ON January 17, Tushar Gandhi will turn 37 and for the time being, things seem to be firmly in place. The STAR TV controversy is in the chief metropolitan magistrate's court. On January 30, he will have immersed the much-battled for ashes of the Father of the Nation at Triveni Sangam in Allahabad.
And unlike his US-based relative Yogesh Gandhi, who embarrassed the Clinton administration by funding and "trying to graft himself onto the Gandhi family", Tushar's pictures are in the papers for the right reasons. Of the 81 living kin of the Mahatma, this great-grandson seems to pop up uncannily at all the right places. But with his recent dharna protesting against Bal Thackeray's derogatory reference to the Mahatma evoking little more than a few sympathetic clucks from the Congress, one wonders if it is the right time.
Too late in life, Tushar realised that like some folks, some Gandhis too are more equal than others. While the Congress in Mum-bai fell over each other trying to win a smile from the usually stiff upper-lipped Sonia Gandhi, they had only sympathy to offer to Tushar. The sun had set on one Gandhi family, but continued to lend its brilliance to another. "I don't resent it," says Tushar. He had in true Gandhian tradition, finished sweeping the kitchen floor of his modest flat in Santa Cruz in suburban Mumbai. "They have achieved their status because they have worked for it, since their importance has evolved out of a democratic process. Why should we grudge them anything? Besides, the Nehrus have never said that their one vote is equal to 10 votes." In spite of the dramatic swing in fortunes, politically—"I am interested in politics, more as a player than commentator, but I can't identify with any party. My professional life is not as good as it should be. But my wife Sonal's bank job keeps the home fires burning,"—Tushar is not embittered. But he is an angry young man—one who finds swallowing misconceptions about the Mahatma bitter.
The professional graphic designer considers it a "privilege and not a burden" to be the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Except when he has to live on water to uphold the family's name. "Yes, I do love to eat but fasting isn't a problem. After all it is just a mental state," observes Tushar about the 30-hour dharna in front of the larger-than-li- fesize statue of Gandhi outside Mantralaya protesting against Thackeray's spiel about his forefather's saintliness. Nicknamed the 'Gandhi in jeans', Tushar has been creating ripples for the past two years, though they have been written off as reflections of past glory. First, he wiped the smile off the Nikki Tonight show by hauling Murdoch's outfit to court; then he wrested the ashes of his illustrious ancestor from a Bhubaneswar bank locker and now has turned to Thackeray's contemplation on the Mahatma's celibacy to become newsworthy.
Does Tushar then surface only as an occasional flash for photographers? Or has he mastered the art of keeping the controversy charkha spinning? His detractors who feel that the man doth protest too much, have begun wondering if Gandhiji would have approved. Stating that "drama has always been attached to my birth"—he was born on the Howrah Mail via Nagpur en route to Akola—Tushar is unmoved by insinuations. "I am not Gandhi. I wouldn't have to react if he were around. But why should I let untruths go unchallenged thinking, is this how he would want me to react?" Tushar's experiments with the untruths levelled against Gandhi by Thackeray have brooked no response from the tiger's den. But the 'over-100 kg' Tushar is not worried if his words hold no weight. "I don't think they would like to give any importance to me. Reacting would have meant acknowledging that a wrong was done." But then, he has been accused of being a 'reactor' rather than an 'actor'. It hasn't changed the popular perception that
Tushar is more in search of gain than godliness. "I know I have done nothing. But who wouldn't want to see his mug in the papers? On my own, I have never sent press releases. I don't cancel things just because the press hasn't turned up. I don't have a PR agency to promote me. All this publicity simply goes into my press clippings file which I hope to show my grandchildren someday." His ultimate dream is to set up ashrams in Kashmir and Punjab for children orphaned by violence. "That would be the best monument to Bapuji," he says. Keeping Gandhiji's memory alive is quite an uphill task for Tushar. While his alma mater Adarsh Vidya Mandir which is run along Gandhian lines suffers from poor funding, Tushar has admitted his children, Vivan and Kasturi, to Bloomingdale's, an English medium school. He wears khadi "sometimes to hide my weight", eats non-vegetarian food and could find it awesome to fit into the mighty shoes of the Mahatma. And differing foot sizes have little to do with that.
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