02-03-2007, 09:00 AM
From Deccan Chronicle, 3 Feb., 2007. will move to correct thread in a while.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Five-star Gandhi
By Seema Mustafa
Not being a member of the Congress Party, or for that matter, a student of the history taught to Congress members, one had thought that Mahatma Gandhiâs Satyagraha was a form of resistance to bring the toiling masses into the struggle for freedom that began as an elitist movement, to mobilise the people on specific issues related to the Indian determination to get independence, and to underscore non violence as the basic characteristic of the fight against the colonisers. It was, thus, difficult to understand precisely what Satyagraha was being felicitated in five-star comfort and tight security by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and in what manner was she hoping to link this one specific function to the masses who were not allowed to even hover near the vicinity of the international event.
What was the message from the glittering event in Vigyan Bhavan for an India that is still struggling to meet the dreams dreamt for her by Gandhi? Promises not realised by the governments for whom that commitment is now just a âlegacyâ to be usurped and made political capital of? Nothing. There was no message. Not even the rhetoric of new promises. Just a gathering with the one single intention of felicitating not Satyagraha but Sonia Gandhi who was the âstarâ of the show. No one else, not even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who made a lukewarm appearance on the second day. It was an event for Ms Sonia Gandhi, put together by a grateful Congress Party that has learnt little from the past except to claim the legacy and market it, in bits and pieces, as and when required.
There was no message for the masses of India who were not in the focus anyway. Stories of 90-year-old Satyagrahis seeking an appointment with the Congress president in vain, remained just that: stories in newspapers. The gathering was select, silk saris and brand colognes, as Ms Sonia Gandhi addressed the world about the concept of Satyagraha with the naïve theory that India had acquired nuclear weapons simply because the world had refused to abolish these. So in that sense Satyagraha, under the Vigyan Bhavan definition, is not to resist, but to follow the norm no matter how evil or destructive it is. Not to lead the world out of the darkness of nuclear weapons, but to join it and after strengthening proliferation, cry about the need for non-proliferation. Ms Sonia Gandhiâs government, like its predecessor, has sent emissaries across the globe seeking attention and recognition as a nuclear weapon state. So how is non-proliferation as a concept enhanced in the process? Perhaps, another international conference organised by the Congress Party for its leader will edify the nation on this point.
A major opportunity to revive Gandhi was lost in the Congress Partyâs preoccupation to project its president. There had been no effort to work out an international message either, with the final resolution vague and diffused, and overtaken by strong comments by the participants on issues like Tibet and Jammu and Kashmir. So while two world leaders advocated the independence of Tibet, much to the embarrassment of the Indian government that quickly reiterated its âone Chinaâ policy, another spoke of the need to resolve the Kashmir issue by suggesting the division of the state along religious and ethnic lines.
The Congress as a party remained distant from the Satyagraha meet, with only the top leaders visible. And this leads us to the next question. Is Gandhi so small a figure that he can be claimed only by the remnants of a party that was once the Congress? Or is he a national figure, a leader with a vision, an icon to be celebrated by India? Sixty years later, the Congress Party has lost its independence, its credibility and the stature to claim to be the true inheritor of the freedom movement. India is the inheritor, with her diversity and her pluralism. A specific family Dynasty cannot determine national inheritance, and Gandhi cannot be usurped as a symbol of democracy and secularism by a motley group of disparate elements that cannot hold together without a certain Family in power. The Congress Party will strengthen its own claim to the âlegacyâ that its leaders today insist is theirs, if it broadens the base, if it involves individuals committed to Gandhian principles (and most of them are no longer in the Sonia Gandhi party today) and the people of India who have a bigger stake in Gandhiâs lessons today than ever before. Not through a conference, but practice.
Those who distort history and seek to replace leaders like Gandhi who struggled for a democratic, secular India, have to be fought back. The vitriolic Hindutva brigade that fouls everything it touches has to be resisted and countered. But this cannot be done by the rump of the Congress as it exists today. Secularism as an ideology does not exist for this party, seeking glorification through a legacy it cannot even begin to live up to. Today, a riot in Gorakhpur has the Centre sending paramilitary forces to Uttar Pradesh with the ever zealous minister of state for home affairs Jaiswal insisting on visiting the city. Law and order, it appears, is not a state subject when it comes to settling scores with political adversary, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Not so long ago, the same Congress refused to make an issue of the pogrom of Muslims by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, with its worthies insisting, on the record, that there was little they could do as law and order was a state subject. And that the Union government did not want to dismiss a state government for the terrible crimes it had committed, as this would really not be the judicious thing to do. But today, Jaiswal and the Congress leaders in UP have shown no hesitation in warning the state government of Presidentâs Rule until and unless the chief minister cooperates and allows the minister to visit Gorakhpur. And this when most reports about the incident have placed the blame squarely on the BJP and not on the Samajwadi Party.
