The ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston was an eye-catcher for more reasons than one. While Modi was saying ‘All Is Well’ in India, thousands of protestors outside were showing a mirror to the real state of affairs in India. At the same event, the US President, Donald Trump, due to face impeachment proceedings, was trying to promote his electoral prospects in the next US elections. He flatters visiting dignitariesto achieve his goals of diplomacy. Here, too, he went on to praise Modi to the sky, calling him a great leader and saying, “I remember, India before was very torn. There was a lot of dissension; fighting and he (Modi) brought it all together. Like a father would. Maybe he is the ‘father of India’.”

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Right within the US, there are many views about Modi. The last time a similar debate cropped up was just before the Indian general elections of 2019. On the eve of the elections,the US premier magazine, Time, came out with a cover story, “Modi: the Divider in Chief’. Of course, in another article in the same issue of the magazine, he was presented as the one who is central to the process of economic reforms in India. What we see here in India, and what the lead article of Time magazine presented, was on the dot – the divisive role of Modi. The observation here has been that Modi’s coming to power has strengthened the divisive forces, the forces who want a Hindu nation. It is precisely these forces, who have gone on a rampage to unleash their agenda around cow-beef. Communal divisions have been deepened and identity issues have come to the fore like never before.

Minorities are being alienated and dalits and adivasis are being marginalized. Even language-wise,there is talk of making Hindi the national language. Identity issues, which create an emotional atmosphere and divide the people,have come to the fore. While Trump is talking in one tone, the Democratic hopeful in the last Presidential elections in America, Bernie Sanders, in a tweet, hinted that Trump is emboldening authoritarian leaders like Modi – leaders who are presiding over religious persecution, repression and brutality against minorities.

Till a few years ago,Modi himself spoke a very divisive language. Now, this job has been passed down to his associates. Yogi Adityanath’s anti-Muslim utterances abound. Anant Krishna Hegde, like many of his ilk,has been openly talking of a Hindu nation. To add to the list,SadhviPragya Singh Thakur, the accused in Malegaon blast, out on bail, has been praising Gandhi’s killer Godse, among other things. Lately, the way Article 370 has been abrogated has increased the alienation of the people of Kashmir tremendously.

In a way, Time magazine’s cover story did capture the state of things prevalent here. Trump is no scholar of history, ignorant of the reason as to why India regards Mahatma Gandhi as the ‘father of the nation’. Trump’s considerations are driven by his political contingency of gradually shifting America closer to India. Earlier, the US favoured Pakistan due to the compulsions of the Cold War era. Later, it kept siding with Pakistan as the US had designs on the oil wealth of West Asia and Pakistan was a part of these designs. Now, with the emergence of China as a major power, and China being close to Pakistan, US gradually wants to come close to India. These may be some of the factors due to which Trump is making such statements. But that’s not all. The US is also maintaining its Pakistan relationship on some scale and very shrewdly, Trump said that Modi had made aggressive remarks in the Houston rally. He seems to be buttering his bread on both the sides, at present.

Reactions to Trump’s formulations pointed out his hollowness. Gandhi’s grandson, Tushar tweeted if Trump will like to replace George Washington as one of the founding fathers of America?

What Trump has stated has pained those for whom Gandhi is the ‘father of the nation’. Anyway, the followers of Modi’s ideology do not regard Gandhi as the father of the nation. Their argument is that India, the Hindu nation; has existed since time immemorial and so, how can Gandhi be its father? Gandhi being the father of the nation also relates to the concept of nationalism. All those who were part of ‘India-as-a-nation-in-the-making’ see Gandhi as the central uniting figure. During the freedom struggle in the anti-colonial movement, it was Gandhi who played the role of uniting the country, which was scattered along the lines of religion, region, caste and language. The communalists, like the followers of Muslim League, saw Gandhi as a Hindu leader and Hindu communalists saw Gandhi as the appeaser of Muslims. Through a very profound and complex process, India emerged as a nation with principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Surely the likes of Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar, Nehru and Patel played a great role in the making of modern India. The process had multiple components, anti-colonialism being the core, where the likes of Bhagat Singh inspired the idea and Gandhi led the greatest ever mass movement, the movement directed against the British Empire.

It is due to this that Subhash Chandra Bose, on July 6 1944, in a broadcast from Singapore Radio, sought the blessings of Gandhi, addressing him as the Father of the Nation. Sarojini Naidu, on April 6, 1947, on the eve of Independence, addressed Gandhi as Rashtrapita (Father of the Nation). So where do we go from here? The Hindu nationalists are euphoric about what Trump said, while all those, who identify with India’s struggle for Independence and uphold democratic values, are in anguish due to this statement from the US President. Trump’s superficial observation is neither sound in the history of India nor in the knowledge of what is happening in India. It is a mere diplomatic ploy to please the visiting leader.

