Our Heroes, Their Heroes

Gandhi is a symbol that cannot be ignored if you are an Indian or have any relation to India whether you are a foreigner travelling through India or a diplomat visiting the largest democracy in the world. Every Indian currency is engraved with picture of Gandhi. If you visit any schools, police stations, courts, post-offices or any other government building, a huge portrait of Gandhi will be visible hanging from the wall. Most private offices also tend to do the same as well. Head of States visiting New Delhi must stop by Rajghat to pay their homage to Bapu. Noble Peace Prize winner Barack Obama also visited Rajghat during his trip to India few months ago and later spoke very eloquently on the floor of Indian Parliament how he has been inspired by Gandhi throughout his life. Heck, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was on an official trip to India in 2003, he also visited Rajghat and expressed his ‘deep admiration’ of the messiah of peace. It seems like no matter where you stand on question of war and peace, how much you value the precious life, if you are a world leader and have business to do with India well you must pretend to be Gandhian even if you are Ariel 'war criminal' Sharon. 
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is the ruling coalition party of India since 2004 led by Indian National Congress (INC). INC is the same political party that was once led by Mahatma Gandhi during the struggle against the British for India’s independence. Indian government has been marred by numerous high-level corruption including 2G spectrum auction controversy and corruption surrounding the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last year to name a few. This obviously does not include corruption at every level of government machinery that has plagued the nation ever since independence. Even the most prestigious institution of a democracy- Judiciary is as corrupt as any other and justice can be bought by the wealthiest of the society that leaves the poor suffering further more humiliation and the police topping the chart as most corrupt one. Lives of citizens are made hell by these corrupt officials who must be bribed every time you have to deal with them. And all obviously happens in the offices where a portrait of Gandhi is always present. It’s the same currency with Gandhi on it that is been taken by officials as bribe to get a small work done. A man who preached honesty til he was killed by a lunatic, must be sad that people pretend to love him but not his ideals.    
It’s kind of ironic that the hypocrisy that lies in the system that celebrates our heroes is most visible in Gandhi’s home state Gujarat itself. Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat invokes Gandhi at almost every public meeting and claims him as a ‘son of Gurajat’ but if Modi’s governance is looked at closely he has done exact opposite of everything Gandhi stood for. The talk of so-called development and being most developed state in country is nothing more than a myth created by Modi and his right-wing party propaganda. The development has helped the elites only and middle-class to an extent. But more than anything that has affected Gujarat, whether it’s their 12 percent state GDP growth in 2010 (highest in the country) and the economic prosperity of the elites and the happy state of big corporate investments in the state, it will be (as it should be) the communal riots of 2002-2003 that will define the legacy of Modi. More than 1000 people were killed during the violence in the state, and it has been proven that Modi’s close aides were involved directly and used state machinery in carrying out the the killing of innocent human beings. It’s despicable that a leader who was involved in killing of innocent children and women would invoke the name of Gandhi and people would applause him.  
We celebrate our heroes, but do we celebrate what our heroes stood for or we just celebrate our heroes in vacuum of existence or we just celebrate them for the heck of it? People like Obama and Sharon visiting Rajghat and talking about Gandhi is a mockery of peace and non-violence. These leaders and it includes numerous Indian politicians as well who confess their love for certain individual but in fact have nothing in similarity and have not been inspired least bit by them. It’s easy to make a hero out of an individual but very difficult to celebrate their ideals. Gandhi is one example of such hero whose ideals have been tarnished in a country that celebrates him. I’m a follower Gandhian ideals to an extent where I think he was right but never for me October 2nd (Gandhi birthday, a national holiday in India) held any more importance. It’s about time we evaluate how we look at our heroes. We should evaluate their principles and ideas and then either accept or reject it, not just a make a hero out of someone who died fighting for the country.
(This particular scene from the bollywood movie Lage Raho Munnabhai very aptly captures the sentiment) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrAbPWWdFYI