A Fashion Statement

The Mahatma would never imagine that his name and legacy would mean almost nothing after just six decades of his death, except of course for the charade perfected by the politician of the day. And now even the US House of Representatives has passed a resolution acknowledging and commending his ‘‘unique and lasting role in the establishment of the state of India and its democratic institutions’’ while also admitting that without Mahatma Gandhi ‘‘the fates of what is now the world’s largest democracy, India, and the oldest democracy, the United States, would likely be far different’’. To quote Democrat member Eni Faleomavaega, the Mahatma’s legacy ‘‘is seen in the over 1.5 billion people who inhabit the free and independent countries of the Indian subcontinent and by our own embrace of the principles of non-violent political action, unity and religious tolerance within the United States’’. Should not there be limits to jokes on the priest of non-violence? US President Barack Obama too, in recent times, has harped on the Mahatma’s influence in his life. Be that as it may, what is clear is that Gandhism has become a sort of fashion statement among those who cannot practise what they preach and who would rather have the world not see through their crafty pretence. Let Obama and the US House of Representatives, nevertheless, try to tread the Gandhian trajectory. And when it comes to leaders in the very land of birth of the saint, less said the better — they have long cheated a poor people and perpetuated poverty and backwardness in the name of Gandhi. After all, is not Gandhi dead better than Gandhi alive — for all? THE SENTINEL