Being buoyed up by its popular incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, every nook and corner of India has got these days obtrusively engrossed in the massive Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India campaign). Kudos to the amiable PM for having rekindled the bleak wick of Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi)’s pet candle of ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’ and his momentous mantra of ‘self-reliance’.
More credit also simultaneously goes to our erudite PM Modiji for having virtually provided us (one and all) a platform for self-introspection even after the over six-decade old most cherished and precious Independence. Modiji has also implicitly given us an opportunity to reflect on the post-Independence renovation that India has undergone being induced by globalisation, modernisation, westernisation and computerisation, of late. Thus, having embraced all types of the ‘tions’, our beloved motherland today paradoxically feels choked with ‘pollution’ and ‘corruption’.
While chewing the cud, a sensible citizen craves for a Clean India free from all filths- political, social, communal and cultural – apart from the literal litters (waste materials). While mulling over the nitty-gritty of the issue — Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, and we all having jumped into the bandwagon, it all appears as if having proffered a pretty photo ops for politicians and celebrities with a passion for hogging the headlines and scurrying for being in limelight. Social media pages flood with pictures of leaders holding jhadoos (broomsticks), but are conspicuously clad in spick-and-span outfit and hand gloves seeming incongruous for the occasion. Public servants have taken oath (ironical solemn lip service) to keep the campaign buoyant even for the GenX to religiously emulate.
In a bid to make the Clean India campaign a reality and a true tribute to our Father of the Nation, a devout and dedicated approach is warranted from one and all. We should all remember “Charity begins from one’s own home, but should not end there”. We must also always remember: “It’s good to be important, but it’s more important to be good”. Each and every citizen’s penance is the need of the hour.
Prince Siddharth first purged himself to ‘be’ the Buddha (the Enlightened) and then ‘made’ as he was well aware of the fact that “Example is better than precept”. All great men (both mythological and historical) have done so, so too had been Bapu. The Sabarmati Santh (Saint of Sabarmati Ashram), despite being jeered by the then British Prime Minister Winstern Churchill as nanga fakir (a naked mendicant), piously and persistently practised himself each and every moment whatever he preached.
Although being armed with the maxims “Honesty is the best policy” and “Perseverance pays”, it is sooner said than done due to our parochial and a typically nine-day-wonder mindset. Hence, it may sound cynical but is a fact that this novel campaign will also meet its fate of fiasco inferring “Fish and visitors stink in three days”.
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledgeIJ
Where is the knowledge we have lost in informationIJ
Where is the life we have lost in livingIJ” – T. S. Eliot
(Dr Rout is a management expert based in Bhubaneswar)