AERIAL VIEW
Can our leaders today stand up and say they possess at least two qualities of these two great leaders.
Today as soon as one becomes an MLA, his incoming meter starts, and by the end of his term, he becomes a millionaire and some billionaires.
Shastri’s life should be a lesson to the leaders who boast of 12 bungalows and businesses.
Not just the leaders, Shastri’s life is also a lesson to every student, how to overcome life’s difficulties.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemakrponn
On Friday, in a hurriedly issued order, the State government directed all casinos to shut for 24 hours in view of the birth anniversary of the father of the nation – Mahatma Gandhi.
The delayed order means that teh Chief Minister and the government were in two minds about whether to shut the casinos or not. Although this is a yearly affair, one wonders why the CM took so much time this time. Maybe he was sensitive to the losses faced by the casino owners, who were badly hit due to COVID19-induced lockdowns.
Secondly, teh Excise department two delayed the issuing of orders for a dry day.
It looked like a husband forgetting the wife’s birthday and then runs pillar to post to make her happy. In this case, the CM seemed to have forgotten, and then the administration started running.
But wait, shutting casinos and declaring dry days is the only tribute to the great leader.
We all know despite dry days, people can get the liquor at their will. Almost 80 per cent of the dealers sell alcohol through the back door at a premium price. So what’s the point of calling it Dry Day if the government cannot implement it strictly?
Further, as a person, we can learn a lot from Gandhiji. From his birthplace, Porbandar, to England, South Africa and then back in India, Gandhiji undertook the journey of life as an experiment. In this journey, he never lost sight of his lodestars, truth and non-violence, to guide his path.
He admitted that the two values were not his inventions; he maintained they were as old as the hills. Indeed, he always spoke of a wide variety of sources which strengthened his resolve to walk the path of truth and non-violence.
Though a devout Hindu, he liberally borrowed from scriptures of different faiths in his tenacious search for self-realisation. Dogma and bigotry had no place in Gandhiji’s religion as any divinely ordained edict that fails the test of reason, and larger social good was unacceptable to him.
Today also marks the birthday of our great leader and second prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, from whom we can learn several lessons of life.
When he married in 1928, at the insistence of his in-laws to accept dowry, he took a charkha (spinning wheel) and some khadi cloth.
Even when he passed away, he reportedly had no property in his name and left behind a few books and a dhoti-kurta.
As a child, Shastri has swum across the river to reach school to save his impoverished family money to pay for a boat ride.
Can our leaders today stand up and say they possess at least two qualities of these two great leaders.
Today as soon as one becomes an MLA, his incoming meter starts, and by the end of his term, he becomes a millionaire and some billionaires.
Shastri’s life should be a lesson to the leaders who boast of 12 bungalows and businesses.
Not just the leaders, Shastri’s life is also a lesson to every student, how to overcome life’s difficulties.
