Net Expert Spins A Web Around Shiv Sena

Jamanlal Mehta barely manages to capture a flier bearing a picture of Mahatma Gandhis great grandson Tushar Gandhi that is thrown towards him. He brings it close to his bleary eyes and studies the bearded face on it.

Sitting in the porch of his dilapidated building in Mumbais north-western suburb of Andheri, 85-year old Mehta said, he does not look like him. He seems more stout. Gandhiji was frail in body, but exceptionally strong in his physical presence. I saw Gandhiji frequently during the 1942 Quit India movement. Because of my failing eye sight, I could barely see his great grandson who came campaigning here.

 

The 38-year old Gandhi is contesting the North-West Mumbai parliamentary seat on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket. A week before the election on February 28, Gandhi, a printing technologist who makes a livelihood by designing web sites, is carrying out a self-effacing campaign. His pedigree as a Gandhi matters to him only inasmuch as it signifies moral courage.

The North-West Mumbai constituency is home to many of Indias biggest names in cinema, theatre, music and industry. It is not easily swayed by names or lineage, which partly explains the success of Gandhis main rival, incumbent Member of Parliament Shiv Senas Madhukar Sarpotdar. Despite his controversial background, that includes allegations that he was involved in ferrying arms during the 1992-93 riots in the city, Sarpotdar is considered a sure winner.

I am not worried about the Gandhi name. The people here are not impressed by names. I have a track record of service of over one and a half decades, earlier as a state legislator, he said. Sarpotdar gets angry when told of the allegations of his involvement in rioting. I have clarified in Parliament that I had no role to play in the rioting, he said.

However, Gandhi insists the people in the constituency have voted for him more out of fear than conviction. Gandhi said he does not use his lineage for political gain. Bapuji (as he calls the Mahatma) is my reference point in everything I do, but I do not keep harping on the fact that I am a Gandhi. That is only a small part of it. I am more interested in doing some of the things that he fought for all his life, Tushar Gandhi said.

Gandhis candidature for the Samajwadi Party, whose main presence is in Uttar Pradesh, has been somewhat controversial because of the partys controversial reputation. Gandhi admitted there had been a degree of uncertainty and apprehension in his family about his choice, but things are smooth now. The party stands for social justice on the lines of Gandhis philosophy. Besides, any political party should be a vehicle for delivering a larger good and that is my goal.

The response to the presence of a true blue Gandhi, as one of his volunteers described it, has been a mix of curiosity and anticipation. During one of Gandhis long walks through a working class neighbourhood, a leprosy patient begging nearby closed his eyes, folded his hands and said some prayer. The patient, Krishna Reddy, from Andhra Pradesh, said: My grandfather too was afflicted by leprosy in the early 1930s. He was among the patients whom Gandhiji tended to then. For me, Tushar Gandhi is a symbol of the ultimate human being the country has produced. He has to win.

Despite his controversial background, Sarpotdar is a popular figure in the constituency. His supporters say he has nursed his constituency well. He is a go-getter. Right from making slums more livable to law and order, he has been available. I think he is the only one who can be effective as our representative, said Shishir Waigankar, a resident of a shantytown.

But, Gandhi asserted that most of what Sarpotdar claims is exaggerated. People just get taken in by rhetoric. The situation on ground is nowhere close to what he has been saying, he said.

Tushar Gandhis agenda reflects many of the social concerns that Gandhi fought for. What is the need to divide India on the basis of religion, caste or language? Indias greatest strength has been in accepting everything that is good. It would be extremely dangerous to undermine that strength, he said.

Apart from criminalisation of politics, he said he wants to look at basic issues such as education, health and sanitation. These should be the main focus of any growing society. In our case these are entirely incidental. In my constituency, sanitation is such a major problem. My great grandfather would have been horrified that after 50 years of independence we do not educate our children, we do not provide them proper health care or sanitation, he said.

Gandhis views on economic reforms are interesting. I know a lot of leaders have opposed liberalisation in the Mahatmas name. What we need to do is liberalise with a human face. I have nothing against foreign investment in any area as long as it comes with some degree of social responsibility. For instance, if there is a company investing Rs 500 crore in a project why cant it adopt at least five villages to reengineer their economy. The village still remains the basic economic unit of this country and we can forget it only at our peril, he said.

The constituency has an electorate of 1.5 million, out of which about 800,000 are Hindus, 350,000 Muslims, 250,000 Dalits and 120,000 Christians. I am aware of the likely division of votes. But, I am not in politics for one election. I am in it for a long haul, Gandhi said.

Sunil Dutt, a film star turned Congress party leader, had won from this constituency for three successive terms since 1984 before he quit. Even in the 1996 elections, Sarpotdars main Congress rival and former Mumbai mayor Nirmala Sawant-Prabhawalkar polled over 232,000 votes compared to 321,000 by the former. Gandhi is contesting with the backing of the Congress and the Republican Party of India.

Gandhis main worry is the presence of Aftab Ahmed Khan of the Janata Dal, who is unlikely to win but is bound to divide votes against him. If Khan had not contested, Gandhi would have made it difficult for Sarpotdar.

He said he did not consciously work towards earning a party nomination. His campaign during the last three years began with a protest against insulting remarks about the Mahatma on a television talk show, followed by a similar action against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who had said he did not recognise Gandhi as the father of the nation and finally a high-profile movement to get the ashes of his great grandfather released from a bank locker.

The Mahatmas grand children and great grand children have generally stayed away from politics except one. Tushar Gandhis uncle, Rajmohan Gandhi, has been in public life for some time now. He once contested against Rajiv Gandhi in Amethi and lost. He was later nominated a member of the Rajya Sabha, but lately he has been pursuing a career as a writer and academic.