Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a perfect example of an officer and gentleman is the UPA candidate for the post of Vice-President. Gandhi who was the Governor of Bengal in between 2004 and 2009 is still a popular face in Bengal and his name was floated for the post by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Gandhi was an IAS officer of 1968 batch who also served as secretary to the President. He was also the ambassador of India to Norway and Iceland and high commissioner to Sri Lanka and South Africa. On the other side, NDA’s Vice-President Candidate is M Venkaiah Naidu who is seasoned politician. Gandhi is an erudite scholar and a sensitive social scientist. But in a clear indication, Naidu is ahead of Gandhi as BJP has an overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi made it very clear that he is not a candidate for opposing BJP, but he is against certain ideologies, as the country is passing through a hate phase and ill-feeling among communities is increasing.
Gopalkrishna Devdas Gandhi is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. His paternal grandfather was Mahatma Gandhi and maternal grandfather was C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). He is the son of Devadas Gandhi and Lakshmi Gandhi. Gopalkrishna Gandhi is the younger brother of Rajmohan Gandhi, and the late Ramchandra Gandhi, and Smt. Tara Bhattacharjee (Gandhi), all of whom are distinguished in their own right. Devdas Mohandas Gandhi was the fourth and youngest son of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in South Africa and returned to India with his parents as a young man. He became active in his father’s movement, spending many terms in jail. He also became a prominent journalist and served as editor of Hindustan Times.
Devdas fell in love with Lakshmi, the daughter of C. Rajagopalachari, Devdas’s father’s associate in the Indian independence struggle. Due to Lakshmi’s age at that time – she was only fifteen, whereas Devdas was twenty eight years – both Devdas’s father and Rajaji asked the couple to wait for five years without seeing each other. After five years had passed, they were married with their fathers’ permission in 1933. Devdas and Lakshmi had four children, Rajmohan Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Ramchandra Gandhi and Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee .
Gopalkrishna Gandhi is most suitable candidature for Vice president Post but looking at present politics, one can see how NDA is all set to erase and tarnish the names of Gandhi and Nehru and their family members. BJP is trying to deconstruct their image, ideology and thinking. The party always boasted about Ram Rajya but could not make an attempt to actually bring harmony towards the same, for them Lord Ram became political tool. But Mahatma Gandhi used the term; little did he know that one day his idea of a perfect nation will be appropriated without the principles and politics. It was in post-colonial India, when Mahatma Gandhi first projected Ram Rajya, as the ideal state. By Ram Rajya, he meant a divine kingdom where values of justice and equality prevail, where every citizen is treated respectably, irrespective of caste, colour and creed, and even the weakest citizen of the country gets justice, because that was how Lord Ram’s rajya actually was.
Mahatma Gandhi, dreamt of a rajya similar to the one that Lord Ram had created—founded on virtue and truthfulness. As a matter of fact, being the ardent Hindu that Mahatma Gandhi was always inspired by Lord Ram’s teachings and included many of them in his daily life. Be it clean Indian, the Non-Cooperation Movement, the Quit India Movement, or the Dandi March—all these movements led by Gandhi ji had a common ground—they were all padyatras. He was a soul inspired by Lord Ram’s life so much that he incorporated his teachings even when the nation failed to do so. When Lord Ram and Lord Lakshman accompanied Vishwamitra during their exile in the forest, they left their chariots behind and walked throughout the exile. The very fact that Lord Ram wanted to understand the anguishes of common people and connect with them in a manner that doesn’t distinguish between a prince and a pauper is what Gandhiji embraced in his life too.
The padyatras or the walks that Mahatma Gandhi undertook and the will that he had to connect with the common man, to know his plights, and to help in putting an end to his sufferings—all expressed his faith in Lord Ram and his teachings. But in the recent past keeping all these good sides aside he is been brutally attacked by right wingers, they tried their level best by assassinating the character of Gandhi and also Nehru. It is a dreadful shame that such a man who had always believed in Lord Ram and his principles, have been tagged an “anti-Hindu” and “Hindu chauvinist” by the religious fanatics of today. To top it all, the ruling political party, BJP has even resorted to playing politics on Lord Ram’s name, claiming its legacy on Lord Ram who is every Indian’s god, and not just of the right-wing radicals.
In 1989, when late Rajiv Gandhi inaugurated Congress party’s election campaign, he made a promise to usher in Ram Rajya, a promise that has been long-forgotten by the Congress party today. For some reason, the Congress party has always held back from talking about Lord Ram and Ram Rajya, giving an opportunity to the BJP to capture the term. And, that’s something that the BJP actually did, and, played with it soullessly, even as it totally disregarded Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of Ram Rajya.
There is, of course, a political agenda – because it is the BJP’s mission to make India Congress-mukt and ensure that there is no other national political party on the scene. But the Sangh’s exertions in that direction seem overwrought, considering that the Congress itself is doing a fine job of making itself politically irrelevant. No, the BJP doesn’t want to just fight the Congress at the hustings; it wants to obliterate the Nehru-Gandhi family’s place not just in contemporary India but also in history. With such adversities and propaganda tactics, Gopal Krishna Gandhi would be abused, humiliated and attacked in coming times. There is no surprise if he is not elected to Vice-president’s Post. Still, let’s keep faith in democracy and politics of this country.
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