What our politicians speak is different from what they practice

One Harvinder Singh, a small transporter but allegedly not of a sound mind has got carried away because of too much graft and corruption in the country plus the scorching price spiral. The poor Harvinder could not hold himself in check and slapped the Union minister cum ICC chairman Sharad Pawar. Harvinder blamed   Pawar for all the mess in the country. This time a union minister got a slap from a common man. But two things followed. First, Gandhiji’s teaching came to a naught. The minister did not offer his right cheek to the angry young man to win his heart over. Rather the supporters of Mr. Pawar became angry in spite of him asking them to remain calm. Secondly, the slap had a salutary effect on the undivided political class. They all got united in condemning the incident and asking for the severest of punishment to the poor Harvinder. Once again the political class has failed to live up to Gandhiji’s teaching of non-violence, that is, turning the right cheek when the "left" cheek was slapped! Well, the common people are ready to empathize with the poor Harvinder. He has done what they all have wished to do so long but lacked the grit and courage to do it.

On the other hand has the political class denounced incidents in which politicians and ministers slap and kick a common man? A few examples would suffice.

Union finance Minister, then foreign minister, kicked a supporter in a kolkata street. Union ministers Jitin Prasada and RPN Singh allegedly kicked and slapped a young man. Of course a case has been registered, according to the TOI of 28 Nov ‘11.   Digvijay Singh aided by his supporters allegedly punched and kicked a youth.

But then what was India’s shame was when Prime Minister Nehru had slapped an octogenarian refugee from Lahore after the Partition.  The incident happened like this:

Nehru declared over the radio that all refugees should forgive the Moslems for all that the Moslems had done to them and not think of revenge. The radio broadcast was heard in all refugee camps in Delhi, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jullunder, etc. Next morning, Nehru accompanied by Indira Gandhi, his daughter went to visit one of the camps. Indira Gandhi was just behind Pandit Nehru and a very old man, an octogenarian, touched the hand of Indira Gandhi, a girl of his granddaughter's age. Nehru flared up and slapped the old man, an eminent businessman from Lahore, who was now a pauper. 

Instead of getting angry, the old man laughed out loud to Nehru's face and said: "You spoke over the radio last night and advised us not to be revengeful but forgiving toward the Moslems. Your daughter is like my grand-daughter; you yourself are like my son in age. What wrong did I do in touching the hand of your daughter to attract your attention? You flew into a rage and slapped me! And you advised me over the radio to calm my anger?

Bottom line: Gandhi is a cloak of our politicians to exploit the masses.