Still a long way to go

The Union agriculture minister hasn’t been an ideal advertisement for his leader’s great Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiative. In hurriedly answering nature’s call, avowedly at a remote location somewhere in Bihar, Radha Mohan Singh perversely put things in perspective regarding the sanitation drive. How much further India must improve as a society was made evident by a Cabinet minister having to relieve himself in the open. Another issue cropped up as the social media had a go at the minister: a red beacon was apparently spotted in the revealing picture of Mr Singh caught in the act. A mindset of privilege won’t change overnight, and it may be unfair to expect a new normal to replace the old ways at a stroke.

The minister’s urgency in seeking release, much like Peter Sellers in The Party displaying the overwhelming feeling of relief in the act, shouldn’t, however, be seen as condemnation of the entire Swachh movement as Bihar’s entire political class makes it out to be. The sanitation programme is vital for India, and rural areas are taking great pride in declaring themselves ODF, or open-defecation free. The facetious may see these acts in terms of numbers, but defecation in a controlled environment is a grave civilisational challenge for us even after so many years have rolled by in the new millennium. Surely, the grand plans to build 12 million individual, cluster and community toilets by October 2019 should not be scoffed at just for one minister’s indiscretion in an unwittingly publicised trip to answer the call of nature in bucolic style.