New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary Wednesday was marked by a sharp political divide as the ruling and the opposition parties organised their separate programmes, and even took potshots at each other.
Leaders from the BJP, Congress and other parties gathered at the Parliament Hall to pay their tributes in front of Gandhi’s portrait, but the chill was unmistakable.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood near the portrait greeting leaders with folded hands, but Congress president Sonia Gandhi passed by without even looking at him. Modi and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi didn’t even look at each other as the latter walked past the former.
Gandhi’s final resting place at Rajghat saw a stream of dignitaries coming to pay their respects. But, unlike in the past when they would sit, listen to bhajans and have cordial exchanges, this time they came one after another, sat for a brief time and then left. Veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani chose not to sit in the VIP enclosure and stood with others outside the cordon demarcating the VIP area.
Also read: On Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, Rahul Gandhi leads padyatra to Rajghat
BJP should first pursue path of truth before talking about Gandhi, says Priyanka
The Congress has been accusing the BJP of trying to appropriate the legacy of Gandhi and Sonia’s speech at Rajghat held proof of it.
She launched a full-scale attack on the BJP’s parent organisation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. “There are people who say that RSS and not Gandhi should become the symbol of India…Those who are willing to do anything for power, how will they understand Gandhi’s principle of non-violence? Those who want to stifle democracy, how will they understand Gandhi’s swaraj?” Sonia said.
Rahul, on the other hand, led the party’s 3-km ‘Gandhi Sandesh Yatra’ in the national capital.
Flagging off a silent march in Lucknow, Sonia’s daughter and Congress general secretary (Uttar Pradesh east) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “The BJP should first pursue the path of truth before talking about Gandhi.”
BJP MP Rakesh Sinha, on the other hand, attacked the Gandhi family and said: “Sonia and Rahul Gandhi carry the Gandhi title. What elements of Gandhism do they have? If Gandhi were alive today, he would go to the RSS shakha and become a swayamsevak.”
Modi to visit Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad
The day began with PM Modi’s paean to the Mahatma in The New York Times — ‘Why India and the world need Gandhi’.
The PM is to visit Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad in the evening before addressing about 20,000 sarpanches (village heads) and declare urban India open defecation free.
The government ministries have also organised special programmes to mark Gandhi’s birthday. The Jal Shakti ministry undertook a cleaning of the Yamuna Wednesday morning, while the consumer ministry conducted a shramdaan on its premises.
BJP president Amit Shah, on the other hand, launched ‘Gandhi Sankalp Yatra’ along with BJP’s Delhi president Manoj Tiwari from the Ramlila grounds in New Delhi. BJP MPs will be taking out a padayatra (rally on foot) that will go on for the next 15 days to propagate Gandhi’s ideas and principles.
“Gandhi was the ambassador of cleanliness and after Independence, Modi is the only prime minister who has made it a mass movement ,” said Shah.
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Modi and Shah duo trying to jail all opposition leaders, ruining their reputation, why should Rahul, Sonia acknowledge them
These psudo Gandhi (mother,son daughter) kick them out ,sooner the better
Gandhiji belongs to India. However, if it is to be seen in partisan terms, he was in the Congress corner, as also finally reflected in his tragic assassination. Other icons will have to be located.