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Journalism of Courage
The poignant photograph of two young women on the front page of this newspaper today, is a painful reminder of how this nation has betrayed its father. Sajida, 18, and Azra, 25 are the daughter and daughter-in-law of Mohammed Akhlaq who was reportedly killed by a mob of nearly a hundred men in Bisara, a village in the neighbourhood of Delhi, on Monday. The mob lynched Akhlaq and his son Danish after someone orchestrated a rumour that they had beef in their home. Police, news reports indicate, is investigating if the meat found at their home was indeed beef. Does it matter? Sajida’s pointed question: “Will they return my father if it is not beef?” should haunt us all for a long, long time.
In November 1946, Gandhi embarked on his pilgrimage to Noakhali (in what is now Bangladesh), after he learnt of the massacres in the previous month. Hundreds had been butchered in an organised manner in Naokhali in what was meant to be revenge for murders elsewhere. Noakhali was Gandhi’s last glorious battle to heal the hearts and minds. Bengal and Bihar needed his healing touch and he offered his Truth to end the spiral of violence.
Months later, India was partitioned. Gandhi mourned the dead in Kolkata as the new rulers of the country assumed power in New Delhi. Five months after independence, Nathuram Godse, who had been a member of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, shot him. Gandhi, a sanatana Hindu, was too much accomodating of Muslims, Godse felt.
The ghost of Godse was never really or fully exorcised. It continues to lurk amidst us, making many of us suspicious of our neighbour’s faith, his food habits, dress, beliefs, etc. Until recently, Godse’s men lived on the margins. Today, they seek to sanctify him in public. Bisara is a reminder of Godse and yet another murder of Gandhi’s idea of India.
In one of the numerous Gandhi Jayanti advertisements today — the one in which the Government of India seeks endorsement for its Swachh Bharat mission with Prime Minister Narendra Modi standing with a broom — reminds us that “cleanliness was very close to Mahatma Gandhi’s heart”. Modi wants us to fulfill Bapu’s dream. What is the dirt that Gandhi wanted the nation’s soul to be cleansed of? Bapu described Katherine Mayo’s Mother India as `the report of a drain inspector’ since she could only see filth the filth in this country. Clean drains, of course, are important, Gandhi knew but a nation was much more than its drains.
Bapu’s last struggle was to cleanse his country’s soul of the filth of fear and hate. Hindu-Muslim unity was crucial to his idea of Swaraj. His martyrdom was caused by his pursuit of communal harmony. Our leaders, busy with photo-ops, tend to miss this elementary lesson of Gandhi’s life and death.
Ever since coming to office, Modi has consistently invoked Gandhi in his governance programmes. Gandhi, however, is not merely the form of his activism, it is the sanctity he ascribed to human life that lends life to the body of Gandhism. A prime minister, who understands Gandhi would have trekked to Bisari this October 2.
Modi, however, chose to chase power in Bihar.
