Ricky ponting, the australian captain spins a charkha in Mumbai, Times of India a leading Indian newspaper puts a quarter page photograph to inform about T20 match between India and Australia. They applied a Gandhi touch and have always been doing this, and they are running a Lead India campaign to find a future leader for India. 
I can only smile at them… because i really doubt their intention. It’s not their fault, but Mahatma Gandhi is deeply rooted in here, why? Trust me every aspiring leader is asked about his Mahatma Gandhi thoughts and rated on Mahatma Gandhi IQ . Why?
Trust me I am not from Hindustan Times and they not much different too, I buy both the newspapers but it’s been long since I have been seeing a charkha , I would love to see a laptop or a mobile or a satellite or a tall building or another picture on the Indian currency note.
India has been growing rapidly and hopefully for the good. Everything is changing dramatically from roads, airports to buildings. All jazzy car makers lining up in India to sell their latest models in India. Monorails, Subways or Metros in each and every city for public transport. All notable fashion brands, broadband internet, latest mobile phones you name it and you have it. High paying jobs, increased awareness among the people, a more powerful middle class, higher literacy rate, airlines to every nook and corner, indian satellites in space and people all over the world learning new definitions of the word – Indian. So what is it that has changed India suddenly in the last 5 years, “Gandhi”.
Majority of my leaders and countrymen would still say, we are here because of Gandhi, Nehru etc. But do they have any statistical data to prove this? So, why is it that we still hear so much about our so called great leaders, politicians still spread their ideologies, address the UN to remember them and prescribe the ‘Gandhi antibiotic’ for the worldly diseases. Do they have any statistical data to support as to what benefit we would derive from Gandhi’s ideology in each and every aspect of life, now? My memory and political knowledge is short but brand India is created and respected only NOW all over the world because we now have millions of IT workers working for almost every company in the world, we have airlines based out of India flying to different skies in the world, our business leaders are buying companies in the east, west, The Indian oil major’s are buying oil fields in every part of the world. We are launching satellites in the space and are one fastest growing economies of the world. We have changed from a country of plain white cloth men spinning the wheel to a demand driven, retail hungry, infrastructure building, dollar aggregating, business sensitive country. We have ourselves bought a chair for us on the World dining table, we were not invited because we had Gandhi. So, why is that we need to see the khadi or charkha ads and a conscious attempt by everyone to put a layer of Gandhi and Nehru sauce over the fresh and tasty sandwiches that Indians are preparing all over the world sixty years down the line.
I am tired of seeing Gandhi on the Indian currency since my childhood, I need a change. Gandhi was good, played a key role but it’s been 60 years, we need to check out other guys. He needs to be promoted from father of the nation to fore father of the nation and create space below to let other people be crowned for the glory. Gandhi has been like the end of file header for the last sixty years, and nothing else follows it. It has been like a stamp which when applied to any work, speech or action earns a license of being a fair practice no matter what the result would be. Do you think that Gandhi ever wanted this ? I don’t think so.
We need more Kalam’s, Patel’s, Murthy’s, Premji’s, Ambani’s who are hungry to bring the best to India because that way they earn money, power and fame. I know some businesses do bribe government, kill some traditional pockets of employment but if you see the bigger picture we do need them but for sure not another Gandhi or Nehru clone. We need to get out of the “Certified to Gandhi Standards System” stamp from our lives because deep within, we really don’t follow it anymore and nor does it apply any more. All we need is people with an intent of doing good for the people and the masses, not the way our so called “Father of the nation” asked us to. It’s time to realize that the word India in the dictionary needs a meaning, synonym more than Gandhi, Nehru. We need to add commas and print more definitions to it.
My thanks to Gandhi for the best he did to India, I love him for that. By writing all this I am not insulting or shadowing his efforts. One quality about great men is their names transform from a proper noun to an adjective, and that applies to Gandhi too. I think he never asked us to pray him, so maybe he is not the one to blame for this, but it’s for us to realize that India needs another way of thinking. It’s time to drop the word like, Don’t be like Gandhi, be someone parallel to him or above him. If ever I would be called great, I would always want to be known by my name only my name and not because I am like Gandhi or only followed Gandhi. Some people i have mentioned above have done this in their own style, but then most of them would humbly thank and say our vision, policies etc were always based on Gandhi’s ideology. Give me break. That’s the problem, the brand Gandhi does not need any more free promotion. I am not against him, but I am against a superficial effort by everyone in branding or sub branding everything in India as Gandhi or Sub Gandhi because they feel you have a good public image if you put a tag Gandhi on your shirt. The day the public perception changes, we would see more parallel tags, brands and definitions in India and may be someone who would be eligible to be another father of the nation not because he is Gandhi because he his him. I think that is what Gandhi truly wanted.
