11 November, 2008

185 More MG Roads

Rediff reports the WTF news of the day:

The Gandhi Monument Council, headquartered in the United States of America, has approached mayors of 185 cities in 39 countries to name a major street after Mahatma Gandhi .

The cities contacted included hugely-populated ones like Seoul (peopled by over 10 million), Tokyo, New York and London, to sparsely populated ones like Eschen (in Liechtenstein, with a population of about 4,000), Valletta (Malta), Encamp (Andorra), Dudelange (Luxembourg), a press release from the GMC stated.

The office bearers of the GMC have begun a hunger strike that they have promised not to end until all the cities comply.

Ok, fine, I made that last line up. But not the first two. If Gandhi himself was alive, I suspect he might have taken a break from ahimsa and strangled these GMC dudes with some homespun khadi threads. He was a master of using symbolism to inspire people—that charkha, that fistful of salt etc—but it was always tactical, aimed at fulfilling a higher purpose. This is just pointless idol worship.

(Link via email from Rajeev Mantri.)