Union Budget 2019: Do we really need a Gandhipedia?
The FM mentioned Gandhiji, his life and the proposed new govt encyclopedia about him. But there's only one thing about Gandhi ji we actually don't know.
Encyclopedia/Wikipedia is enough for almost everything under the sun. But then, some things are above the sun. Like Mahatma Gandhi. And the BJP government has a solution. For the Father of the Nation, the BJP government wants the father of all encyclopedias which will be named — Gandhipedia.
Now, this is not the first time the Gandhipedia has been named. Like most things that the Finance Minister uttered in her much-hyped, awaited-with-bated-breath speech, Gandhipedia is also quite old. It was mentioned last year, before Gandhiji’s birthday on October 2.
But it failed to create a flutter at that time.
Now, it has.
Why?
Obviously, because of Pragya Thakur — a BJP MP — who once considered Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse 'a patriot'. Coming under fire ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections — which she won — she took back her comment and apologised. She said that the comment was made on the spur of the moment. Her party condemned the comment — and possibly, the moment — and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself talked of punitive measures.
But her candidature was not withdrawn.
Now, that episode has been sealed and sent off to oblivion for good.
But it must still be noted, when it comes to the appropriation of national leaders, there’s no one like the BJP. PM Modi has attributed his aim of achieving a Congress-Mukt Bharat to Gandhiji.
“I am just fulfilling his wishes,” he said earlier this year.
Height of Hypocrisy!@nsitharaman says that Gandhipedia is being developed to make society aware of Gandhian values, we have @BJP4India MP Sadhvipragya denouncing Gandhian values & endorsing Godse.Does the FM has the RSS backing for this or is this just an other announcement?
— Karnataka Congress (@INCKarnataka) July 5, 2019
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was also launched on Gandhi Jayanti in 2014. And 2020 marks the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. So, we really appreciate the announcements of Gandhipedia.
But do we actually need it?
No.
There is adequate and detailed information about Mahatma Gandhi's life and his contributions to politics all around us. There are plenty of books. The National Council for Science Museum could actually be spared the effort of collating that information all over again and housing it all in a single website.
The only sources of misinformation about Gandhi ji perhaps are there inside a particular party.
Removing those could have been a bigger step towards educating our youth about Mahatma Gandhi.
Why wasn't that done? No one has the answer. Not even the Gandhipedia.