HEY RAM !

Hey Ram!Khushwant Singh
We celebrate Bapu Gandhi’s birthday (2nd October) and we pay homage to his memory on anniversaries of his martyrdom on January 30. Of the two the one of greater significance is the latter because it sums up our failures: we let him down in the most critical years in our fight for freedom.
He had to pay the price for our deserting him. He stuck to principles he had preached all through his life. The best way of paying him tribute on Shahidi Divas is to hang our heads in shame, crave his forgiveness and vow to fight forces of hatred whenever and wherever they raise their ugly heads.
Before I pontificate to others, allow me to present my credentials. I am a Gandhian of sorts. I do not subscribe to all that Bapu Gandhi stood for. He preached vegetarianism, celibacy and total abstention from alcohol: I am not a vegetarian; I enjoy alcoholic drinks and frown upon celibacy as being contrary to human nature. Nevertheless I am proud to describe myself as a Gandhi chela. For me there is no contradiction between rejecting some of his tenets as of trivial importance and accepting others as guiding principles of life.
I have evolved for myself my own way of analysing events and judging people which I recommend for the consideration of my readers. When an event takes place I ask myself: "How would Bapu Gandhi react to this?" Likewise when I hear or read speeches delivered by our readers I ask: "Would Bapu Gandhi have approved of what this man or woman is saying?"
Once you use Gandhi as your guide to get a balanced view of events and judging people, you have no problem in deciding what is right and what is not. I used him to judge Bhindranwale when he made hateful utterances against the Hindus; I used him when Advani carried out his rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya. I used him to make my assessment of the likes of Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sadhvi Rithambara, Singhal Togadia, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj and some others. And I disapprove of them because I feel it in my guts that Bapu Gandhi would approve of my disapproval.