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Anyway, as one hoped that this chapter around ‘discovery of a new Father of Nation’ was over and one was attempting to turn a new leaf what one witnessed was rather unusual.

The debate around ‘Father of Nation” came back with a vengeance.

Thanks to POTUS Donald Trump who attended the Howdy Modi rally in Houston and the ‘love fest over the weekend’ ( https://jacobinmag.com/2019/09/modi-houston-rally-hindu-nationalism) where he heaped praise on Modi :
 

“I remember India before was very torn. There was a lot of dissension; fighting and he brought it all together. Like a father would. Maybe he is the father of India,” (https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/donald-trump-calling-pm-modi-father-of-india-insult-to-mahatma-gandhi-jairam-ramesh-1603166-2019-09-25)

Any neutral observer of US politics would have told that praising his guests in superlatives has been a regular practice with POTUS which is neither taken seriously by the guests nor the people of America. Only a few days before this Houston rally he had similarly praised Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a “Man of Titanium”, “a man of real, real strength, and a great guy”.(https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/21/donald-trump-suggests-china-a-threat-to-the-world-while-praising-scott-morrison-as-a-man-of-titanium) “. And he has had no qualms in even celebrating “a variety of right-wing personalities, meme-makers and conspiracy theorists at his so-called “Social Media Summit” at White House and bringing new respectability to the right’s online fringe. (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-praises-right-wing-conspiracy-theorists-at-white-house-the-crap-you-think-of-is-unbelievable)
What should have happened is that the matter should have ended there.

Perhaps it would have appeared rather befitting for the moment that Prime Minister Modi should have taken initiative in ‘thanking President of America’ for his words of praise and rather told him very politely that we Indians consider Mahatma Gandhi – who led the anti-colonial struggle against the Britishers – as ‘Father of the Nation’.

Nothing of that sort happened.

Bhakts rather went euphoric that Trump had called Modi ‘Father of India’.

In fact, it appeared that a section of leaders and supporters of BJP were feverishly waiting for such an endorsement from some world leader for PM Modi. Remember it is on record how earlier as well
 

“[a] lot of people closely related to the BJP have often, called Modi the father of this country. In a debate with Kanhaiya Kumar, Sambit Patra was heard saying “Baap hain Modi, humaare nahi, poore desh ke baap hai Modiji (he is the father of the whole country.)”Just before the elections, AIADMK Minister, the then Tamil Nadu minister for Milk and Dairy Development K T Rajendra Balaji had said very proudly, “Modi is our daddy, he is our daddy, India’s daddy.”( https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/tweeple-not-amused-by-modi-being-called-father-of-india)

Union minister Jitendra Singh perhaps gave vent to the overwhelming feelings in the saffron camp when he said that those who “do not feel proud” of US President Donald Trump’s comment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the “father of India”, do not consider themselves Indians. (https://thewire.in/politics/those-not-proud-of-modi-being-called-father-of-india-arent-indians-union-minister) It did not matter to him that by calling Modi ‘Father of India’ Donald Trump has in fact insulted Mahatma Gandhi, in his 150 th birth anniversary year.

Not only that Mr Jitendra Singh’s espousal of Modi’s praise by Trump was a great insult to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who in his address on Singapore Radio on July 6, 1944 had addressed Mahatma Gandhi as Father of the Nation for the first time. It was the period when both Kasturba and Gandhi both had been interned at Aga Khan Palace, Pune in the wake of Quit India Movement. Kasturba passed away while serving her prison term on 22 February, 1944. Netaji’s message read as follows:
 

“………..Nobody would be more happy than ourselves if by any chance our countrymen at home should succeed in liberating themselves through their own efforts or by any chance, the British Government accepts your `Quit India’ resolution and gives effect to it. We are, however proceeding on the assumption that neither of the above is possible and that a struggle is inevitable.
Father of our Nation in this holy war for India’s liberation, we ask for your blessings and good wishes”. (http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/main/q1.htm)

Looking at the fact that the saffron brigade –  kept itself aloof from the independence struggle and Hindu Mahasabha, led by Savarkar, then campaigned among Hindu youths to join British military when they were facing stiff resistance from broad masses of people because of the 1942 Quit India movement, it is rather too much to expect that they would be careful about such niceties ( like respecting freedom fighters)

Secondly, it was clear that for the followers of the Hindutva brigade it did not matter at all that Trump’s praise had come when he finds himself embroiled in a serious controversy. A formal impeachment inquiry against him has been initiated in the House of Representatives ‘charging him with betraying his oath of office and the nation’s security by seeking to enlist a foreign power to tarnish a rival for his own political gain.’ (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/politics/democrats-impeachment-trump.html) making him the fourth President in America’s history to be subjected to such a scrutiny.
Remember this enquiry could be seen just as a tip of iceberg of Trump’s acts of commission and omission.

