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Gandhi Jayanti 2019 Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Ahmedabad at 6 pm, visited the Sabarmati Ashram and then participated in a Swachh Bharat programme. Mahatma Gandhi’s principles are always relevant and should be implemented for the betterment of the society, ANI reports Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla as saying. “In today’s day and age, both Satyagrah and Swachhagrah are needed in society. His (Mahatma Gandhi’s) thoughts are immortal and they were always needed for the good of the society,” Birla told reporters after attending a function to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in the Parliament House Complex. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, addressing a gathering of Congress workers in Rajghat on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, slammed the BJP and said, “Quoting Gandhi is easy but it is tough to follow his path. Those who are trying to use his name but take are taking India astray from his teachings will not succeed. “India has Gandhi’s principles in its foundation. Some people are trying to make RSS a symbol of India and sideline Gandhi. Those who are doing politics on mistruth will never understand Mahatma Gandhi. Those who want to have absolute power will never understand Gandhi.” Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, in a speech on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary on Wednesday, slammed the ruling BJP and the RSS for running a government on the principle of “by hook or by crook”. Addressing a gathering of Congress workers at the padayatra event on Gandhi Jayanti, she said, “In the last few years, a by-hook-or-by-crook’ government is being run and they are thinking they are very powerful. They are making efforts to propagate the RSS’ ideology instead of Gandhiji’s.” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also slammed the BJP and said that the saffron party should follow the principle of truth, in accordance to Gandhiji’s teachings.Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav also criticised the ruling party and was quoted as saying by CNN-News18, “Those who have never followed Gandhi’s ideals, now want to adopt Gandhi.” Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi has reached party leader Sheela Kaul’s house near Lucknow’s Butler Palace to see the banyan tree that was planted by Mahatma Gandhi back in 1936, reports India Today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and others paid floral tributes before a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi in the Parliament on Wednesday. The leaders also paid tribute to Lal Bahadur Shastri in Parliament on Wednesday. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted his tribute to Mahatma Gandhi saying that non-violence is the only way to defeat “oppression, bigotry, and hate”. BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday flagged off the party’s main programme for the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, the ‘Gandhi Sankalp Yatra’. Shah said, “BJP leaders and workers are going to march 150 kilometres to propagate Gandhiji’s principles to all the people.” Shah also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiatives against single-use plastic and the Swach Bharat Abhiyaan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address the nation on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary on Wednesday at 10 am. Modi, who paid tribute to the ‘Father of the Nation’ at the Raj Ghat in Delhi early on Wednesday morning, will also visit the Sabarmati Aashram in Ahmedabad later in the day, NDTV reported. The Congress will celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary on Wednesday by organising ‘padayatras’ across the country, with party leader Rahul Gandhi joining the foot march in the national capital. The party has planned a week-long program that will mark the culmination of the year-long celebrations commemorating Gandhi’s memory and it will re-emphasize his values. The programme will be undertaken by the AICC in Delhi and by the PCCs in their state capitals. It will be followed by district and block Congress committees across the country. In Delhi, the party will be out in full force on Wednesday guided by the Gandhian ideals to take on this government that they term “oppressive”. The celebrations are turning out to be a game of “one-upmanship” between the Congress and the BJP as both are organising foot marches across the country in their bid to “cash in” on his legacy, PTI reported. While Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will reportedly administer the oath to leaders and workers to “redeem” ‘Gandhi, Gandhism and Gandhi’s India’, the BJP’s Gandhi Sankalp Yatra across the country will be flagged off by Home Minister Amit Shah. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat on Wednesday, on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and later declare the country open defecation-free. Several events will be organised in the city and other parts of Gujarat on Wednesday as part of the sesquicentennial year of Gandhi’s birth anniversary. Modi will arrive at the Ahmedabad airport around 6 pm, and will be greeted by BJP workers at a function organised there by the party’s city unit. He will then visit the Sabarmati Ashram to pay tributes to the Father of the Nation, state BJP president Jitu Vaghani said. From there, he will go to the Sabarmati Riverfront, where he will declare the country open defecation-free (ODF) in the presence of over 20,000 village heads, he said. People associated with Gandhian institutions, high court judges, Padma awardees, students, educationists, and village-level sanitation workers have been invited for the function. “Modi will also attend the state-level Navratri festival organised at the city’s GMDC ground. He will spend some time at the garba ground before leaving for Delhi,” Vaghani said. People visiting Gujarat to attend the 2 October function at Sabarmati Riverfront will be taken to different places associated with Mahatma Gandhi, like the memorial at Dandi, which is associated with the historic salt march led by him in 1930, and the Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. The administration of Navsari district, where Dandi is located, has organised a mega cleanliness drive at the Dandi beach, where Gandhi made salt as part of a civil disobedience movement, known as the ‘Salt Satyagrah’. Around 1,500 people are likely to join the drive to clean Dandi beach, Navsari collector Ardra Agarwal said. At the Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, the day will begin with a ‘sarvadharm prarthana’ (all faith prayer) to be held around 8.30 am.
Around 900 students from primary schools across the state will gather at the Sabarmati Ashram and some of them will share their views on Gandhi’s teachings of non-violence. The ashram trust said these children are among the 30,000 students from government primary schools who are being taught a lesson in non-violence by facilitators trained at the Sabarmati Ashram. Students will speak on topics like ‘Gandhi and non- violence’, and ‘Gandhi and cleanliness’, the trust’s director Atul Pandya said. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani will spend the morning in Porbandar, the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi, and will dedicate to the city a riverfront constructed on the Asmavati river at a cost of Rs 44 crore. He will also attend a prayer meet at Kirti Mandir, the ancestral house of the Gandhi family where Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October, 1869. Rupani will also take part in a cleanliness drive in the city which will be attended by a large number of people.