Modi's Mahatma !
“Modi’s Mahatma calls for, exclusive Hinduism, rising consumerism and designer wear clothing.”
Its surprising how times change. The very fascist Hindutva brigade that was once responsible for the assassination of the Father of the Nation, today uses Gandhi to build their brand and camouflage the undercurrents of the Hindutva forces coming to power. This comes across as an attempt to sell the old Hindutva product in a new package only this time with a Gandhian label. For someone who is known for his excellent PR which helped him win the elections of 2014, Narendra Modi has used Mahatma Gandhi’s name far too many times to articulate the India of his aspirations. So much so that we are quite sure that it must be making the RSS more than uncomfortable.
If this was truly and honestly about upholding Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals and respecting his dream of a clean India it should have started with condemning the provocative speeches by BJP leaders during and after the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. Aren’t communal harmony, tolerance and spiritual elevation the main elements of Gandian philosophy?
For all those years when the RSS despised Gandhi and his ideals, today, their own leader cannot go forward without making a mention of Gandhi in almost all of his gestures. Is this poetic justice or shrewd politics? Unlike the Mahatma he doesn’t believe in a simple, understated & content lifestyle. The ‘extravaganza’ is his mantra, and he probably owes that to the Gujrati in him. May be that’s the reason now we have a PM who rebrands and re-visits the Gandhian ideas with a new vigor of Gujrati asmita and 21st century consumerism. A neo-rich consumerist approach not just to material needs but to Gandhi himself.
However pleasing his speeches may be for all us Indians we are forgetting that our current Prime Minister who has come to power with an outstanding social media and PR campaign, promising a richer and wealthier India has been reaching out to every voter as a consumer of his politics. As his politics is getting more and more businesslike, The Pradhan Sevak is obsessed with over-the-top marketing strategies which indulge the people of India into the elusive ‘idea’ of Modi’s Bharat.
So what does Modi’s Gandhi consist of? I think all of us can agree with the fact that Gandhian ideology is the most difficult if put to practice. So let’snot blame Mr. PM for wearing designer clothes while he speaks of the Gandhian ideals. After all, a little style didn’t hurt anyone. Neither can we blame the BJP and RSS for their convenient detachment from communal harmony, while chanting Gandhian ideals .So much for – “Be the change you want to see”.
Moreover, the use of the name Gandhi is just what any good salesman would do, a selling strategy for brand Modi. Even if, the only place where we seems to be actually practicing the ideals of nonviolence and tolerance are when China intrudes into our territory. After all we have to live up to the Gandhian principles ‘somewhere’ if not in domestic politics.
Moving on, as we are a country of Unity in diversity, and I am pretty sure that’s how the Mahatma would have liked to keep it too, Modi has some new plans, his Hinduism is exclusive to an extent that only Hindus are allowed at garba events. This being just a tiny example of the exclusivity. Sending some of the minority population to Pakistan is another option suggested by the leaders in an attempt at their provocative vote bank politics. Although, we believe in overlooking this one, as at that point of time they had conveniently suspended their allegiance to the Mahatma. After all Gandhian ideology is not just difficult to follow but its impossible to be put to practice.
The way we have learnt to make selective choices of Gandhian principles and practices in the same way our leaders chose to selectively use him in their rather ironical politics.
We cannot blame our leaders for what they do as they are just a reflection of the society we live in.