The Karnataka government recently called a legislative session to specifically debate the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, setting the stage for a tussle over the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and his vision for India. Having begun on a sour note after Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot declined to read the speech drafted by the government, the debate was fired up by a government advertisement depicting Bapuji in an imagined conversation with a man called Sanghappa, an oblique reference to the RSS, on the VB-G RAM G Act. The Congress has been demanding the new law’s scrapping, terming it “a death knell for gram panchayats”. The session discussed the drawbacks of the new scheme, including the change in the Centre-state fund sharing ratio and reduced powers of panchayats. Karnataka has 1.8 crore MGNREGA workers out of the nation’s total of 28 crore, more than half of them women and about 30 percent Dalits and Adivasis. The state’s workers have petitioned President Droupadi Murmu to withdraw VB-G GRAM G and bring back the old scheme.
But the larger contention is over Brand Gandhi. The Congress, seeking to establish itself as the Mahatma’s original legatee, has resorted to symbolism and advised Karnataka government employees to wear khadi on one Saturday every month. It also proposes to prefix all gram panchayats with ‘Gandhi’. Not to be outdone, the BJP and JD(S) have portrayed Gandhi as a nationalist who wanted to establish a Ram Rajya. This Gandhi-versus-Gandhi narrative recently played out in parliament too, where the Congress leadership’s use of the surname and the party’s overuse of it in naming projects over 70 years were called into question by BJP leaders along with other aspects of the Nehru-Gandhi family’s history.
Sensing the enduring strength of Brand Gandhi, the BJP, even while associating with his killer Nathuram Godse, does not want the Congress to appropriate his entire legacy. Gandhi as an icon provides credibility at home and on global platforms too. The BJP realises it cannot diminish Bapuji as an apostle of ahimsa. Whether Gandhi was committed to Ram Rajya or Gram Rajya, political parties should stop squabbling over his name and bring the nation back to the framework of his vision—a non-violent and inclusive State that focuses on the welfare of the most marginalised sections.