Gandhigiri for Goody

Jade can certainly gain from knowing India a little better. She must be given a warm welcome

Okay, Jade Goody may be every inch the ‘bad girl’ she was cranked out to be in Celebrity Big Brother. She may have said all those nasty things to Shilpa Shetty, and have meant every word. But now that she has accepted an invitation to visit India, let’s welcome her warmly and give her an introduction to Incredible India.

The ‘Incredible India’ advertisement inviting Goody — this newspaper was the first to report it, by the way — may have been a gimmick. But it was a pretty smart gimmick. Clever text, perfect timing. But an out-of-the-box idea is always difficult to carry out if it has to contend with bureaucratic inertia. The response from the country’s power elite is predictable and pedantic: don’t stir this pot further, is the message. The tourism ministry, for its part, is extremely reluctant to claim ownership of an audacious idea and prefers to blame some faceless official for what it clearly believes is an indiscretion.

This is a pity. There are at least three good reasons why Jade Goody must come a-visiting. The first, and arguably most important, is that such a visit may disabuse her of some of her very obvious prejudices against India and Indians. Nothing fosters mean-minded attitudes and hate speech more than a general lack of information and awareness. Second, think what this move will do for India’s tourism. Imagine, for a moment, Jade Goody gently bobbing on the Allepey backwaters in a houseboat with the world’s cameras focused on her — and on her sylvan environs. And all this without having to spend a bomb on advertising in the media. Third, she could also be the perfect subject to showcase the virtues of India’s alternative healing strategies. Take brahmi. It is known to calm nervous energy — just what the doctor ordered for Ms Goody. In any case, if nothing else works with Jade, perhaps some well-directed Gandhigiri tactics may do the trick.

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