Ashish Lata Ramgobin, great-granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi:
We usually sit silently in front of Bapu’s statue on occasions of inner conflict and self-aggrandizement and sit for self-purification.
But after reading this news of his great-granddaughter, how else would Bapu make atonement in front of whose statue?
Because the act of Ashish Lata is like digging a tunnel in integrity itself. Isn’t this a situation like darkness under a lamp?
What do you think?
It was perhaps one of the most shocking news of this century that Ashish Lata, the great-granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, was sentenced to seven years in prison by a South African court for fraud.
This fraud is about three and a half crores in Indian rupees. If it is a matter of money, then the amount of Ashish Lata’s scam is nothing compared to the 14 thousand crore bank fraudsters Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi and 9 thousand crores fraudster Vijay Mallya, who fled abroad. But South Africa’s judicial system is perhaps more streamlined.
Sorry and surprised
As an Indian, this news is disturbing because Ashish Lata is the great-granddaughter of that Bapu, who used truth throughout his life, fought for the truth and lived for the truth.
In what form the entire Gandhi family took this news, it is not yet clear, but it is certain that having the surname ‘Gandhi’ or having a blood relation with him is not a guarantee of virtuous character.
In this country, people usually know only two families by the surname ‘Gandhi’. The first is the father of the nation ie Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the second is the country’s top political ‘Gandhi family’.
The real surname of Feroze Jahangir, husband of former Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, was Gandhi. He was a Parsi. But it is said that influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he changed the spelling of his name from ‘Gandhi’s to ‘Gandhi’ in English.
Since Jawaharlal Nehru, this Gandhi family has remained the axis of the Congress party. Self. We know very well the journey from Indira Gandhi to Sonia and now Rahul Gandhi.
The graph of his character change and commitment is also in front of us, but we do not know much about the ‘real’ Gandhis, the descendants of Mahatma Gandhi. Except for a few names like Ila Gandhi, Gopal Krishna Gandhi or Tushar Gandhi etc.
Gandhi family and the world
All the members of the Gandhi family, which are now spread in many countries of the world, have largely lived around the ideas of their inspirational man, Bapu.
But this is not a monastic tradition. Some relatives are associated with social service and human service, while some are writing books. That is, wherever they are, the aura of the surname ‘Gandhi’ keeps illuminating them in some form or the other.
Ashish Lata Ramgobin is also the great-granddaughter of the same Mahatma Gandhi and lives in South Africa. Manilal, one of Gandhi’s four sons, returned to South Africa in 1917 and later stayed there.
He was counted among the obedient sons of Gandhi. Manilal lived in the Phoenix Ashram established by Bapu in South Africa and edited a bilingual (English and Gujarati) paper called ‘Indian Opinion.
He also died in South Africa 9 years after Bapu’s assassination. Ila Gandhi Ramgobin is the daughter of the same Manilal. Noted human rights activist Ila was married to Mewa Ramgobin. Ila’s daughter is 56-year-old Ashish Lata Ramgobin.
Although Bapu’s descendants have also been embroiled in controversies at times, to think that someone will go to jail for fraud, is also like thinking that a soldier who has gone to join the army suddenly joins some terrorist organization. Ashish Lata was accused of cheating in business with an industrialist SR Maharaj.
The court found that SR Maharaj had allegedly given 6.2 million rands (African currency) to Lata to import a consignment from India and clear customs duties, which did not exist. It also promised them a share of the profits.
This case is from the year 2015. At that time, South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Brigadier Hungwani Moolaudji had said that Ashish Lata had allegedly given fake invoices and documents to convince potential investors that three containers of linen were coming from India. Then Lata was released on bail of 50 thousand rands (South African currency).
Crime background
Ashish Lata had met SR Maharaj, Director, New Africa Alliance Footwear Distributors, in August 2015. Maharaj’s company imports, manufactures and sells clothing, linens, footwear. His company also provides financial help to other companies under profit margin.
Lata assured Maharaj that 3 containers of linen ordered from India have to be delivered to the South African hospital group ‘Net Care’. For this they need money. Lata also showed the documents related to ‘Net Care Company’ to Maharaj. On this Maharaj dealt with Lata and gave money.
Whereas in reality, no container of linen came from India. After coming to know about this fraud, the director of Maharaj’s company filed a case against Lata in court. Which has now been decided.
It is noteworthy that Ashish Lata was the founder and executive director of a program of an NGO named ‘International Center for Non-Violence’, who described herself as an activist caring for environmental, social and political interests. But in reality, she was doing all this fraud.
Why was Lata doing this?
Did he not care about his blood relations with the Gandhi family?
If so, it is difficult to say whether he had ever considered the discount that would have been levied on Bapu by this act of fraud.
Actually, there are only one or two Kirti men/women in every lineage or clan. The rest of the generations survive by eating only the rugs of their effort and the rotis of the heritage and occasionally flaunts it.
Because living up to high and extraordinary ideals, sticking to one’s principles and dedicating oneself to the cause of the whole of humanity is like climbing Everest, whose path also has to be made.
In other words, the descendants of great human beings are ordinary human beings, having common virtues and demerits and living life under the control of desires and attachments.
We worship Bapu like a great man, but we do not remember whether the descendants of Rama and Krishna, who are considered to be incarnations of God, had any special role in creating history or taking it forward.
From this point of view, the character of Ashish Lata is the character of a common man and a woman who considers wickedness to be an essential condition of life. For such people, even the great character of the ideal man of his clan is not more important than the backdrop of a decorated stage.
Questions that churn the minds of Indians
Here a question definitely churns in the mind that if Bapu was alive today (although one of his sons had rebelled against Bapu when he was alive), what would you have thought about this development? With what lens do you see the reality of your values and moral ideals?
On what scale would you measure your steadfast insistence on non-violence (in Bapu’s eyes corruption would have been violence too)? In what way would you justify your spiritual experiment of making an ordinary man a god by self-power beyond deceit? One can only imagine this.
We usually sit silently in front of Bapu’s statue on occasions of inner conflict and self-aggrandizement and sit for self-purification.
But after reading this news of his great-granddaughter, how else would Bapu make atonement in front of whose statue?
Because the act of Ashish Lata is like digging a tunnel in integrity itself. Isn’t this a situation like darkness under a lamp?
What do you think?
