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Journalism of Courage
Sabarmati Ashram. It8217;s an ironical coincidence that the train that was attacked in Gujarat on the dark morning of February 27th was called the Sabarmati Express and the state8217;s attack on journalists also happened here. But nothing that happened in between those two dates was a coincidence.
This Saturday, there were three others with me, looking at Gandhi8217;s images. On earlier visits, the images gave strength, they seemed to walk with you. Today, they numbed you, depressed you, and as I left the ashram, and the more I drove away from it, the more I wanted to get back to see whether they were still there.
Today the glitterati in their Ray Bans and Cartiers visit the ashram. A few days ago they sheltered themselves under a pandal and took turns at not eating for the day. With dusk, chauffeurs cleaned the dust from the windshields and switched on the A/C before the Ray Bans eased themselves into the rear seats, their starched kurtas wrinkled a bit.
This was a protest against the attack on journalists covering a meeting not so long ago 8212; where you could go only if you were invited. Just anybody couldn8217;t seek peace for Ahmedabad. While they talked peace, the people, Hindus and Muslims, killed one another. And away from the protestors, the peace-seekers and the killers, some were counting how many votes 900 deaths make, and trying to add as many more to the tally as possible. Others calculated how many votes the deaths had lost them.
This visit to the Sabarmati Ashram wasn8217;t the same. Earlier, it used to be a proud look into history. This time, any resemblance in it to anyone alive or dead seemed a coincidence. The images of courage and tolerance, of non-violence and human dignity, protected inside the ashram, seemed like a mirage. Earlier, it was a matter of pride that the Sabarmati Ashram is in Ahmedabad. Today, there is the question: Is it really?
The quiet at the ashram was deafening. Because there was a storm inside me. One couldn8217;t see the ashram in isolation of the hate that has swirled around it for the last two and half months. Pictures of the leader fasting unto death to uphold the principle of non-violence had now to be seen alongside pictures of another 8216;leader8217; flying across Gujarat telling people that some human beings are more human than others.
They say history repeats itself. How desperately I wished this Saturday, for that to happen. I wrote in the visitor8217;s diary, 8216;8216;Wish he was here.8217;8217; Why can8217;t we have another Mahatma Gandhi? Why?
