THE MOVIE CAME and sent into rapid circulation the coinage that was on everyone’s lips — Gandhigiri. Many of us got inspired, even though briefly. All of us had a good laugh. The children got to learn a bit more about the Mahatma and the TV channels had a feel-good story to give amid its daily bleak chronicle of sad events. There were quiz shows and for sometime every politician paid lip-service to Mahatma Gandhi with renewed vigour.

 

That was then. Fast-forward a few months ahead. This year, 2006, is coming to an end and we are ending it on a note of economic exuberance, but moral low. Let me run by you a brief list of what has been happening since Lage Raho Munnabhai’s release. A Dalit family has been brutally murdered in Khairalnji in Maharashtra. A cover-up of sorts also had been achieved but active protests by Dalits have now ended in a CBI inquiry being ordered. The Dalits, too, had to burn a few trains, tear down some infrastructure, get one of them killed in the protests and resort to umpteen other acts of violence before the government in the land of non-violence took note.

 

A girl in Sasaram, Bihar, got married to a boy of her choice and with her parent’s consent. But this upset the locality hoodlums tied down the girl’s parents, poured petrol on them and the house and set it on fire, leaving five young children orphans in the process.

 

A swami ran an ashram for abandoned children, mainly girls, in Ghaziabad and was found to be indulging in physical and sexual violence against these girls. Many of the young girls, all under 15, gave accounts to police and welfare organizations of the things done to them by the swami ji.

 

Mayawati, that self-anointed champion of Dalits, was implicated in the Taj corridor case and the courts refused to dismiss the case as asked for by the CBI. Lo, magically, overnight a statue of Dr Ambedkar is desecrated and a youth forced to give a confession, which he later retracted. Guess what happens next! Rioting in Kanpur erupts, but is really only half-hearted. The real target, of course, is that sensitive area in Maharashtra, where all the train and bus burnings took place. The violence leads to one death and damage to public property worth crores of rupees. Later, the administration is able to bring things under control but not before Mayawati’s fan following has doubled as she voices concern in Parliament and Assembly about the atrocities against the Dalits. Everyone forgets to talk to her about the Taj corridor case. Violence has served one more purpose.

 

Lets not forget Mamta Banerjee and her championing of the farmer’s cause in Bengal. The farmer’s fertile land had been acquired for setting up Tata Motors new plant. The farmers seemed happy with the compensation, but Mamta was not. Her followers storm and damage the Assembly and there is violence everywhere. Then Mamta decides to go on a hunger strike, and before starting her noble mission, she pays respect at the Mahatma’s statue. As she bows to the worldwide symbol of non-violence, her followers storm a Tata show room and cause damage. Violence again.

 

I could go on and on with the list, but I need not. You readers, I am sure, have your own list of the mayhem that unfolds in our nation every day. The question is, what has gone wrong? When I lived overseas, I was pleasantly surprised when my daughter’s schoolteacher told her that Mahatma Gandhi was her favorite inspirational leader. It was so heartening to know that our Bapu had inspired and continues to inspire people worldwide. But back home, things seem different. Led from the forefront by our politicians, our society seems to be spiraling down the vortex of violence at every level — domestic, political and social. Why is it that a politician’s son has to murder a young man simply because the young man was in a relationship with his sister? Do we know of no other method to air our grievances? Why are girls to be killed for dowry, for marrying outside their castes and communities? Why must ordinary people have to burn down half a town before their valid grievances are heard? Why do politician’s resort to instigating their followers to violence to attain national attention and a mass following?

I don’t have any answers but I do feel that Gandhigiri is proving to be a fad. It seems its message has been forgotten already. The title of the movie is turning out to be more apt than even its maker would have thought. Lage Raho Munnabhai …it seems like a very long haul before the Mahatma’s message really sinks into his own countrymen.

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