NEWS ANALYSIS -- Dear Bapu...

By Kartik Lokhande

Dear Bapu,
As the world and our nation gear up to celebrate your birth anniversary on October 2 later this week, I wish to take the opportunity to write this letter to you. I am a small man, who nurtured a wish to write to you since his teen-age. I wished to share with you, obviously without any expectation of a reply, some thoughts and some questions to which I could not get logical answers till this date. Hence, this letter.
Bapu, your biggest gift to mankind was non-violent, peaceful protests. Sadly, they are a rarity today. For, since India gained independence, Governments of the day gradually tended to ignore such protests except when some influential activists were involved. Today, if a common man wants to stage peaceful protest or takes to non-violent agitation to press for his demand, he is simply ignored. Besides, Governments of the day often tend to take cognisance of only violent protests involving burning of tyres, stone-pelting, torching of public property and buses.
The intellectuals of the day once hailed your contribution to humanity in the form of the principle of non-violence. The principle was used by other leaders of masses in other countries successfully. However, today, the brand of intellectuals has changed. So much so that the so-called intellectuals equate with gun-wielding terrorists by coining phrases like ‘Gandhi with guns’. They support waging a war to bring peace! This brings me to my first question -- Has the principle of non-violence lost its relevance today? Or, has it lost its impact-value because of consistent neglect of those following this principle?
Dear Bapu, people often talk of commitment to cause and give your example stating how you stood up firmly against all odds. Your unflinching commitment to cause attracted positive and negative attention both. You got bouquets and brickbats, but you continued your journey towards your goal of awakening the people and leading them to the larger national interest. However, today, situation is not the same. Today, people actually do not walk the talk and their commitment remains only to the ‘because...’ part and not to the ‘cause’. People often dish out reasons to justify their immoral stands, volte face, illegal acts with the prefix, “I did it because...” Of course, there are people who do not wait for positive change, but they themselves strive to be the change. But, their number is few and far between.
Bapu, can a young man like me hope that the situation will change? Because... (I am using this word purposely), lack of commitment has resulted in people not taking stand, and this has dwindled the number of real heroes of people.
Times have changed. Truth, the most adored value for you, is the biggest casualty now. For, people have invented different varieties of truth -- convenient truth, politically correct truth, palatable truth, measured truth etc. Of course, this has been done with an intention to hide something or to avoid speaking the truth when needed the most. And, this is leading to gradual dumbing down at almost all levels. People or groups raise their voices only to put loud emphasis on their variety of truth.
Dear Bapu, when you returned to India after attending Round Table Conference, you had said, “My hands are clean,” to stress upon the fact that you had not made any compromise while negotiating with the British in the interest of India. Sadly, we, the most of the Indians, have reduced your statement to a mere slogan. This indicates decline in moral standards to an extent that people do not even shy away from asking, “Who will decide what is moral?” The decline has decayed into a rot called corruption. Today, if your noble soul happens to visit Government offices, you will find that at many places the public ‘servants’ under your photographs feel privileged to engage their hands in collecting bribes for discharge of their bounden duties.
As far as your political advice is concerned, it has been consigned to history since the day you were beatified and your statues erected in every city and town and village in the country. Over the years, politicians placed self-interest, party-interest and community-interest above national interest. As a result, though you allowed partition of our great country (for which you are still criticised and villified) into India and Pakistan thinking of future social safety of India, several nations within nation are thriving within India. Did the leaders who governed the country after your death fail to implement your vision behind allowing partition? Or, did they seize the opportunity of partition to improve or consolidate their political fortunes?
Whenever an idea struck you, you were the first to implement it. Sevagram is an example of your idea of rural self-reliance and initiatives for strengthening of rural industry and rural economy. However, since you left, rural India was looked down upon only as supplier of raw material and goods consumed by urban India. In past decade-and-a-half, there is a marked change though. Now, rural India has caught the fancy of investors from urban India, and villagers are being looked down upon as cheap work-force. Fancy of investors has caught fancy of the Governments also, and there is talk of smart villages. Whether that provides jobs, improves standard of living, provides basic amenities to villagers, and strengthens rural economy, remains to be seen. Do you feel Bapu that your vision for rural India was ignored by successive Governments in favour of demand-supply calculations only?
Of course, there are many such questions that I wish I could ask you. But, those could be asked to you subsequently. Some of the questions could be asked by people, including myself, to themselves so as to get honest answers. May be, that could trigger a change.
Till then, here is a little request from a young man -- Dear Bapu, please do not rest in peace! Keep confronting us through your ageless wisdom that is reinvented in every age.

(27-09-15)