The Hindu Business Line : Gopal Gandhi shows the way

For some weeks now, West Bengal has been passing through an acute power crisis. Kolkata, in particular, has been suffering from frequent disruptions in power supply, and that too at the peak of summer which is not only hot but unbearably humid. In true Gandhian spirit, the Governor of West Bengal, Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi, has decided to express his solidarity with the people by subjecting Raj Bhavan to a voluntary power cut between 1.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. in the afternoon, and between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the evening. Be it noted that these are hours when lack of power is apt to cause maximum discomfort.

It is surprising that some leaders of the CPI(M), a party that seeks to identify itself with the sufferings of the deprived and downtrodden, should criticise this decision, instead of lauding it as of a piece with its people-friendly ideology. Not only that, they have tried to link it with the need to do away with the institution of Governors itself — an overkill that has neither justification nor relevance.

It is pointless to ask whether the power saved by the Governor would meet the deficit and bring relief to the people. One might similarly ask whether Mahatma Gandhi’s choosing to be clothed the same way as the poor of India rescued them from their misery. It is a solemn matter of setting an example and convincing the people that those in high positions are not exploiting their power and authority to lead ostentatious and luxurious lives, oblivious to the hardships, exactions and oppression that the aam admi undergoes every day at the hands of the so-called public servants and elected representatives, but are willing to share their sufferings, if they cannot be effective in redressing them.

Revolting excesses

It is in this spirit that the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, must have given his recent call to the corporate tycoons to adopt a modest and moderate lifestyle in deference to the living conditions of the masses of the country.

Sadly, in this land of Mahatma Gandhi, who was the very model of simplicity, austerity, abstemiousness and honesty, the divide between the toiling masses and the tormented poor on the one side and the brazen and blatant exhibitionism of the rich and powerful on the other, is widening. While the poor go hungry, not being sure where their next morsel will come from, and have to drink water from the same puddle in which pigs and buffaloes are wallowing, the rich blow up lakhs of rupees on bashes in five-star hotels. The other day, an industrialist was telling me, whether out of pride or penitence, I cannot tell, that his 16-year old son who had a credit card spent Rs 66,000 at one go in entertaining his friends. Would Gandhiji, who lived in the bhangi colony in Delhi, and made the Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten himself, meet him there, have approved of such revolting excesses?

On the contrary, he would have demanded that the rich and powerful should not have any special privileges and facilities different from what are available to the ordinary people. In the Ram Rajya of Gandhiji’s conception, the rich and the powerful would not have been permitted to (mis)appropriate for themselves comforts and conditions of life different from the rest of the population, so that they are constrained to work for the well-being of the latter.

Of course, this may be an unattainable ideal and a vision in the crass and harsh world we see around us. But that should not stop us from showing ourselves capable of social conscience and social commitment. This is what Mr Gopal Gandhi has done, and he deserves fulsome praise for it.

B. S. RAGHAVAN