Gandhi, though a great man in many respects, was not without his limitations and stressing him has led to the ignoring of other great leaders and their messages, which were not always the same as his. It has reduced the nation to the image of one predominant leader and closed people off to the many other great voices. Worse than this the Congress led government of post-independence India used the name of the Mahatma, who led the Congress during the independence movement, but did not follow Gandhi's emphasis on the Gita and Dharma or his call for a typically Indian ethos.

In fact the party made Mahatma Gandhi a figurehead to cover over its own inadequacies. Even the leftists, who opposed Gandhi when he was alive, have used the political image of the Mahatma to encourage Hindus not to assert themselves so as not to oppose them, but have otherwise not followed his policies. The mantle of Gandhian authority was placed on Nehru, who, though appointed by Gandhi, possessed a very different agenda. Nehru shared little of Gandhi's spiritual concerns and used a Western socialist and semi-communist role model in his political dealings, economic policies and diplomacy. The idea of Gandhi and Nehru as a spiritual alliance was created in the minds of people, when it was only an alliance of a spiritual Gandhi with a political Nehru, who was never Gandhi's spiritual disciple or heir.

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