‘Mahatma wanted satyagraha against corruption’

“Had Mahatma Gandhi not been assassinated on January 30, 1948, he would have launched a satyagraha against corruption in February 1948 itself,” V Kalyanam, personal secretary to the Father of the Nation told DNA on Friday. He was reacting to social activist Anna Hazare’s fast against corruption and its effect on the country.

Ninety-year-old Kalyanam, who was standing near the Mahatma when he was shot at, joined former election commissioner TS Krishnamoorthy, former director general of police R Nataraj, and a host of youngsters and celebrities to express solidarity with Hazare at Thakkar Bappa Vidyalaya, a school founded by the Mahatma in Chennai.

Kalyanam said Gandhi himself was disheartened and disillusioned within months after independence.
“He told me many times that he has neither any part nor any say in many strange things that were going on in the country even after the British had left,” said Kalyanam. “I am no longer the current coin I fancied I once was,” Gandhiji had told Kalyanam weeks before he was shot dead.

The sit-in at the school drew hardly 200 people, most of them youngsters. “This itself is surprising considering the fact that Tamil Nadu is the motherland of all corruption,” said young Tamil Selvan, a software engineer who opted to be in India rather than in Britain where he was working with a multi-national giant. He said in India patriotism was shown only during cricket matches.

Vimal, a social activist, said people were more interested in IPL than in the fight against corruption. “In fact, more people should have turned up in Tamil Nadu because of the intensity and reach of corruption here. The 2G spectrum scam, the vote for cash syndrome, and the high level of corruption at all levels of society has made Tamil Nadu a laughing stock,” she said.

Professor M Ananthakrishnan, educationist and chairman, governing council, IIT Kanpur, had blasted the Tanil Nadu government recently for “auctioning” vice-chancellorship of universities. “Only persons willing to pay Rs7.5 crore or more are appointed as vice-chancellors,” he told a meeting recently. An upset DMK regime immediately removed him from the post of chairmanship of the executive committee of the elite Science City.

Barring the AIADMK, the BJP and the Communists, no other political parties in the state have expressed solidarity with Hazare. Kalyanam, who came down heavily on the politicians, said if corruption was to be made an event in Olympics, India will definitely win the Gold medal. “Most of the players could be from Tamil Nadu,” he said.

On Thursday night, C Selvaraj and V Gopalakrishnan, two Right to Information activists, launched an indefinite fast as a mark of solidarity with Hazare. They were joined by more than 300 persons who held a candlelight vigil.