi by the BJP National President Nitin Gadkari. According to the RSS man, Gandhi and Modi are alike. (If Modi is Gandhi then I am King Alexander) I don't think even Lord Rama himself can explain such a ridiculous , preposterous remark! The levels that these politicians can stoop to for chamchagiri is beyond my comprehension. But, why did we not react and condemn the remark strongly. We protest a neighbouring country's few players not playing in a domestic money making cricket tamasha, but not when Gandhi is insulted. The only explanation to this is even we have stooped extremely low.

We just Love to hate the man. As if it makes us far more intellectual or as if its in vogue. We have very successfully destroyed nearly everything that Gandhi ever stood for.(and if the destruction is not complete, we are making sure its is) We have no respect, affection or gratitude towards his contribution or any sense of responsibility towards his vision for India. Or else how would we explain the apathy with which we treat him and his ideology. The greatest insult that we could have inflicted upon him is by printing his image on the currency. Every form of direct or indirect injustice (social, political, economical, judicial) takes place in pursuit of such rectangular papers with an image of a toothless, helpless old man smiling. Every Government institution has large laminated photographs of Gandhi which are visible to the visitors and not to the people occupying the powerful positions.Literally in a very sad way they have turned their backs upon him. Gandhi spun his own cloth and advised people to wear only khadi. Nearly all our netas wear only spotless khadi(can't say the same about their character though) designed by international designers and have made sure that either the cotton farmer gives up cotton farming or his life. Gandhi stressed on the fact that India lives in its villages and when agriculture prospers we will make true inclusive progress. Our farmer suicides beat our agricultural growth by a huge margin. He invented 'satyagraha', we have turned it into nothing but a blackmailing tool. Even during the British Raj, he emphasised on the virtue and importance of non-violence. He said by trying to achieve freedom through violent means we won't be able to conceptualize a society devoid of fear. Many of us did not agree to this policy of his. So by the same logic shall we accept Naxalism? Why do we want them to give up arms if we did not believe in Ahinsa. It truly is saddening that he has been to reduced to a sad, spineless, caricature in our Cinema too. Only Sir Ben Kingsley did justice to him. (Ironic, Britishers made a better film on him than us) Its depressing that an actor accused in TADA, convicted in possession of arms and known for his linkages with underworld milked 'Gandhigiri' as much as he could to better his image if not his associations. But, why single him out? We have always tried to make the optimum use of the fact that Gandhi was born in India. We have 'used' him to sell everything from policies to cement to lies, everything. Here is an illustration, he said pen is mightier than the sword. So a luxury pen making company made a pen in his name(Bring me a better brand ambassador-that too for free) costing a mere, Rs. 1.1 million (approximately as much as an average Indian labourer might make over the 40 years of his life) It was endorsed by his great grandson. It must be very disheartening for true Gandhians that the the people supposedly to have carried on the Gandhi legacy have not only failed in protecting and nurturing it but have instead majorly contributed in destroying it. Its not only his family members or his party(it would have been interesting to see if he would have stayed with the same party) but actually we all Indians who have let him down in a big way! He was the Father of the Nation, so we all belonged to him and equally share the onus.
Many would argue that is Gandhi relevant today? I do not know about anyone else, but its my firm belief that Gandhiji was never more relevant than Today ! We are lost and we needed someone to guide us to stand up against injustice and stand up as India. We needed to have kept Bapu alive in our hearts, values, thoughts and most importantly in our deeds. But we have murdered his soul. A murder far more brutal than the one committed by Nathuram Godse. We have blood on our hands and very sadly we carry forward not the Legacy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi but, of Nathuram Godse...

Not until any specific time but lets try and be a Gandhian for life . . . .nP