Kanu Ramdas Gandhi, whose picture holding his grandfather Mahatma Gandhi’s stick on the beaches of Gujarat’s Dandi village during the historic Salt Satyagraha of March-April 1930, has been etched in public memory for over eight decades and even immortalised in memorials on the Salt Satyagraha at Mumbai’s Juhu Beach and several other parts of the country.
However, today, the 87-year-old Kanu, an ex-Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) scientist, lies critical in a charitable hospital here, with little monetary resources and virtually nobody to care for him.
Ahmedabad-based Dhimant Badhia, an old friend and grandson of a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, is arranging for small monetary help for the ailing Kanu, and recently donated Rs 21,000 ($315) from his personal resources.
“The Radhakrishna Temple is rendering a great service. They got him admitted to the Shiv Jyoti Hospital nearby and are taking care of his 90-year old wife, Shivalaxmi Kanu Gandhi, who is practically deaf and suffers from other old age-related problems,” Badhia revealed.
The going has not been good for the elderly childless Gandhi couple since their return after a four-decade-long stay in the US in 2014, including Kanu’s career of over 25 years with Nasa.
Handpicked by the then US ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith, for studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (in MIT), Kanu later worked with Nasa and the US defence department on wing structures fighter aircraft, while Shivalaxmi was a professor and researcher at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute.
“After returning to India, they kept moving from one place to another as they had no place of their own here. They lived for short spells in ashrams or inns, and at one point were compelled to spend six months in New Delhi’s Guru Vishram Vruddha Ashram,” Badhia said.
That experience was harrowing as the ashram, meant for mentally ill senior citizens, was located in an unsafe locality, and the Gandhis had to hire private armed security guards.
Then a minister got in touch with Kanu and he even spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Modi was most sympathetic and even assured help. But till date, we have not heard from either his office or the Gujarat government,” said Badhia, adding that no Gujarat leader or ministers have visited or enquired about Kanu.
The turning point came on his arrival in Surat on October 22 when he suffered a cardiac arrest and a severe stroke which left half his body paralysed. Since then, Kanu remains in coma and on life-support systems, with Shivalaxmi and an aide Rakesh, deployed by the temple authorities, beside him.
“I cannot travel frequently from Ahmedabad to Surat due to old age. An ashram aide, Rakesh, is deployed round-the-clock to look after Kanu, while the temple authorities care for Shivalaxmi,” Badhia said.
Fortunately, Kanu’s very aged sister - Usha Gokani from Mumbai - regularly enquires after his health and another Bangalore-based sister, Sumitra Kulkarni, a former Rajya Sabha member, visited him recently.
Badhia feels bitter that the world-famous Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, “which is splurging crores of rupees to prepare for its upcoming centenary next year; or scores of institutions set up by Mahatma Gandhi or named after him with huge funding from the government - simply does not care for Gandhi’s ideals or his descendants”.