MAHATMA Gandhi scribbled a short piece of advice in 1948 about ethical decision-making for those in public service.
“Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self will melt away.”
A young journalist put out a video clip last week that should have impressed Gandhiji. Some of the poorest men, women and children have been sleeping in the freezing Delhi winter, covered only with plastic sheets and gunny bags, outside AIIMS, India’s premier hospital. The people include very ill or old patients who have travelled for treatment from Bihar and Uttar.
It’s not that there is no night shelter outside the hospital, but it still leaves around 100 miserable people in the cold while they await their turn to see the doctor or be called for a procedure that could take days or even weeks to begin.
Reports from abroad are equally dismaying. India has never been humiliated like this. Donald Trump is misbehaving with everyone. Everyone is standing up to him, even Europe, but not India. All BRICS countries censured Trump for the military assault on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president. Brazil is wary of the US because its president has been in prison at America’s behest. Yet it condemned Trump’s assault on neighbouring Venezuela.
South Africa and Russia expressed outrage, and China’s response was priceless. Expressing grave concern over the forcible abduction of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, China said: “Release them at once, stop toppling the government of Venezuela, and resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation.” And how did Vishwaguru, who plays host to the BRICS summit this year, respond?
“Recent developments in Venezuela are a matter of deep concern. We are closely monitoring the evolving situation,” the foreign ministry’s statement read. Not naming the US is understandable, given India’s desperate need to have a trade deal with Trump. But “recent developments”? Wasn’t the president of a sovereign country that once supplied oil to India just seized by the US military?
The very least the fractured parties can do is to stop carping at each other publicly.
It’s perplexing at the very least, therefore, that the Indian opposition continues to be in disarray, despite there being every reason for it to take a lesson from Gandhi’s talisman and give a piece of its mind to the government for an abysmal show at home and abroad.
There isn’t room for excuses. The opposition has known all along that the prime minister has acquired an elixir of invincibility from the handpicked election commission. Modi changed the rules to allow only him to decide who would be the election chief to govern the elections and how. Modi also closed all legal options to remedy what Rahul Gandhi described as “vote chori” or brazen theft of votes. Having slammed all forms of electoral malpractice and to good effect, what has the opposition done about it?
Thinking calmly and collectively should be their first action. If the elections have become a mere formality and the outcome is suspiciously one-sided, with little support coming from the supreme court, what should the people expect of the opposition under the circumstances?
The very least the fractured parties can do is to stop carping at each other publicly. And this is where it’s a curious mystery that Rahul Gandhi, who has spoken on earlier occasions of the need for a second freedom movement, hasn’t stood up, for the sake of peace among his opposition allies, to assure them that he would not be a candidate for the prime minister’s job without a complete consensus.
He could clarify that, though the Congress party historically had the widest nationwide reach, more than the BJP, it is not putting its hat in the ring for the illusory top job. Gandhi could say to himself, yes, the Congress can be influential outside the government. The communists were, as was Gandhiji. And the nation would owe a standing ovation to him and his family for helping create the conditions to unite the fractious opposition behind a common minimum programme. All this without eyeing power.
The overarching need for the Gandhis, together with the rest of the opposition, is to first get Indian democracy running again as prescribed by the constitution, and not by the wilful fiat of an autocrat. The resolution should not be about power sharing, if it can be helped, but about saving the country and restoring trust in its once fabled electoral democracy.
It just so happens that India is in a double bind for the opposition to take guard. It’s being plundered relentlessly by a handful of favoured corporates on the one hand, while being fractured by communally divisive politics on the other. The opposition must display moral courage to wage a veritable two-front battle. The businesses are wary of Gandhi as he speaks of crony capitalism. Communalism grows because its financiers are the same lot.
Above all, the problem is one of extremely selfish interests that the opposition masks. Last week’s headlines were cheering Prime Minister Modi for winning another municipal election for his party, this time in Mumbai. What was left unsaid was equally important. The opposition had cut each other’s votes.
Elections are due in opposition-ruled West Bengal, where the communists are rooting for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s arrest. In Kerala, the communists have the Congress in their crosshairs. And each one of them was an enthusiastic member of the now almost-defunct INDIA alliance. Perhaps Rahul has a way of retrieving lost hope from Gandhi’s talisman.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2026
