Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni
In April 2024, I went and casted my vote and was therefore relieved when in June 2024, Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of Bharat for the third time. Mahatma Gandhi or Bapuji as I call him was my grandfather. I lived with him till I was 19. This year, I turn 95 and I feel an urgency to compare Prime Minister Modi with Gandhiji and pen down my thoughts. Generations to come may want to know the views of a family member of Gandhiji who as an adult had the privilege of knowing both these human beings.
In my long years I have known many leaders. However, my association with Narendra Bhai stands out as extraordinary. It began during the challenging period of the 1975 Emergency. Though the exact moment can’t be recalled, Narendra Bhai was then a young, dynamic Pracharak of the RSS.
In the 1970s sectarianism was continuing to eat away at the national fabric. As a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, I was deeply worried about the demographic change underway in the border districts due to heavy infiltration from Pakistan. The influx into Assam was even greater. No one in my Party, the Congress took serious note of this issue. But I clearly remember how Narendra Bhai even at that young age cared about such matters. He was clearly committed to national issues and the politics of the moment didn’t diffuse his focus.
Even in those days he was fully seized with the challenges that women faced in rural Bharat -personal hygiene; clean drinking water; primary health care for their families etc. Soon after becoming Prime Minister, he demonstrated exemplary courage and articulated the need for national cleanliness in his Independence Day speech. He launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which improved sanitation and also the dignity and security of women across Bharat.
My grandfather believed in ‘Jan Andolan’ – people’s movement as a basis of sustainable social change. Narendra Bhai’s unwavering focus on the word ‘Sabka’ as in Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and Viksit Bharat is the same. These are not mere buzz words for him. They are his drivers. His ‘humanity first’ leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic did not stop at our border, but embraced the entire world. Then again, he swam against the tide to free us from the choking yoke of Article 370. He is systematically completing the agenda that should have been completed after gaining independence. CAA is a case in point.
In this great land of Sanatan Dharma, political freedom was won by the spiritual force of many Masters such as Sai Nath of Shirdi, Shri Ramana Maharshi etc., and Gandhiji became the instrument to spearhead this. It is no coincidence that decades later, Narendra Bhai has become the instrument to free us from the colonial mind-set. A second struggle of independence.
My grandfather, always said, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’ Having closely witnessed Narendra Bhai’s journey from an RSS worker to the Prime Minister of Bharat, I can say without a doubt that Narendra Modi personifies the change we have all longed for in our beloved Bharat.
While I do not subscribe to hagiography, I must be impartial. The most striking similarity between Bapuji and Narendra Bhai is that their public lives are rooted in the spiritual core of Sanatana Dharma. They both are – Sthithapragnya – unaffected by both, the bouquets and the brickbats. Such a person knows that Truth eventually prevails and therefore has no resistance to waiting patiently for that to happen. This would explain the characteristic silence of Narendra Bhai against relentless onslaughts by his political opponents. This is a sign of a Raja Rishi.
As per our scriptures before Dharma is restored, there is always a churning. Negativity is the first output of such a churning, and these negative forces oppose Truth. Daily we are witness to the extents of this negativity. Even national interests are compromised for political gains. In such circumstances, it takes a person who has absolutely no interest in power, and is incorruptible – to put the interests of the poor and the nation above everything else. It is therefore our duty to acknowledge that even as we enjoy the fruits of Narendra Bhai’s efforts, but did not give him the commensurate electoral mandate, he is unaffected and quietly continues with his duty. Let me state without hesitation that had Bapuji been alive today, he would have been a great supporter of Narendra Bhai. Bapuji would have been the first person to warn us about those who have usurped his name and who have made it their life’s mission to misuse it to divide us for their political gains.
It will come as a surprise to the many detractors of my grandfather, and those of Narendra Bhai, that Narendra Bhai has rejuvenated Gandhiji’s ideals by actually integrating them into modern Bharat’s development agenda. Directive principles of State policy have become State policy. By doing so he has ensured that Gandhiji’s legacy continues to seep vigorously and ceaselessly into our nation’s psyche. Narendra Bhai just like my grandfather will also have to stand the test of public scrutiny. But, as Lord Krishna told Arjuna, what matters is to do your job and leave the result to Truth – which will prevail eventually. I have faith that history will finally judge both Bapuji and Narendra Bhai kindly.
(The writer is the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi)
