Now even the Supreme Court (SC) has stated that, "if the three acts (Farm Laws) have been stayed, then why are the farmers protesting?". The two judges of SC hearing the case filed by the farmers association related to the validity of farm laws noted, “There is nothing to be implemented now. What are the farmers' protesting about? No one other than the court can decide the validity of the farm laws."
Further, the Judges while hearing their plea to allow holding Satyagrah at Jantar Mantar further stated, "When farmers are in court challenging the laws, why protest?" Thereafter, they stated, what a law abiding citizen of this country wanted to hear, they said, “The court will also examine whether the right to protest is an absolute right.”
As a common man it leaves us wondering ; Where are we as a society heading to? Where all this is leading us to?
The farmers unashamedly resorted to Hooliganism blocking roads and causing discomfort to people using roads , drove tractors rashly through the roads in Delhi, vandalized Red fort, resorted to stone pelting and are now talking about Satyagrah at Jantar mantar?
Do they even understand, what Satyagrah means, particularly, when some farmers at Lakhimpur were seen beating the driver of the Car mercilessly.
Why do the farmers have no faith on Judiciary?
Gandhiji, once remarked ; In a civilized society the disputes can only be resolved by Non Violent means and through Courts.
Sadly, over a period of 70 years each one of us including the Political party in power and its mother organisation, the parties who portrayed Gandhiji as their own, the so called Gandhians, the school teachers and our elders have systematically destroyed Gandhiji.
Some mocked his methods in order to make their own leaders look great. They deliberately eulogized Violence and communalism in the society and ridiculed Bapu and vilified his character for their own electoral prospects.
The Indian media advertently or inadvertently missed a point as to why the erstwhile US President Barack Obama took Mr Modi to Martin Luther King Memorial when Mr Modi visited US. Subsequently, Mr Obama wrote in TIME: “Narendra and I visited the memorial of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We reflected on the teachings of King and Gandhi and how the diversity of backgrounds and faiths in our countries is a strength we have to protect.”
The undertone was hard to miss but the sycophant Indian media, surprisingly overlooked it.
And on the other hand, some ossified (Froze) Gandhiji to his times. They wear Khadi to hide their richness and the teachers lecture about Bapu’s ideas without conveying to the students as to under what socio-economic and political conditions those ideas and thoughts were conceptualized and executed. Its like talking about emergence of Mr Modi without discussing the socio-politico-economic and security situation that existed in 2008-14 that brought Mr Modi to the fore.
The so called Gandhians are still insisting their followers to wear only Khadi(when the Nation is now self reliant in terms of clothing) without grasping the essence of it ; as to why Bapu chose to wear Khadi?
Similarly, there are millions of idiots today who ridicule Charkha, questioning its efficacy as to how this Charkha got them freedom, as if the pocket size Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless semi-auto. 32 bore pistol of Chandra Shekhar Azad displayed in Allahabad museum could have got them freedom from British who had millions of machine guns at their disposal.
If Pistol signified the diehard spirit of an Indian so was Charkha ; It represented Swadeshi, self-sufficiency and also enabled millions of common men to feel being part of the Mass Movement for Freedom.
Gandhiji, was an institution by himself, but by vilifying him, the society is now bereft of any role model who can hold us all together and keep us on the right path.
Therefore, it is not surprising to see all the recent agitations turning out to be unruly and violent. India is now increasingly becoming a Mobo-cracy instead of a matured Democracy.
The Anti CAA Protests of 2020, the Jat agitation, the Gurjjar agitation, the protests in Koregaon(Pune), the farmers protests in MP of 2017 which brought Congress to power in MP for a short while, the agitation of sugarcane farmers in Maharashtra in 2012, the cow vigilante groups and now the ongoing farmers agitation have one thing in Common ; they all finally led to violence and destruction of property and loss of innocent lives.
If learned people and Gandhiji’s contemporaries like Rabindranath Tagore called Gandhiji as Mahatama, Subash Chandra Bose called him as Father of the Nation and the Noble soul of India, why are we then who have little understanding of the SOCIO-POLITICO AND ECONOMIC Situation that existed then, destroying Gandhiji as an Institution.
Even Albert Eisnstein one of the greatest scientists and thinker that mankind ever produced , while praising Gandhiji had said ; "Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.”
If we, as a society, do not mend our ways…we shall surely, albeit slowly, move towards self destruction. There have been many many great civilizations that existed on this Earth and most of them started perishing and finally became extinct because they disregarded their Learned men and Nobel souls and stopped hearing to their words of wisdom.
Few Glimpses of what that Great Institution had articulated;
“When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Where there is love there is life.”
“A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.”
“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.’
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.”
“An ounce of practice is worth a thousand words.”
“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love, it is the prerogative of the brave.”
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do.”
“Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.”
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
“Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.”
“Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.”
“The future depends on what you do today.”
“To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.’
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”
“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
“The lawlessness of Communalism is a monster with many faces. It hurts all in the end, including those who are primarily responsible for it.”
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
"All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender, for it is all give and no take."
“Islam means peace, the peace can not be confined to the muslims, it must mean peace for the whole world.”
"My non-violence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice,"
The above are just a few examples of the words of wisdom that this grand old man spoke.
Think hard, pick up any Book and you would barely find a few men in the entire history of mankind who have spoken on variety of topics. This could not have come without deep thinking.
He gave us solutions to the challenges that Indians were facing in 1900s , he thought out of the box when by 1920s Indians had realized that freedom is neither possible by fighting British Constitutionally nor by force.
If we can not adhere to and live by the Values he suggested and walked, that does not mean he was at fault, rather it’s the vice versa.
Lets bring back Gandhiji to our lives and Think Out of the Box to get our Nation and our Society out of this vicious circle of violence, anarchy and communal discord.