[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]here is something grotesquely surreal about India’s political landscape. And the grotesqueness is increasing by the day. Nothing else explains the fact that the avowed enemies of freedom, Leftists and jihadists, have become its champions. The reason is not difficult to find: the wannabe Godses are hell-bent on bestowing the semblance of heroism on the orphaned progeny of Karl Marx and Osama bin Laden.
While Gandhi’s ideas and influence have proved baneful for the country, nobody can deny the nobility of his character.
Comparing Sangh Parivar hotheads with Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, may be an exaggeration, for the killing of Gandhi was indeed a vilest crime; it was much greater than indulging in violence at a seminar. While the gravity is not comparable, the impulse that stimulated Gandhi’s murder was little different from the one that tries to stop opponents expressing their views.
Many people, including me, have been extremely critical of Gandhi. A few months ago, I wrote an article with the self-explanatory title How Gandhi ruined India. Gandhi’s ideas were stupid and quixotic; his anti-intellect and anti-Western attitude has proved to be deleterious for the country. His politics might have hurt the Hindu cause, as Godse believed it did, but this did not give Godse the right to snuff life out of him.
While Gandhi’s ideas and influence have proved baneful for the country, nobody can deny the nobility of his character. He was the undisputed leader of his time; had he wanted, he could have grabbed power for himself, as the leaders of liberation movements all over the world do, but he did not aspire to hold any office. He is among a very few persons in the history of mankind who could have assumed power but did not do that.
Further, he never hurt anybody, didn’t desire to hurt anybody, not even those who physically hit and insulted him. Murdering such a man was the apogee of cruelty and despicability.
Had Godse been a decent human being, he would have opposed Gandhi’s ideas and ideals in a civilized manner; he would have fought Gandhi in the intellectual arena; he instead took a pistol and shot down the frail, old, unarmed, peace-loving man. Rarely was a murder fouler.
What is disheartening is that the contemporary Hindu nationalists, like Godse, condone the silencing of the views of others. Thankfully, their actions have not degenerated into what liberals call Hindu terror, but their proclivity to use violence grows by the day.
One reason that they, and others, are keen to take recourse to violence is that it brings instant publicity—well, opprobrium too but what the heck. They anyway don’t give two hoots to what decent people think. They want their 15 minutes of fame, and they get it. The media, especially the electronic one, loves action, and they too get it. Many top Hindutva leaders love the kind of attention the boys of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attract by their vandalism and violence. It’s all so easy and quick.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]W[/dropcap]hat the Hindutva bosses and their storm-troopers miss is the fact that quick and ill-gotten fame, like quick and ill-gotten money, has consequences. Isn’t it the shameful failure of vociferous nationalists that their thuggish behavior has made heroes out of petty demagogues like Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid? That the subjects like Afzal’s culpability and integrity of India—on which there was never any debate, which were generally accepted as axiomatic truths—are now openly debated in the mainstream media? That the long-forgotten Leftists and abominable jihadists have acquired a verisimilitude of respectability? All because a bunch of ABVP goons thought that they were powerful enough to gag their opponents, that they could get publicity cheaply. The publicity, however, has proved to be costly to the nation, what with anti-India forces getting more prominence in public discourse.
It is time ABVP activists and other Hindutva votaries tried to emulate Swamy—and got the Godse virus out of their system.
ABVP leaders and activists would help the country and themselves by learning a few lessons from one of their own, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy. A firm believer in the rule of law, he didn’t physically assault the perpetrators of the 2G scam, J. Jayalalitha, Sasikala, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi; but he has proved to be their nemesis. It took him almost two decades to get Jayalalitha and Sasikala convicted; the latter is serving her sentence. He had to wait for years to bring 2G scamsters to book. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi too have criminal cases pending against them. Swamy’s success is the result of his assiduity, diligence, courage, patience, and erudition—the virtues very few, if any, saffronites can boast of.
It is time ABVP activists and other Hindutva votaries tried to emulate Swamy—and got the Godse virus out of their system. Otherwise, they would end up stigmatizing their ideology as Godse did by killing Gandhi.
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Agree with you thugs are thugs failure of law and order does not mean taking law into hands by citizens.The mentality is medieval and was the reason for India or Bharat ruled by Moghuls, Afgans, French ,Portuguese,Britishers as they wrew better thugs on the street so if who is mightier and street smart decides the fate of a country then we will go back to India of 1857.
I neither support Godse or Gandhi killing, probably Godse thought that even free India was pushed into a corner the contemporary polity of Gandhi/Nehru duo overwhelming the fledging country, he didn’t have the luxury of time in his hands.
Now Dr Swamy can have ample time to fight long drawn court cases in a free country like the RSS does with shifting goal posts on its ‘param vaibhavshali’ akhand Hindu rashtra almost for a century even without courts’ help.
disagree with the commentary of the author as it lacks proper appreciation of ground facts. Where he errs lets discuss:
“ABVP leaders and activists would help the country and themselves by learning a few lessons from one of their own, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy. A firm believer in the rule of law, he didn’t physically assault the perpetrators of the 2G scam, J. Jayalalitha, Sasikala, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi; but he has proved to be their nemesis.”
you use the same tools used by your opponents to counter them. Say to counter terrorists you need guns and not courts. Mr. Swamy’s petition was based on evidence and before a court of law as that was the appropriate way to counter his opponents. In case of the ruckus on streets, they have to be settled on the streets in the law and order machinery fails to ensure its writ. Not challenging the opponent on his turf amounts to cowardice. No where in history has any one countered his/her opponent by not meeting him face to face in his field/turf of battle. in the case of swamy’s petition, the politicians played with the law and policy violating legal provisions which has rightly been challenged in the court as thats the turf you have to fight in to COUNTER/ELIMINATE the opponent.
“Isn’t it the shameful failure of vociferous nationalists that their thuggish behavior has made heroes out of petty demagogues like Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid? That the subjects like Afzal’s culpability and integrity of India”
If you observe the gurmehar kaur episode, her posts got 4000 shares on facebook whereas counter right wing posts got 25,000+ shares. kindly refer to this http://myvoice.opindia.com/2017/02/do-fb-shares-prove-that-media-propaganda-against-abvp-is-getting-filtered-out/
Hence to believe that similar comrades like Kanhaiya Kumar/Umar Khalid would get better traction is fiction. Shortly results in 5 states would be announced and i would not be surprised to note that right wind outfits will do quite good. So rest assure Kanhaiya or umar khalid are not heros in the larger publics perception.
“While Gandhi’s ideas and influence have proved baneful for the country, nobody can deny the nobility of his character. He was the undisputed leader of his time; had he wanted, he could have grabbed power for himself, as the leaders of liberation movements all over the world do, but he did not aspire to hold any office. He is among a very few persons in the history of mankind who could have assumed power but did not do that.”
The assassination of Gandhi was for certain compelling and logical reasons beautifully explained by Godse in his speech and submission before the special court in Delhi. And to believe that Gandhi was a noble soul beyond reproach would get belied if you venture to go through his speech condoning Muslim violence at the cost of hindus. this cost being the lives of Hindus! So much for the apostle of non violence. hence if he was assassinated, he created those circumstances of his own. even a deer, while being attacked by a tiger, uses its horns to protect itslef. this is a natural and god given instinct. Gandhi wanted just the opposite because he knew no muslim would listen to him, so make hindus the scape goat. My suggestion do some more research.
You are an idiot because your logic defies common sense.ABVP tactics on indulging in violence is the outcome of idiots with no brains.What the left and congress has done to wield power and call the shots is their total dominance of media,education,arts,clever laws like RTE and thro’ this they dominate discourse.They have even placed their stooges in judiciary.Thuggery indulged by ABVP is similar to what shiv sena did in the 70s and these jokers are a repulsive lot who will spoil the real aspirations of hindus.If the idiots who control joker party with a 56″ fake cut out to boot is not to bring in capable people who have domain knowledge and proven ability to head important ministries to bring in lasting changes throwing out the crooked policies of left/congressi crooks.What instead is happening is mindless toeing of same staid path of these crooks fooling the public.If India has to change, rule of law has to become supreme.Police/courts need to function.Corruption has to be taken on head on.No tolerance of mob violence.all issues need to settle thro’ enactment of laws and courts.Only impotent idiots indulge in violence especially mob kind.Joker party is ful of impotent idiots.Luckily they got into power thro’ stellar work of Drswamy.Godse was a mad cap and a tool to a crooked mafia whose deed he did.Foolish fellow.Only an idiot will find favour to another idiot.
Don’t forget that media is on the sickular side. When you slap an anti-national they will amplify it and report it as “an attempt to kill a secular and liberal man” who inevitably is a jihadi or a maoist funded by pakistan or china which want to break india. You can’t change the inferiority complex of secular thinking imposed by nehruvian congress for 70 years and before that macaulaian british for 100 years in 7 months or even 7 years without indulging in violent behavior. You might think this is done for a noble cause but then the general public equates this with what commies in kerala or mamata’s goons in bengal do although for a different reason. It would take a more patient approach of educating large part of society whose brains are saturated with nehruvian nonsense and introducing them to true history of india and how the heroes like shivaji, rana pratap etc defended hinduism by keeping up their struggle against barbarians. Swamy indeed is a great example. He has kept the battle going against corrupt for last 30 years and recently started “viraat hindustan sangham” to educate and create new virat mindset in indians.