The Child is the Father of Man

May 14, 2004, 12.00am IST
INDU JAIN.

Sometimes, the voice of innocence can jolt us out of cynicism. Flipping through TV channels yesterday, I chanced upon Rahul Gandhi talking about defeated Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. With not a trace of arrogance or gloating, Rahul pointed out that Naidu had worked hard and done a lot for the people for 10 years. It wasn’t fair for the media and other critics to suddenly turn upon him so viciously. When somebody said that A B Vajpayee had called him a bachcha (child), he replied, “Yes, I am very young. I will become a man by working hard.”


Only a statesman, or a newcomer to politics, can speak with such magnani-mity. Actually, the two terms needn’t be contradictory. There have been many young heads of state, like William Pitt — who became prime minister of the UK when he was barely 23. Rahul’s own father, Rajiv, became PM when he was 40. There is much of Rahul that is remini-scent of his father in 1984. He exudes the same idealism, youthful dynamism, and forward-looking vision, and he has similarly seized the imagination of a public that is sick and tired of the politics of negativism and cynicism.

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Rahul spoke with such tolerance and open-mindedness. He is, after all, the scion of a family that has long embodied these very Indian values. Even though his family has been at the receiving end of much criticism, Rahul remains remarkably devoid of bitterness. His observation about Naidu could set a healthy new trend in Indian politics of gracious beha-viour towards opponents, especially defeated ones. Ironically, this ‘new’ development would only mark a return to our traditional values.

Akbar was called ‘the Great’ because of his policy of inclusiveness. He didn’t wipe out vanquished foes; he assimilated them into his empire and was willing to respect diversity. When the Greek conquerer Alexander asked Porus how he would like to be treated, the captive replied, “As one king treats another”.


Magnanimity in victory and stoicism in defeat have been recurrent themes of Indian history. This philo- sophy was very visible during the struggle for Independence, spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi and Rahul’s great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru. Standards in public life since then have fallen steeply; our greatest hopes now lie with Rahul, and others of his generation for they possess the unique gift of youth: freedom from the confining shackles of the past. It is only by breaking away from the scars and traumas of what has gone before that we can break through the vicious spiral of karma.
For far too long, as a coun-try and as individuals we have suffered the legacy of past hatreds based on selective societal memory. Indeed, the very birth of the country was synonymous with the agonising vivisection of Partition whose wounds have yet to heal.


Kashmir remains a bleeding sore on a polity in which, ironically, the majority were born long after Partition. Yet this is the generation which must face the often brutal consequences of the spectres from the past. Deaths in Kashmir and on the frozen wilderness of Siachen are not those of the old, but the young — a blood sacrifice on the altar of the past.


Too many have already paid the huge price demanded by history. It’s time to shed baggage and move on. And it is in Rahul that today’s India sees its true reflection — an image that looks resolutely forward to a brave new horizon and not fearfully over its shoulder, because it has never allowed memory to set in.