Monday 27 August 2012

M.K.Gandhi foisted as "Father of Nation" ?

Has Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi by his fans, been foisted as nation's father without any analysis, discussion, protocol or consensus. It appears so, going by the seemingly innocuous application doing rounds in government offices.
The credit for stirring hornet's nest and asking unsavoury questions goes to a young girl Miss Aishwarya Prashar of Lucknow. She is a student of fifth class and has submitted an application under RTI (Right To Information) act. She has sought following information in her request:
  1. Who gave the title of "Nation's Father" to M.K.Gandhi?
  2. When was this title conferred on him?
  3. What were the grounds for such honour?
The application was directed to PMO (Prime Minister;s Office), but to no avail. Then the application was sent to Home Ministry for answers and sadly, they had none. Now the application has been forwarded to National Archives, but the hope of finding the answers is bleak indeed.
 Now, the citizens are wondering if they have been taught and are being taught baseless and unfounded facts. Some even go to the extent of saying that it was merely a ploy of Congress Party for reaping the electoral harvest.
This reminds me of early nineties, when I was in Kolkata for my marine examinations. I came by the then issue an English magazine named Sunday. It had extensively published excerpts from a book "Myth of the Mahatma"  by Michael Edwards.I still remember a lot of funny, ludicrous and unthinkable incidents related to M.K.Gandhi's life tearing apart his status as Mahatma. The excerpts were indeed controversial. Since then, I have tried to procure a copy of that book on irregular occasions without any success. The possibility of book having been banned cannot be ruled out. But I have hopes. Bans in this age of Internet are meaningless and toothless. If I persist a little, I will be within the book's reach.