Every Gandhi Jayanthi, I find myself wondering if I should add my two bits to the reams of commemorative comment that Gandhiji’s birthday inspires. Usually I resist the temptation. The tone of this column is irreverent and since I get into trouble every time I mock lesser politicians with the name Gandhi, I tremble at the thought of writing one word about our only political Mahatma. This time, though, when I saw Rahul Gandhi ordering his troop of neo-Gandhians to spend the night of Gandhi Jayanthi in Dalit homes in the filthy, fly-blown villages of Uttar Pradesh, I found myself unable to keep from saying something. At the very least it needs to be pointed out that the Mahatma would have been mortified by this political field trip disguised as Gandhian virtue.

Since most of our younger politicians are the sons and daughters of rich and powerful older politicians, it is a good idea for them to find out how the average Dalit family lives. The only time they venture into the mofussil is during election campaigns. And, then they come in convoys of air-conditioned SUVs equipped with bottled water and packaged food and have no need of local refreshment or accommodation. So if Rahul Gandhi’s intention is for these spoilt princes and princesses to get a taste of how the poorest Indians live, then it is a good one.

Let them sleep on some cow dung-plastered floor in a windowless hovel with mosquitoes filling the air and people covering the floor. Let them wake at dawn and find some secluded spot to perform their morning ablutions and let them drink the poisonous water that the average Indian villager drinks. But, let them remember that had the Mahatma been on this field trip he would have exchanged his fancy bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi permanently for the village hut. He would have done this in the hope of learning how to better the lot of those who have nothing. At the end of the Gandhi Jayanthi excursion, if every politician on the trip is asked to make a commitment to improve the village he spent the night in, it would be something. Otherwise it would be an exercise in hypocrisy, like almost everything else that is done in the Mahatma’s name.

... contd.