The point is not the Congress or the Samajwadi Party. The point is how Gandhi, secularism and democracy can all be rolled into a practical handbook for the votaries of Indian politics to ensure that the values are strengthened, and not subjected to the vagaries of personal and short-sighted gains. Gandhi did not believe in the right of a Dynasty to rule. He was also too broadminded to strike a petty note about the origins of a person seeking now to be Indian. For strong positions about either undermine the spirit of democracy, a spirit that is essential if democracy itself is to be preserved. Political leaders who decry democracy in party functioning cannot respect Democracy.
BSPâs Mayawati, who insists that she sits on the high chair while others sit at her feet, cannot even begin to understand the concept of democracy. The Congress Party that has voluntarily decided to sit at the feet of a Dynasty cannot protect democracy. Ms Sonia Gandhi who holds up a hall full of dignitaries from India and Russia to re-introduce her son especially to Russian President Vladimir Putin (both had met earlier, but without her special introduction), cannot understand the link between Indian democracy and a democratic Congress Party.
Perhaps before another international convention on some aspect of Gandhi is again organised by the Congress seeking acclaim for its president, its leaders will open a basic book on Gandhi to understand the depth of the concepts he preached. âSatyagraha is a relentless search for truth and a determination to search truth,â he said. âA Satyagrahi cannot go to law for a personal wrong ⦠in the code of the Satyagrahi there is no such thing as surrender to brute force,â he said. âSatyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it covers all the elements of the society and makes itself irresistible,â he said. âSatyagraha does not depend on the outside for help, it derives all its strength from withinâ he said. Perhaps the Congress and its Dynasty can start by searching for that strength from within.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Five-star Gandhi
By Seema Mustafa
Not being a member of the Congress Party, or for that matter, a student of the history taught to Congress members, one had thought that Mahatma Gandhiâs Satyagraha was a form of resistance to bring the toiling masses into the struggle for freedom that began as an elitist movement, to mobilise the people on specific issues related to the Indian determination to get independence, and to underscore non violence as the basic characteristic of the fight against the colonisers. It was, thus, difficult to understand precisely what Satyagraha was being felicitated in five-star comfort and tight security by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and in what manner was she hoping to link this one specific function to the masses who were not allowed to even hover near the vicinity of the international event.
What was the message from the glittering event in Vigyan Bhavan for an India that is still struggling to meet the dreams dreamt for her by Gandhi? Promises not realised by the governments for whom that commitment is now just a âlegacyâ to be usurped and made political capital of? Nothing. There was no message. Not even the rhetoric of new promises. Just a gathering with the one single intention of felicitating not Satyagraha but Sonia Gandhi who was the âstarâ of the show. No one else, not even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who made a lukewarm appearance on the second day. It was an event for Ms Sonia Gandhi, put together by a grateful Congress Party that has learnt little from the past except to claim the legacy and market it, in bits and pieces, as and when required.
There was no message for the masses of India who were not in the focus anyway. Stories of 90-year-old Satyagrahis seeking an appointment with the Congress president in vain, remained just that: stories in newspapers. The gathering was select, silk saris and brand colognes, as Ms Sonia Gandhi addressed the world about the concept of Satyagraha with the naïve theory that India had acquired nuclear weapons simply because the world had refused to abolish these. So in that sense Satyagraha, under the Vigyan Bhavan definition, is not to resist, but to follow the norm no matter how evil or destructive it is. Not to lead the world out of the darkness of nuclear weapons, but to join it and after strengthening proliferation, cry about the need for non-proliferation. Ms Sonia Gandhiâs government, like its predecessor, has sent emissaries across the globe seeking attention and recognition as a nuclear weapon state. So how is non-proliferation as a concept enhanced in the process? Perhaps, another international conference organised by the Congress Party for its leader will edify the nation on this point.
