And now, Bhagwan Gandhi?

Is the Government of India trying to turn so-called ‘Gandhism’ into a state religion and Gandhi into another ‘Prophet’, or God maybe? I mean, what the *&^$@? Gandhi is going to be placed on a flagpole and is to be given the same respect as the national fag? Oops, I meant to type ‘National Flag!’? Freudian slip.

My point is that Gandhi was pretty open about his experiments with 'truth' and the way that Indian politicians want to cover him up just to suit their narrow 'moralistic' ends, is hypocritical, myopic and stupid.

I came across this news item on the stand that the Catholics of Gujarat have taken, and it’s encouraging.

Catholic Church leaders in Gujarat said that the intention to ban the book ‘Great Soul’ is an attempt at “gagging” the freedom of expression.

Condemning the proposed ban by the Gujarat government on Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle with India by Pulitzer prize winner Joseph Lelyveld in advance of publication, they said the action amounted to gagging the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed in the constitution.

Jesuit priest Cedric Prakash said that instead of arbitrarily going for a ban, the authorities should have made an “objective assessment” and challenged the contents of the book with which they did not agree upon.

Verghese Paul, director of the Catholic Information Service Society, said that even Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi did not want a ban on the book. Lancy Lobo, who heads the Centre for Culture and Development at Vadodara, commented that the government appears to be over-enthusiastic in banning the book, which it has “not even read,”

As for Gandhi’s status, he said: “we all love our icons personally but Gandhi seems to have been raised to the status of divinity which is not proper”. The priest said the author had himself denied having made any racist remark against Gandhi in the book. “But the media seems to have misrepresented facts in its reports about the book”, concluded Father Lobo.