Mahatma overshadowed...... Amidst Mr Modi’s Homilies On Cleanliness -Rajindar Sachar

Mahatma overshadowed...... Amidst Mr Modi’s Homilies On Cleanliness

Rajindar Sachar

THE MODI government has, by a not-so-clever sleight of hand, converted the most 

important day in India ~ 2 October, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday ~ into an occasion 

to pledge cleanliness. Of course, this has been buttressed by reiterating Gandhi’s 

exhortation that “cleanliness is next to Godliness”. No one can be against the initiative 

to spread awareness about cleanliness. However, when an attempt is made by the RSS-
dominated BJP Government to sidetrack the real message of the Mahatma, one cannot 

ignore this mischievous move. Days before Modi was scheduled to perform the cleaning 

act at Valmiki quarters in New Delhi, the whole area went through the security scanner. 

What was hypocritical was the fact that the area had been cleaned by the sanitation staff 

regularly. It turned out to be a photo-opportunity for ministers as well. They made the 

conservancy staff throw empty bottles and then started cleaning them merely to get 

My objection is not against observing Cleanliness Day provided it is some other day ~ 

and not 2 October. I do have an issue with converting Gandhi’s birthday as Cleanliness 

Day because this is not the Mahatma’s most important message. Television visuals 

showed the Prime Minister and his cohorts wielding the broom. Totally missing was 

Gandhi’s profound message of communal harmony. His stature of being the “tallest 

Indian” was reduced to a brief mention and overshadowed by Modi holding a broom. If 

the government denies this, will it explain why it never mentioned the real message of 

Gandhi which he consistently emphasised? 

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Let me reproduce the pledge which he wanted Indians to take in 1919 ~ “With God as a 

witness, we Hindus and Mohammedans declare that we shall behave towards one another 

as children of the same parents, that we shall have no differences, that the sorrows of 

each will be the sorrows of the other and that each shall help the other in removing them. 

We shall respect each other’s religion and religious feelings, and shall not stand in the 

way of our respective religious practices. We shall always refrain from violence to each 

other in the name of religion.” The fact that communal harmony was his uppermost 

concern was emphasised again in 1921 and iterated on 24 March 1947 at a prayer 

meeting in Rajghat ~ “I would say that Hindus and Muslims are the two eyes of Mother 

India ~ just as the trouble in one eye affects the other too, similarly the whole of India 

suffers when either Hindu or Muslim suffers.”

Gandhi’s opposition to communalism was again expressed in the letter he wrote in 

Harijan in January 1948 ~ “I think it is proper to address a few words to the people of 

Gujarat”. Modi as a Gujarati ought to have reminded the nation of what the Mahatma had 

written in 1948 ~ “Delhi has always been the Capital. It would be the limit of foolishness 

to regard it as belonging only to the Hindus or the Sikhs. All Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, 

Parsis, Christians and Jews who people this country from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and 

from Karachi to Dibrugarh in Assam and who have lovingly and in a spirit of service 

adopted it as their dear motherland, have an equal right to it. No one can say that it has 

place only for the majority and the minority should be dishonoured.”

The Prime Minister offered his homage at Rajghat on 2 October. Apparently no one 

had told him about Gandhi’s solemn pledge. But then Modi could not have taken this 

pledge with a clear conscience as the BJP has unabashedly patronised its workers 

accused of violent crime against the Muslims in Muzaffarnagar even when they are being 

prosecuted in a court of law. Such expressions of support to the accused is a clear case 

of contempt of court. I am surprised that the UP Government is a silent spectator to this 

gross violation of the rule of law. Has communal virus affected the state government 

which claims to be secular and pretends to provide security to the Muslims.

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How can Modi spread the message of Hindu-Muslim harmony when his mentor, the RSS 

chief, Mohan Bhagwat, was covered by Doordarshan as he sought to spread communal 

hatred against Muslims by bringing up the issue of Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam, 

West Bengal, Bihar. He added that this influx had the potential to endanger Hindu 

society in these states. He ignored the fact that hundreds of Muslims were killed in flare-

Modi’s claim to be secular is unacceptable in the context of his silence over the crude 

thinking of the BJP fanatics. They are planning to celebrate the birthday of Hemu, who 

had served as General in the army of the Afghan ruler, Sher Shah. He had referred to 

himself as King Vikramaditya and had challenged the Mughal emperor, Akbar’s Army, 

The RSS claims this was a major battle of the Hindu king against Akbar, who has 

been praised in the U.N. Human Development Report 2004 for his pronouncements on 

religious tolerance and his famous statement ~ “No one should be interfered with on 

account of religion, and anyone is allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him.” In 

his address over the radio, Modi has rightly referred reverentially to Swami Vivekananda, 

one of the greatest Indians. But will the Prime Minister tell his RSS followers to abide by 

the principles of Vivekananda, who believed in Hindu-Muslim unity? He praised Islam 

profusely and in a letter to his friend, Mohammed Sarfraz Hussain ( 0 June 1898 ), he 

wrote: “Therefore, I am firmly persuaded that without the help of practical Islam, theories 

of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they may be are entirely valueless to the vast 

mass of mankind. For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism 

and Islam ~ Vedanta brain and Islam body ~ is the only hope for a future perfect India.”

There can be no real progress in India unless the paradigm includes minorities, Muslims, 

Christians as equal stakeholders. This is the real message which Narendra Modi should 

have highlighted on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday if he really meant to pay genuine tribute 

The writer is former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court