It was a project to keep India clean and ensure that every one of the 1.3 billion Indians has privacy when attending to nature’s call. So, we are told that India is now 100 per cent open defecation free, although just last week two children were killed because they were found defecating on the roadside. This happened in Madhya Pradesh, but we also know that in our own state of Goa, that has hurriedly declared open defecation free, there is still a lot to be done to actually achieve that target, where every household has a toilet. Goa has ‘met’ the ODF target through some temporary measures and the permanent toilets that the State has planned will come only later. Not the best of solutions to a problem, but as successive governments have failed in this project, the potential of embarrassment led to the current government taking the decision.
A relevant question is: Would the Mahatma have endorsed such a decision? We have to think about this.
Across the country there are people who are protesting, who are unhappy with various issues plauging the nation. They are protesting the violence unleashed on unsuspecting persons who have been the victims of a justice system that now appears to work on the orders of the political bosses. A law student who accused a MLA of rape, has herself been arrested for blackmail. Another girl who accused another MLA of rape has been fighting for justice for years and is also fighting for her life after an accident that has the appearances of being staged, even as members of her family have been killed or jailed in connection with old cases. In other cases that have come in the past months and even years, people have been lynched simply on the suspicion of them having eaten beef.
Another relevant question: Would the Mahatma have turned a blind eye to such atrocities? We need to ponder over this too.
Mahatma Gandhi gave India and the world a powerful weapon of non-violent protest. He taught India that it has the right to stand for its rights, that the people’s will is important and that the government has to listen to this voice. It is a weapon that many groups across India are using today, and that has been utilised across the world in various forms. In Gandhiji’s India violence should have no space. In Gandhiji’s India hate should have no space. Just as open defecation and garbage has no place in the streets of India, so too violence and hate should also be done away with, consigned to the dustbins where they belong.
It is pointless to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi if every person in India is not free to voice out his or her opinion, or when a person who walks into a police station with a complaint he or she is treated as an accused. There has to be justice done and also seen to be done. India has to aim to remain inclusive as it has done all these years, welcoming all languages, all cultures that make up the country. It is when the government gives the people such an environment where all forms of thought and speech thrive, that Gandhiji’s idea of India will truly be met.
It is fulfilling and a matter of pride to know that India today is free from open defecation. It would be so much more fulfilling to know that all of Gandhiji’s many plans for India have also been met.
