Gopal Krishna Gandhi: Time for a little Gandhigiri

BACKSTAGE

School kids studying civics or the structure of the Indian government universally hate the chapter titled “President and Governors”. It is boring, packed with technical references and sleep-inducing as it goes on and on about constitutional entities that seem to have little real purpose.

But why blame just the school kids?

When it came to power in 1977, the Left Front in West Bengal lobbied to abolish the post of governor and routinely abused the occupant of Kolkata’s Raj Bhavan for being a spy and agent of the central government, always looking for ways to impose President’s Rule in the state.

It is ironic, therefore, that the current governor, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, is the one person the Left is pinning all its hopes on to end the deadlock in Singur and get Mamata Banerjee to end her dharna in front of Tata Motor’s Nano factory.

Gandhi is the chairman of the meeting where five-member teams from the two combating sides are trying to work out a solution for the Singur issue, under the advice of Chittatosh Mukherjee, former chief justice of the Bombay High Court and acting governor of Maharashtra. And Gandhi has had major problems with the Left.

Leaders routinely criticised him for visiting waterlogged or flooded areas of Kolkata and the state as they felt he was playing to the gallery. Matters peaked in late-2007.

Gandhi had expressed concern when armed CPI (M) supporters in early November 2007 violently took over Nandigram. On November 9, 2007, he said, in a press release, that darkness had descended during Deepavali in Nandigram. What happened in Nandigram was both illegal and wrong, he added.

This infuriated the CPI (M) party brass, which questioned his jurisdiction in commenting on Nandigram. CPI (M) leaders like Biman Bose and Binoy Konar abused him for days to follow; at one massive CPI (M) public rally at the Maidan soon after, Gandhi was accused of being partial towards the Trinamool Congress.

“Go and pick up a Trinamool flag but have the decorum to get out of the Raj Bhavan and leave for good.” Gandhi chose to ignore such venomous attacks.

And that is what he is really. He is tactful and discreet all the time, and puts responsibility and duty towards office before his private identity. The people of West Bengal have grown fond of him: They love his sympathetic nature (as reflected in his visits to distressed communities) and his extraordinary public speaking skills on display at functions ranging from convocations in universities to book launches and memorial lectures.

Gandhi, born in 1945, governor since 2004, is easily the most popular governor of West Bengal ever, and that’s not because he is the youngest grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. [Son of Devadas Gandhi and Lakshmi Gandhi; C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) is Gandhi’s maternal grandfather.]

And if all goes well at the Singur meeting, he will go down in history as the governor who saved the Nano project for the state and a government that only a few months ago was abusing him.

And then, maybe, the Left, and school kids, will read the chapter on presidents and governors more carefully.