What is becoming obvious that Trump’s own record as President of USA and earlier is less than noble. A mere perusal of his career by a Opinion Columnist at New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/opinion/trump-ukraine-whistle-blower.html) ‘in forty sentences’ is worth recalling:
 

He has pressured a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 American presidential election.He urged a foreign country to intervene in the 2016 presidential election. He divulged classified information to foreign officials.He publicly undermined American intelligence agents while standing next to a hostile foreign autocrat. ..He encourages foreign leaders to enrich him and his family by staying at his hotels…He described white supremacists as “some very fine people.”He told four women of color, all citizens and members of Congress, to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”..He launched his political career by falsely claiming that the first black president was not really American…He has been accused of sexual assault or misconduct by multiple women…He has encouraged his supporters to commit violence against his political opponents.

The list provides many more details.

Question arises if someone who is known to tell ‘new lies virtually every week — about the economy, voter fraud, even the weather’ (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trumps-lies.html?module=inline), who has described women, variously, as “a dog,” “a pig” and “horseface,” as well as “bleeding badly from a facelift” and having “blood coming out of her wherever.”(https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/opinion/trump-ukraine-whistle-blower.html) or who has ‘obstructed justice by trying to influence an investigation into his presidential campaign ( -do-), praises someone else, then should it be seen as a compliment or an insult and why such elation among followers of Hindu Rashtra.

One knows that such moralistic questions do not trouble – a large section of people – these days anymore, a clear sign of the fact that we have really ushered into a ‘New India’. This is an India where mob rule has slowly overwhelmed the rule of law, where cartoonists are arrested for mocking leaders under the charge of sedition. A new India with its new icons where ‘vigilante killers are being compared with India’s freedom fighters’ (https://thewire.in/history/hindutva-vigilante-killers-freedom-fighters).

This ‘dethroning’ of Mahatma Gandhi from the pedestal of ‘Father of Nation’ and ‘enthronment of Narendra Modi’ in his place reminds one of an episode two years back when in a surprise development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had literally “[e]jected Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi in the 2017 wall calendar and table diary published by the Khadi Village Industries Commission (KVIC)…Most employees and officials were taken aback to see the cover photo of the calendar and diary showing Modi weaving khadi on a large charkha’, in the same classic pose as Gandhi ji.”(https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/modi-khadi-gram-udyog-make-in-india-mahatma-gandhi-rahul-gandhi-954592-2017-01-12).

A leader of the BJP – who happened to be minister in Haryana goverment – Anil Vij, made it very clear that this was not an inadvertent error and “[a]fter khadi stationary, Mahatma Gandhi would be removed from notes as well.”(https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/khadi-calendar-narendra-modi-mahatma-gandhi-rupee-anil-vij-954953-2017-01-14) He added that “[P]M Modi is a bigger brand name than Mahatma Gandhi for khadi…Khadi is not patented in the name of Mahatma Gandhi. “( – do-)

Or one can as well look at Gandhi’s reduction to a pair of spectacles when Modi government took over in 2014 and when ‘ Swach Bharat Abhiyan’ was launched by Modi with a bang.

Whatever might be their formal claims, these isolated looking examples underline one thing, the saffrons cannot hide their growing unease with Mahatma Gandhi –  whose imagination of an independent India stands at complete variance with their worldview. And are trying to find umpteen ways to unseat him or substitute him with someone more close to their ideals. It is no mere coincidence that the campaign to glorify Gandhi’s killer Godse and demonise Gandhi caught speed only with the ascent of a right-wing government at the centre (since 2014). (https://www.newsclick.in/glorifying-godse-demonising-gandhi).
It was a sign of their desperation that Donald Trump, the ‘serial liar’ (http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news.php?id=135076&sid=6) who himself represents “a threat to America’s future” (-do-) provided them a fig leaf and they had no qualms in going gaga over it but had no idea that this move would similarly flounder adding fresh coat of egg on their face.

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