If Mahatma Gandhi was alive and was an Indian Politician

[P. Uday Shankar]

I was always of the strong view that Indian politics would never have been in this state of affairs if Mahatma Gandhi would have been alive today. We would have been the real example of democracy for new nations getting into democracy. For some time after we won independence, say for about two decades, we did have politicians of pristine qualities like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Kamaraj, C. Subramaniam, who had followed Gandhian principles in politics. Today there is so much of money in politics that it has become a lucrative career. Lal Bahadur, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Kamaraj were in politics to serve the people and not to make money.

 

Thanks to Anna Hazare we have today an awakening in India on corruption. It is however unfortunate that when the heat on anti-corruption is just picking up we have this nasty comment from Kumaraswamy a politician from Karnataka. I heard it first on TV and then went to CNN-IBN's website to get this information:

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'Corruption would have tainted Mahatma Gandhi'

CNN-IBN
Updated Apr 11, 2011 at 03:09pm IST

New Delhi: Janata Dal (Secular) Karnataka unit President and former state chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has kicked up a row by saying that the corruption rot runs so deep in India that even Mahatma Gandhi would have been corrupt if he had practiced politics in today's times.

"Today, politics and corruption are synonymous. If someone in politics says he is not corrupt, he must be lying. If Mahatma Gandhi was alive today, he would have had only two options: either stay in politics by becoming corrupt or to get out of politics and remain clean. It would take a greater movement than the country's Independence movement to stamp out corruption," Kumaraswamy told 'Bangalore Mirror'.

But Kumaraswamy's comments have not gone down well with Anna Hazare and his political opponents. 

"If the leaders of our country are talking like this, then corruption can never be wiped out of the country," said Hazare, whose four-day long hunger strike in New Delhi for a stronger anti-corruption law forced the Government to form a commitee to re-draft the Lokpal Bill. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, slammed Kumaraswamy for his statement on Gandhiji. 

"What better can you expect from Mr Kumaraswamy? What is more important is that when we do politics for the country we need corrective measures. The entire country is suffering because of corruption and scams," said BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad. 

The Congress declined to comment on the issue saying that Gandhiji was too big an institution. 

"We will not comment on one-liners passed in public life. Gandhiji is too big an institution. He has given us the way to good life and I hope all of us could walk in that direction," said Congress MP and Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid."

It is sad to hear such statements. This only shows how dirty the situation is in Indian politics. My message to such the tainted politicians and corrupt bureaucrats is that the game is over. Indians have woken up. We need to cleanse the system immediately. The rot has set in deep but we cannot wait any longer. My children and your children are frustrated too. Their future has to be good and we are the ones who should show the way. Let this fight against corruption create another history for a successful Gandhian Movement.

 

P.Uday Shankar