Is making a villain of Gaddafi justified?

The Arab Spring has accounted for yet another strongman. This time, it is the longest serving ruler of North African country Libya, Muammar Gaddafi who has fallen. Like other sit-tight powerful men in Africa and elsewhere, he enjoyed his meteoric rise commanding popular support only to move away from the axis and develop hubris and eccentricity. Otherwise, his beginning was not as notorious and disgraceful as his end. And this brings us to the old adage that power is corrupting -and corrupting in myriad forms. In fact, dictators' fatal fall causes their deaths several times before the annihilation of their mortal bodies. Although there is an overt campaign in the Western press to paint him as a villain of a tyrant or despot capable of outrageous crimes against humanity, ranking him at par with Hitler and the likes, Gaddafi, despite his frailties, was never so diabolical. He may be vainglorious, a bit rash, inconsiderate and conceited but was never cruel when he led a bloodless coup against King Idris. Even he compares favourably with Saddam Hussein of Iraq when it comes to dealing with political opponents. Had Gaddafi been able to read the writings on the wall and decided to quit when the option was given to him, he possibly did not have to meet such a tragic and disgraceful end. Coming, as he did, from a Bedouin family, Gaddafi is faulted for accumulating wealth from the oil and gas resources of the thinly populated country of just six million. When money and power get into someone's head, few people can maintain the poise needed to lead a clean life. Gaddafi also could not. But he surely did not smear his hands with opponent's blood. It was only in the last phase when odds were stacked against him before his ouster from Tripoli, he might have committed some excesses. One such charge levelled against him concerns the order he may have given his soldiers to rape women from the opposite camps. All such charges certainly need to be proved before declaring him guilty. But on the same token the end he met at the hands of the soldiers fighting for Libya's National Transitional Council should raise a most disquieting question: did Gaddafi deserve such a treatment? Even Saddam Hussein was tried, no matter if it was a mock trial, before his execution. Violation of human rights, whoever may be the perpetrator, is a crime and it should not go unnoticed. Media in the West seem to be relishing the fact that Gaddafi is equally hated like Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and has met the end like his predecessors did. The comparison is unfortunate, to say the least. After all Gaddafi was not Yudhistir of the Mahabharata who in reply to the question posed by none other than the God of universal righteousness was right on target. The question was: what is the most surprising thing in the world? And Yudhistir's insightful answer was: it is no other thing than man's refusal to accept the fact that death is round the corner although he knows death is inevitable. Gaddafi was a simple man although later on wealth and power had taken their toll on him and turned his head. The fact that he looked clownish ultimately is in effect the end of the hero in him. But his was a long journey and during such a journey he had acquired fewer vices than many rulers in the Arab world. The Libyan strongman's greatest fault was that he miscalculated his own strength and the popular uprising sweeping the Middle-east and North African corner. He is credited with imbuing the Libyans with the spirit of nationalism when he took power dethroning the king and undertaking social programmes benefiting the majority of Libyans at the lowest rung of society. He introduced forward-looking Western education system in his country and pulled the medieval Arab society out of its illiteracy and backwardness. In the eye of the Westerners, though, his nationalism and strong opposition to the West's arbitrary exercise of power and influence is not a virtue but a crime. But look how Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, no invertebrate himself either, has paid tribute to Gaddafi. He thinks the Libyan leader was a patriot and will always remain so, who as a spokesman for the Third World nations, raised his voice against imperialism and injustice. One other thing that counted most in hastening his inglorious end is the support from the multinational air power which in the final hours spotted Gaddafi's convoy fleeing Sirte, called in unmanned drone fighters to shoot missiles in combination with other war planes. The attack carried out by it destroyed the convoy and forced the strong man to hide in a drainage pipe. It was the ultimate humiliation for a man who ruled Libya for 42 years. His utter helplessness and seeking mercy from enemy highlighted how derelict a powerful man can become. But no mercy was shown; rather his dead body was dragged through his home city of Sirte. This is outrageous in more senses than one.