With “Gandhigiri” now scoring points with even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who watched the much talked about Sanjay Dutt film on Wednesday night, distraught Delhi traders have decided to give it a try. Resorting to a different sort of protest against the dreaded sealing drive across the Capital, traders from different parts of the city gathered at the headquarters of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi here on Thursday armed with bouquets and “Get Well Soon” cards.

Carrying black flags and citing Dr. Singh’s “orders” after watching the film, the traders hope that he would step in to solve the issues. The traders also demanded that the MCD authorities abide by the MCD Act of 1957.

Meanwhile, the 72-hours “Delhi trade bandh” called by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) from this coming Monday has garnered more support.

Since last seven weeks I am compiling news about Gandhigiri on this site, but first time I am thinking that if the news item I am going to post on my site with post is really relevant to gandhigiri? First of all, the professor who is responsible for this news is not agree that his acts can be classifieds as Gandhigiri, Second I sense something is wrong in this whole story.

But still, I am posting this news item on the site, just because all media has classified this news item as Gandhigiri …..

So here it is ……

Professor Matuknath Choudhary, who hit the headlines for his affair with a former student, Julie, on Wednesday marched up to the office of the Patna University vice chancellor (VC) with a group of students demanding revocation of his suspension order.

Wearing marigold garlands, Choudhary donned a Gandhi cap while marching up to the VC’s office from B N College. His followers, too, had donned the Gandhi cap. However, their efforts went in vain as the VC was not present in his official chamber.

Speaking to a battery of journalists, Choudhary said that he does not agree with the description of his protest as “gandhigiri”, a word taken from the Bollywood blockbuster, “Lage Raho Munna Bhai,” as the word had a violent connotation.

“Like dadagiri, gandhigiri has a violent connotation with which a person like me would not like to associate. If people are being inspired by gandhigiri, then there is no harm in it,” he said.

Choudhary said that he believed in performing his duty and was not interested in the results. Citing some “shlokas” from the Bhagwat Gita, he expressed his anger over delay in revocation of his suspension by the university authorities.

The students were also sore over the delay in revocation of suspension of the “Love Guru”. They said that their curriculum was getting disturbed due to the suspension of their beloved “Love Guru”.

PU VC S Ehtashamuddin had suspended Choudhary, a professor in the Hindi department of B N College, for unauthorisedly taking Julie to a class, where he delivered a lecture, and occupying an official flat in an unauthorised manner.

Choudhary, who is in his ‘50s, and Julie, who is less than half his age, shot into limelight when Choudhary’s wife Abha filed a case against the duo for adultery and torture.

Abha had even grabbed Julie by hair and dragged her on the floor while some overenthusiastic youths smeared Choudhary’s face on the premises of Sultanganj police station. Later, a case of assault was also registered against Abha.

Choudhary had, however, found a sympathiser in railway minister Lalu Prasad, who had said in Hajipur that there was nothing wrong in the professor falling in love with his former student. However, Lalu had a piece of advice for the “Love Guru” — never indulge in such (mis)adventures and that if someone indulges in such an act, he should also take care of his wife.

Gujarat is gearing up to do a Gandhigiri on the taxman and finance minister P Chidambaram’s controversial Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT).

Come October 31, 2006, and the Income-Tax machinery across the state could find itself paralysed by a unique form of satyagraha — thousands of FBT returns with a protest note flooding IT offices.

What’s more, even if the protesting taxpayers do cough up FBT on the disputed items, the taxman won’t be able to get his hands on it.

For, the FBT amount will either go into the government treasury with a refund request or to a separate bank account in the name of the taxpayer with a scheduled bank, as per the Gujarat High Court’s interim relief.

This will leave the pragmatic Gujarat businessman in a win-win situation and the harried taxman with no option but to cough up refunds or issue lakhs of notices, a mammoth task that the 200-300 odd taxmen will be ill-equipped to tackle.

At least that’s what Mukesh Patel, founder of ‘Tax Payers Awareness Campaign’ of the I-T Bar Association of Ahmedabad, Pankaj Patel, Zydus group chairman and president of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Justice BC Patel, former chief justice of the Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir High Courts, are counting on.

The Gandhigiri will first see the three Patels addressing a gathering of 700 tax professionals and businessmen on Monday.

This is expected to snowball into a statewide movement as the deadline for filing tax returns nears with booklets explaining the opposition to FBT and VCDs being prepared to be beamed into homes through cable TV.

“We believe Gandhigiri is the right way to combat FBT,” says Mukesh Patel.

Bollywood flick Lage Raho Munnabhai seems to have inspired many people to adopt flower power and ‘Gandhigiri’ as a means of protest. Carpenter Naresh Sharma even managed to get timely payment from a client who had reportedly refused to pay him his dues. Sharma sat on a day-long dharna with Mahatma Gandhi’s poster in front of his client’s shop, on Friday. With this, Sharma not only earned media attention, his embarrassed client promptly paid him through cheque on Saturday morning.

Sharma (22), hailing from Rajasthan, has been working with his team of four-five carpenters in Vadodara ever since he was in his early teens. Sharma had made furniture for Sanjay Shah, a stationery store owner who did not pay up. ‘‘The bill was around Rs 13,400 but Sanjaybhai said he would pay me only Rs 4,000 and thereafter even dilly-dallied on that,’’ said Sharma. ‘‘I did not want to resort to violence, or turn to the police. I just thought of some peaceful manner in which I could get my money back,’’ admits Sharma.

And so, the Sanjay Dutt-starrer came in handy. After putting up a Gandhi poster on a wall, Sharma and a few of his friends sat on a dharna opposite the stationery shop. The move not only attracted the attention of passers-by, but also that of the police and the local media. On Saturday morning, Sharma was a happy man. He said that the shopkeeper handed him a cheque of Rs 9,000. ‘‘This is not the entire amount, but at least I got something substantial, which is what I wanted for my work,’’ said Sharma.