Freedom for Mahatma
By- Pamarty Venkataramana
India is a free country. Freedom to co-exist as peaceful compatriots subsists.
Seven decades plus is both a young age in comparison to oldest modern age democratic land – the USA as well as mature age when views against many other members of the UNO.
Enter the saloon. One barber is a Mohammedan.Other a Hindu. Owned by a Christian. All is well. Illiterate in English language but seemingly well-versed in worldly affairs as the best political commentators one would find in Europe or the Americas. There is no compunction or hatred one comes across when Vick and bull type of panelists are pitted against the viewership by television talk-show producers. No angst nor disdain. The barber shop is any day the best place to gather public opinion rather than the fictitious cab driver tales invented in recent years by pseudo press persons. No malice. No prejudices. No venom spit.
Then comes the topic of Gandhiji, the Mahatma cherished as the Father of Nation by almost all Indians till a few years back when the dark self-avowed experiments of the widower with Manu and Abha became juicy episodes in every which debate over the bigamist habits of late Jawaharlal Nehru beyond late Edwina Mountbatten (wife of last Viceroy of British India). The murky ‘immoral’ actions were less blasphemous to the hard core supporters of Azam Hind Fauj of the indomitable Netaji Bose who cannot till date pardon late Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi for going on the lone 11-day long fast to ensure the partition of great India into three different parts by departing Colonial rulers from England.
There are a multitude of other erudite citizens in the country, who unlike the barbers in the saloon, were more forthright in decrying immorality of the Mahatma. This section praises his supposed killer, Nathuram Godse as a god-sent angel to end tyranny and betrayal of the largely Hindu nation.
Having said that, it is but a fact that mainland nation – India, was carved as -‘BHARAT, that is INDIA ‘ whilst the fundamentalist,fanatic groupings who were swearing to live by Allah as an Islamic composition,were given the west and east Pakistan.
History is a loud witness to the fact that just as Pakistan was designed on the anti-Hinduism plank, India which lives by Hinduvian dictum of -‘Vasudaiva Kutumbikum’ (all world is a home for all beings of Almighty Universe), cannot be faulted for witnessing the rising scream for establishing an uniform civil code and a One Nation identity (many pundits of islamophobia studies pitted against Hinduism as well as Christianity, dub it to be the -‘Anti-Islamic wave!’.
These motley groups that always had the best of both worlds without owing allegiance to any one Religion wail as banishees at the Kashmir Reorganisation Act and the Act criminalising the Triple Talaq practice by Mohammedan menfolks abandoning Muslim wives by mere twist of a tongue!
There are yet other moderates who point out as to why North eastern States (like Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura), with largely Christian population are not meted out with same ‘ill-treatment‘ of dismemberment from list of States as J&K was.
Be that as it may, the most endearing subject of interest for all India today on the Independence Day of 2019 is-
‘must the Mahatma vanish from the face of the rupee notes? Will the currency of India attract more positive energy if the grand old man’s portrait were to be replaced by that of Lord Vigneswara(Ganesha) or by national animal of India.
Funny? Not to funny? Well, scientific studies have been undertaken by many persons of Indian origin who are scholars in astrology, vastushastra and related realms of metaphysics which conclusively recommended the replacement of the benign beaming face of late M.K.Gandhi when he attained elevated status of a MAHATMA and ordained as the Father of Nation.
There are only a few thousands remaining today who were engaged directly or indirectly in the Freedom movement of India.The ‘quit India movement‘ as also the padayatras undertaken by Gandhiji to knit the whole diverse land of princely States into one National freedom movement are less spoken about nowadays. A partial cause has been the follies of Bollywood and mollifying jetsets among popular press and political crowd.
As dead men can tell no tales and the myth of the ‘Father of Nation’ is concurrent with the myth of ‘One Nation’, one would but clap for the cheerleaders of those who wish to confine the Mahatma to statues in closets and to public spaces rather than force him to witness the sins being perpetrated everyday in the exchange of currency notes carrying his smiling picture.
Yes, India must begin to free the Mahatma from the shackles of sinners and negative energy in circulation, day in and day out. The post-demonetisation droves of the Modi era harps more on a ‘digital age’.
However, to achieve a truly digital age of fiscal freedom, the Reserve Bank of India ought to merely issue a Notification declaring that henceforth, all monetary transactions over and above say, for instance, three lakh rupees, ought to mandatorily, be transacted via digital banking technology. Gradually, as rest of nation becomes tech-savvy and fully literate to operate smart phones, the whole economy can be transformed into a cashless economy.
Even as I pour this painful plea to free the Mahatma from the clutches of the sinning public airy society, a colleague points to a scribbled notice dangling outside a gym neighbouring the saloon which reads-‘ card machine not working’. ATMs are disappearing as did the STD phone- booths two decades ago.
To save India and its father of the nation from being a mute witness to crimes and sins committed day and night by people of less virtue into whose hands these wads go bypassing the ones that sweat, labour, toil endlessly, it can but be a humble beginning to end the ubiquitous trend of enemy land printed counterfeit currency notes imprinting the enigma of the Mahatma as the insignia of legitimacy.
The immediate offshoot of any such drive by the central bank to declare the three lakhs threshold limit for cash transactions is that at least one third of all litigation plaguing courts of India shall vanish forever.
Independence Day, 2019 must free the Mahatma.Let every citizen emulate the Mahatma who borrowed and bandied about the ‘trusteeship concept’ of existence of both the citizen and the country.
India needs positivity of thought as well as deeds to be transformed into a #NewIndia at the turn of this decade. Freedom for Mahatma and not freedom from Mahatma ought to be the new song?
Vandey Mataram!!!
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