Aditya Sinha: It's not anti-national to insult Bapu?

BJP chief Amit Shah showers flowers on freedom fighter Veer Narayan Singhrsquos memorial in Sonakhan Chhattisgarh on Saturday a day after he called Mahatma Gandhi a chatur baniya PicPTINot long after Prime Minister Narendra Modis governments threeyear mark his party chief Amit Shah called the nations only opposition party the Indian National Congress a Special Purpose Vehicle To support his own argument he claimed that even Gandhiji recognised this in the Congress party because Gandhiji was a chatur baniya Calling the Congress an SPV is likening the 132yearold party to a limited company created to fulfil specific or temporary objectives Amit Shah is implying that the Congress partys specific objective was to secure independence for India and with the objective long fulfilled this limited company is no longer neededAmit Shahs argument is characteristically flimsy The Congress party has evolved over the decades its latest incarnation being the party of economic liberalisation an idea to which Modi and Shah have not been able to make a single new contribution it is not some shell company or financial instrument but a living organic beingIt might be better argued that the BJP is actually the rigid limited SPV The BJP and its Sangh parivar have not budged from the irredentist idea of Akhand Bharat and from asserting the Hindi Hindu Hindustan ideology that Savarkar put forth nearly 100 years ago The Congress party for all its flaws and faults and its reliance on a single family to steer it ahead has moved with the times When we lost the 1962 war to China subsequent Congress governments focused on national security and a stronger integration of states when voters rejected the Emergency subsequent Congress governments began opening up the economy which culminated in Prime Minister PV Narasimha Raos landmark liberalisation and when communism fell Congress governments began warming to America a friendship cemented by Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs nuclear deal with the USBesides his mischaracterisation of the Congress as an SPV Amit Shah was no doubt also trying to absolve his ideological legacy from the sin committed when the Hindu Mahasabha or the RSS abstained from participation in Indias independence movement Some of these organisations who nowadays propound a muscular modern nationalism ordered their cadre to steer clear of the 1942 Quit India movement This was an emotional moment in our nations life My mothers late chacha ran away from home in Muzaffarpur Bihar to Patna and then to Lahore because his dad wouldnt let him get involved arrested and imprisoned he became a journalist in Lahore and returned to India just before Partition The Quit India movement caught the nations imagination and I have no hesitation in saying that those who didnt participate lacked imagination Calling the Congress an SPV for independence is a justification for that historical cowardiceMore shocking was the chatur baniya swipe at Gandhiji Gopal Krishna Gandhi has described it as mischief BJP apologists shrug and say the man was cunning and the man was a baniya notice they cant get themselves to utter Gandhiji That is disingenuous First on an emotional level I would never dare to describe my aforementioned granduncle as a chatur kayastha even if he had become Indias most successful politician It is disrespectful and sounds vulgar On another level this namecalling is a longstanding rightwing project to cut Gandhiji down to sizeTrue Gandhiji was never part of the Congress hierarchy because he felt he was more effective guiding it from outside Also true Gandhiji deliberately sought an ascetic image ready to renounce the world as is clear from his autobiography My Experiments With Truth structured to show him already having passed through lifes four stages so that he could use cultural symbols to mobilise the masses across the length and breadth of India This is a feat no one else has since repeated The intellectual triad of Hedgewar Golwalkar and Savarkar are intellectual and political pygmies they are more like Gandhiji ke teen bandar True Gandhiji was flawed he failed to stitch up HinduMuslim unity and he failed to include Dalits in power sharing But I suppose that made him only more humanYet so long as Gandhiji remains unchallenged and the BJP still hasnt the intellectual apparatus to challenge him just a bunch of noisy leaders and abusive followers the Akhand Bharat or the Hindi Hindu Hindustan project remains without the endorsement of Indian legitimacy So long as Gandhiji remains the Father of the Nation the Congress despite all its organisational woes and its still confused agenda remains an immovable obstacle to the BJP fantasy of totally dominating IndiaPresumably the chatur baniya remark is part of a death by a thousand cuts against Gandhiji Ironically you know who adopted a death by a thousand cuts approach against India Thats right Pakistans ISI Not surprising that the rightwings methods are indistinguishable from those externally fighting against the very idea of IndiaAditya Sinhas crime novel The CEO Who Lost His Head is available now He tweets autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom