Samikhsya Bureau
The fresh controversy sparked by a BJP MP from Karnataka, Anant Kumar Hegde describing the freedom struggle launched by Mahatma Gandhi, as ‘ nothing but a drama’ is something the BJP top leadership may find hard to negotiate.
Calling the Mahatma, one whose ideals and the contribution behind the country’s freedom was something that transcends any political yardstick, a BJP leader dubbing the struggle as a ‘drama’ has now come as a double whammy for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has been working overtime for quite sometimes eulogizing the Mahatma as an apostle.
Anyway, regardless what such loose cannons like Hegde say, now the expected clarification from the BJP quarters would be nothing more than distancing itself from the unbecoming jibe from Hegde as his personal view and the party condemns it.
The past has on record that a similar view held by a BJP MP, Pragyan Thakur, calling Nathuram Godse as a ‘ patriot’ had no such serious repercussions from the party except that the prime minister saying once that , he would not forgive such a view by Pragyan.
But, no heaven broke loose and the same MP remains free from anything called disciplinary action against Thakur,
However, the observation by Hegde seems exceeding all the limits and thus the ball now remains firmly on the BJP’s court. What action the party can contemplate against Hegde or what the prime minister, himself decides to do to chastise leaders like Hegde. Or would it again vanish into the winds as it did in the case of Pragyan Thakur.
Some in BJP condone Hegde’s view
However, the controversy post Hegde’s vitriol has provided the grains to the opposition and the issue is unlikely to get drowned in the dins of CAA & NRC protests to have a serious impact on the Delhi Assembly polls due next week.
It is undisputedly a case of foot-in-mouth for the BJP and is morally very challenging for the BJP top brass to halt such perfidious utterances from within the cadre.
Leaders like Hegde or from any party, in essence, require no diagnosis as what transpired into such a contagion of thought to say that Mahatma’s freedom struggle was nothing but a ‘ drama’.
Now, the situation might give way to a slanging match among several political leaders to create a crossfire of new political lows where BJP’s slogans over nationalism suffers the worst ever embarrassment.
Ironically, some in the BJP not only defend the view of Hegde but there are buyers in the saffron camp who hold the view that, Independence was not obtained through non-violence but by blood-sheds,
Even, someone from India calling Gandhi-led freedom struggle as a ‘drama’, would not go without severe criticism from outside the country. Well said that, ‘ politics is the last resort of ……..s.