A major opportunity to revive Gandhi was lost in the Congress Partyâs preoccupation to project its president. There had been no effort to work out an international message either, with the final resolution vague and diffused, and overtaken by strong comments by the participants on issues like Tibet and Jammu and Kashmir. So while two world leaders advocated the independence of Tibet, much to the embarrassment of the Indian government that quickly reiterated its âone Chinaâ policy, another spoke of the need to resolve the Kashmir issue by suggesting the division of the state along religious and ethnic lines.
The Congress as a party remained distant from the Satyagraha meet, with only the top leaders visible. And this leads us to the next question. Is Gandhi so small a figure that he can be claimed only by the remnants of a party that was once the Congress? Or is he a national figure, a leader with a vision, an icon to be celebrated by India? Sixty years later, the Congress Party has lost its independence, its credibility and the stature to claim to be the true inheritor of the freedom movement. India is the inheritor, with her diversity and her pluralism. A specific family Dynasty cannot determine national inheritance, and Gandhi cannot be usurped as a symbol of democracy and secularism by a motley group of disparate elements that cannot hold together without a certain Family in power. The Congress Party will strengthen its own claim to the âlegacyâ that its leaders today insist is theirs, if it broadens the base, if it involves individuals committed to Gandhian principles (and most of them are no longer in the Sonia Gandhi party today) and the people of India who have a bigger stake in Gandhiâs lessons today than ever before. Not through a conference, but practice.
Those who distort history and seek to replace leaders like Gandhi who struggled for a democratic, secular India, have to be fought back. The vitriolic Hindutva brigade that fouls everything it touches has to be resisted and countered. But this cannot be done by the rump of the Congress as it exists today. Secularism as an ideology does not exist for this party, seeking glorification through a legacy it cannot even begin to live up to. Today, a riot in Gorakhpur has the Centre sending paramilitary forces to Uttar Pradesh with the ever zealous minister of state for home affairs Jaiswal insisting on visiting the city. Law and order, it appears, is not a state subject when it comes to settling scores with political adversary, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Not so long ago, the same Congress refused to make an issue of the pogrom of Muslims by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, with its worthies insisting, on the record, that there was little they could do as law and order was a state subject. And that the Union government did not want to dismiss a state government for the terrible crimes it had committed, as this would really not be the judicious thing to do. But today, Jaiswal and the Congress leaders in UP have shown no hesitation in warning the state government of Presidentâs Rule until and unless the chief minister cooperates and allows the minister to visit Gorakhpur. And this when most reports about the incident have placed the blame squarely on the BJP and not on the Samajwadi Party.
The point is not the Congress or the Samajwadi Party. The point is how Gandhi, secularism and democracy can all be rolled into a practical handbook for the votaries of Indian politics to ensure that the values are strengthened, and not subjected to the vagaries of personal and short-sighted gains. Gandhi did not believe in the right of a Dynasty to rule. He was also too broadminded to strike a petty note about the origins of a person seeking now to be Indian. For strong positions about either undermine the spirit of democracy, a spirit that is essential if democracy itself is to be preserved. Political leaders who decry democracy in party functioning cannot respect Democracy.
BSPâs Mayawati, who insists that she sits on the high chair while others sit at her feet, cannot even begin to understand the concept of democracy. The Congress Party that has voluntarily decided to sit at the feet of a Dynasty cannot protect democracy. Ms Sonia Gandhi who holds up a hall full of dignitaries from India and Russia to re-introduce her son especially to Russian President Vladimir Putin (both had met earlier, but without her special introduction), cannot understand the link between Indian democracy and a democratic Congress Party.
Perhaps before another international convention on some aspect of Gandhi is again organised by the Congress seeking acclaim for its president, its leaders will open a basic book on Gandhi to understand the depth of the concepts he preached. âSatyagraha is a relentless search for truth and a determination to search truth,â he said. âA Satyagrahi cannot go to law for a personal wrong ⦠in the code of the Satyagrahi there is no such thing as surrender to brute force,â he said. âSatyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it covers all the elements of the society and makes itself irresistible,â he said. âSatyagraha does not depend on the outside for help, it derives all its strength from withinâ he said. Perhaps the Congress and its Dynasty can start by searching for that strength from within.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->