This week was spent glued to news channels featuring stories of those affected by the terror attack in Mumbai on 26/11.
Barkha Dutt interviewed Home Minister Chidambaram who emphasised that violence of any form must not be tolerated. But when someone asked him why he was not taking action against the Naxals who had attacked policemen, he calmly explained that they were Indians too, and India being the land of Mahatma Gandhi, it was not right to attack Naxals. Barkha quickly pointed out that Gandhiji would have been at the spot speaking to both factions and demanding peace! Chidambaram, of course, did not offer his other cheek; he simply said: "I am not Mahatma Gandhi".
It is at such moments we realise how much we miss a Gandhi who can get warring factions to talk and avoid meaningless violence.
Crossing the desert
2 weeks ago
4 comments:
Yes Gopi, Gandhiji is being missed indeed. His ideas may seem impractical today, and is some area they might be, but let us also not forget that had there been absence of violence in hearts of those who run this nation, the Naxal problem would not have risen in the first place.
Gandhi was barely tolerated even by the political dispensation in the last one year of his life or so.
Probably, a Gandhi like figure would have helped prevent many of the injustices that in the first place created these Naxals.
I wonder who is going to see that aggrieved sections of society prefer to talk rather than pick up guns?
Gandhi is name and a brand used my most of the ruling elite foe their benefit.
Had Gandhi been alive,the situation in the country would have been totally different and better.
And in any case,no one from the congress can be a shade equal to Gandhi.
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