Gautam Gambhir on lockdown: I don’t want a single picture of me distributing rations, I hate it

MP and former cricketer, Gautam Gambhir is strictly against the idea of making charity for a cause look like any sort of marketing propaganda. With a lot of time to spend with his family amid this extended lockdown, he’s ensuring he fulfils all his duties towards his constituency.

He gets disturbed while talking about the plight of migrant workers, irked on the mention of those who boast about their contribution to a cause. Balancing his duties as the Lok Sabha MP from East Delhi, and spending time at home with his family, Gautam Gambhir has his hands full and is staying calm. As the country enters third phase of the lockdown, the former cricketer talks to us about the measures being taken in his constituency “to bring the crisis under control”, relief work done by the Gautam Gambhir Foundation, and urges everyone “to be united, as this is the only way to win this battle”. Excerpts:

Lok Sabha MP from East Delhi, Gautam Gambhir has been regularly interacting with the volunteers distributing rations in his constituency.

Over 40 days into the lockdown... how are you holding up?

I’ve got the opportunity to do all the things that I haven’t done throughout my life,actually. I’ve always been busy, first because of cricket, and then politics. Now, I’m spending with my little ones — making them sleep, playing with them — seeing them grow is the best feeling. I’ve been telling everyone that look at this lockdown from a positive point of view.

Your daughters must be surprised to see you at home all these days. Was it tough to explain the situation outside, to your kids?

The younger one (Anaiza, 3) is too small, and loves to play,so she doesn’t have that question. But, the elder one (Aazeen (6) does ask sometimes ‘why can’t we go out’, so I’ve told her there’s a lockdown. She’s only waiting for this to finish and then probably wants to go to Hamley’s for her birthday presents (she turned 6 on April 1). Also, she misses her school, friends, though she’s doing online classes, it’s not the same.

Like many others celebrities and public figures, are you also being over active on social media during this time? Do you mind that or are you comfortable with the idea?

It depends what do you want to gain out of this lockdown. I’ve always wanted to keep things private. Yes, I do have posted certain pictures and videos of my daughters on Instagram, which probably I haven’t done that in the past, but I don’t believe in putting everything out on social media. I don’t believe in putting my personal life, what my kids or I am doing at home on social media because some things need to be kept private as well. Lot of people do make videos and stuff but that’s their way of living life.

That way you really haven’t talked much about the relief work your foundation is doing. Tell us something about that. What all has been done so far?

One thing I want to share is that I’ve made very clear to my foundation team that whenever we distribute this the rations and food, I don’t ever wan’t a single picture of me because I hate it. I don’t want that. I see a lot of people who distribute kits with their own picture on it and I don’t believe in it.When you’re giving something to someone, why do you want to have your own marketing stuff on that? Okay, I won’t lie, we’ve got carry bags which has my foundation’s name on it, but not my photograph or anything, because if it gets lost, people should know that this entire thing is from the foundation. Apart from that I haven’t put a single video of me distributing. If you’re doing a good cause, do it from your heart not for people to start talking about it. If that’s your mission to do it, then your entire scenario and vision change about things. But if your intent is to help someone, then you don’t bother whether people are talking about it or not. It gives so much of self satisfaction.

And there are many who claim they’re doing their bit but actually are not. To avoid such questions being posed later, are you maintaining any kind of a record for whatever relief work your foundation is doing?

I’ve never lied about things. I’ve always given the right numbers and the data as well. I’ll never say that, ‘you know I’ve distributed 50,000 or 10 lakh packets till now. No, we distribute eight to 10 thousand cooked food and ration packets everyday and that’s the number. We have the data also for it — wherever it goes, we give them slips, they give us their IDs and mention which slum they belong to. We have given around 4,500 PPE kits so far, and we’ve got receipts from four different hospitals. So, everything is very black and white.

Besides this, how are you keeping a check on the number of Covid-19 cases in your constituency?

We’ve got around eight to nine hotspots in our constituency, so the entire focus is try to help people in these seald areas, as they’re the ones who’ll be deprived of lot of things. So, with the help of ACP and DCP, we try and give them as much ration as we can. But, at the same time, we’ve to be very careful that people don’t start hoarding it — that’s very dangerous. We want things to go to the needy. We don’t want people to collect stuff and say, ‘Oh, I have ration for another two or three months’. No, this is not what our aim is. We make sure we try and touch as many lives as possible. Also, from 9-10.30am every day, I interact with a lot of people in my constituency, all the volunteers who are distributing these kits. I keep telling them that it should go to the needy, it should go to the last man standing, last man who needs it.

Despite so many people following the lockdown guidelines religiously, there have been cases where some group didn’t cooperate and posed a risk to everyone’s lives. Do you think some people are flouting these norms in the name of religion?

This is the time where the country needs to be united, irrespective of caste, creed, religion and even social status. This will show our strength. Doesn’t matter which religion you belong to, if there are certain norms and advisories from the government, you have to follow them, otherwise a strict action needs to be taken. I’ve seen some videos where people have attacked doctors, nurses and police offers. My heart goes out to them. They haven’t gone back home for days and they also have families to take care of. They’re fighting on the frontline for us, they should be absolutely well-equipped to fight this battle, they need support more than anyone else in the country right now. We should try support them as much as we can.

But what about people without masks and in poor hygiene conditions roaming on the streets? Aren’t they equally dangerous to getting or spreading the virus? What’s is being done to take care of that aspect?

That’s what shelter homes were built for — to put these people there, provide them enough food to eat, maintain their hygiene, monitor them regularly and make sure they don’t go out, do not spread this virus if god forbid they have a virus. That’s what our foundation did as well. We have two shelter homes — Ghazipur and Yamuna Sports Complex. With a help of a 5-star hotel, who provided us with bed sheets, pillow covers, sanitizers, soaps, lot of things for hygiene, we’ve given it all to those shelter homes. Also, just having shelter homes will not solve the purpose, to maintain hygiene is very important. You need to see how many (people) do you need in one room because can’t just keep putting people without social distancing, it can be very dangerous.

The haunting visuals of migrant workers stuck various parts of the country are still fresh in people’s minds. Do you think we could have been better prepared to handle the situation? Did they deserve all that pain?

It happened in my constituency, at Anand Vihar bus stand. It was so disturbing. When our CM was doing this press conference, he said they’re feeding one crore people everyday. And then we saw the amount of people at Anand Vihar bus stand. They were two completely contrasting things. So, why don’t you just give the right data? Don’t give numbers for the heck of it. You’re only trying to fool yourself by doing that. There’s nothing wrong in accepting that we haven’t done it but will do in the future. We need to be honest to our own self and that’s the only way we can win this battle.

Interact with the author at @monikarawal