On the eve of our 70th Independence Day we are being told by Sanghi intelligentsia (yes, I know it’s an oxymoron) that Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Lokmanya Tilak, Jawaharlal Nehru and countless other leaders and freedom fighters were at best buffaloes and had no role in getting our freedom.
This charge is made by one of the most vociferous votaries of Sanghi propaganda, General Bakshi, who has distinguished himself lately in shouting matches on Timesnow. He says and I quote (video below);
“Mujhe bataiye Mahatma Gandhi aur Congress ka kya yogdaan tha hamari swatantra mein.. yeh jo saari non-violence struggle, Ahimsa, Parmodharam, vaghera, vaghera.. Bole sahib humne to laathi khai, arre laathi to meri bhens ne bhi khayi. Humne laathi khayi he to Savarkar jaise veeron ka kya hoga!”
The moot predilection of the Sangh is that they have no history of any contribution to India. Founded in 1925, they opposed the freedom struggle, their members assassinated the Mahatma, they refused to accept our National Flag for over 50 years, they are only known for promoting divisiveness and communal strife.
However, now these upstarts want legitimacy, so their strategy is to insult, mud-sling and pull everyone down to their level.
In a country, where the Defense Minister can organise a coordinated attack on a celebrity for expressing his opinion, where a man can be publicly lynched on a beef rumour, criticizing these Sanghi intellectuals is the biggest blasphemy.
This is McCarthy’s India that’s been ushered in by the RSS under Narendra Modi’s leadership. Here you can proclaim any falsehoods to promote Sanghi propaganda and Defence Minister Manohar Parriker’s admitted army of organised troublemakers will drown all facts that counter it.
In a country where media always toes the line of those in power, the Sangh has found ready support from media persons who pay obeisance to the powers that be.
What this noteworthy mediaperson wants to tell us is that General Bakshi had an eminent service record so it is okay for him to commit any crime – he can call our National heroes buffaloes, who are only fit to be beaten with sticks.
He can lie that there was no freedom struggle at all. It’s like how General V K Singh can call Dalit children dogs, Emperor Akbar a mass murderer; like how ex Mumbai Police Commissioner and now BJP MP Satyapal Singh can have a sex racket running in his property; they all get a double “get out of jail free” card as they served and are now loyal to the Sangh.
How can a mere citizen have temerity to criticize these worthies?
I would like to gently remind this gentlemen and his ilk, a lot of Nazis distinguished themselves in service, and yet they were eventually tried and hung for unspeakable crimes. So while media honchos can see shining service records of Sangh luminaries, they seem to have become blind to the service records of Mahatma Gandhi or Sardar Patel.
Coming back to Independence Day, the Sangh will now have us believe that there was no freedom struggle, there were no freedom fighters save one – Savarkar. Sir Richard Attenborough and the world should correct their solecism soon.
Vinayak Savarkar, besides being notorious for constantly pledging loyalty to the British Empire in order to obtain his freedom from jail, was also named in the conspiracy to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had written to Jawaharlal Nehru on February 27, 1948: “I have kept myself almost in daily touch with the progress of the investigation regarding Bapu’s assassination case.”
His conclusion was: “It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that [hatched] the conspiracy and saw it through.”
My infantile curiosity makes me wonder, if the Mahatma was not the Mahatma, and if he did not deserve credit for the freedom from the British and the subsequent partition, why did the Sangh-related outfits assassinate him?
Having assassinated the man, they failed to kill the idea that was the Mahatma. So the Sangh turned to politics, and after many failed attempts, now under Narendra Modi’s leadership they have got a carte blanche to attack the idea that is Gandhi.
Today in India if one supports Mahatma Gandhi or promotes peace, tolerance, equality or liberty, then all the creatures from the Sanghi kennel are pressed into service to nip your ankles till you run.
Some of us don’t run, it’s the same some of us who didn’t run under the British laathis. In a world where having ideals is so yesterday, where selling your soul for petty favours is such a norm, there are still far more people who keep the Mahatma alive than the Sanghi vote-bank.
So while Sangh acolytes may bask in the glow of the paid, Sanghi, troll army behind them, real India is walking around with a small paper flag pinned to its humble chest and celebrating Independence Day.
Preeti Sharma Menon is a senior AAP spokesperson. Views expressed here are her personal and www.jantakareporter.com doesn’t subscribe to them