Tarun Chugh
The holy land of India has been incarnating great human beings from time to time. In 20th century, one such great human being was Mohandass Karamchand Gandhi who was born on October 2nd, 1869 at Porbandar (Gujarat). Mahatma Gandhi not only fought for the freedom of the country, but even after independence, he had dreamt of a strong India. Unfortunately, the Congress party which had been doing politics riding on his pious name vehemently ignored his policies and dreams.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the pledge to make Bapu Gandhi’s dreams come true and also acted to make his dreams a reality. While fighting for the freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi converted the freedom struggle into a mass movement for the first time in the history of the country. By doing the same, he made the whole world realize the power of the people of India. Similarly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also directly linked and dedicated the important decisions of his government to the benefit of the large number of people. He also aimed to make ever every Indian’s dream a reality too. The most favourite line of the Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi was ‘Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye, Peer Parai Jaane Re’. By following the same path, Prime Minister Narendra Modi understood the plight of the poor after six decades of independence and opened all the ways and resources of the country to remove their suffering. In every decision, programs and schemes of the Modi government, each and every person of the country has been taken into account and further their welfare remained the priority of the present Modi Government. Mahatma Gandhi was a custodian of peace and non-violence. To keep these two intact, Prime Minister Modi is leaving no stone unturned to take India on the path of ‘Vishwaguru’ (World Leader) with his efficiency and contemplation by attacking and eliminating the elements causing any hindrance in the progress of the Country. He gave the message to the whole world that India is the land of Buddha and not of war, and the era in which we are living is not an era of war. The message has been conveyed and sent across the world. Narendra Modi’s endeavour to fight against terrorism, extremism, and hatred has even sent shock waves for the anti-India isolated groups which are always endearing to project India as violent and aggressive. These groups keep re-organizing and mobilizing such elements against India as they never want to see a strong India. Mahatma Gandhi considered cleanliness as very important and was of the view that cleanliness could lead to freedom from poverty and disease in the country. When Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the country, he started the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’. He made this campaign a national mass movement. From the street of the village to the metropolitan cities, from old to the young, every citizen joined this campaign. In furtherance of this campaign, the Modi government constructed & dedicated 11 crore toilets for the people. This campaign was started on October 2, 2014 on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. The Father of the Nation freed the country from the clutches of slavery, but his dream of ‘Clean India’ was not fulfilled. Mahatma Gandhi gave a top-notch message to the nation by inspiring people around him to maintain cleanliness. When the Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the initiate to fulfil this dream of Bapu, it was for the first time that such a large movement involving so many people was witnessed in India. The philosophy of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, started during the first term of Prime Minister Modi, was based on the life principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Prime Minister’s appeal to all the citizens of India to join it for the successful implementation of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ turned it into a mass movement. Under this campaign, the Prime Minister was able to interlink the inspirational ideas of cleanliness with self-respect and dignity and as a result, the dream of an open defecation-free country was possible, which is no less than a revolution in itself. Gandhi always laid emphasis on economic independence and self-reliance. The plan for the use of Khadi for fulfillment of ‘Gram Swaraj’, self-government, self-reliance and economic independence was based on Gandhi’s philosophy. Though, the country became politically independent in 1947, but economic independence remained a dream for the poor. Economic freedom and self-reliance are the pillars on which upliftment of the poor can be done. In the 1970s, slogans of ‘Gareebi Hataao’ (Remove Poverty) were raised in the country, but no effective scheme or program was initiated by the then Governments to remove it. The policies of the government were confined just to slogans and not the work on ground. ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self-reliant India) campaign started by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to free the poor from the clutches of poverty and slavery to make them the masters of their own destiny. The policies related to the farmers welfare and essential commodities initiated by the Modi government has taken a concrete step towards providing economic freedom and better economical options to the farmers. The Prime Minister has is trying in a systematic way to turn his dream of a self-reliant India (Atmanirbhar Bharat) into a reality. He first projected the principles of self-reliance and then gave it a huge financial package to implement the same. Even before the Modi government, many governments have taken inspiration from the principles of Gandhi’s life and thoughts, but no Prime Minister has made any effort to turn the dream of the Gandhi into reality. Gandhi’s Khadi also remained neglected. The Khadi was promoted at large scale during Modi government. Today Khadi has become popular not only in India but also abroad. The business of Khadi has increased under ‘Local for Vocal’ campaign, started by Modi Government. On October 2, the country celebrates birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi as well as of the former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Earlier, Atal added ‘Jai Vigyan’ to Shastri’s ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ slogan and now, in view of the policies of the last eight years of Modi government and the recent laws made, Modi added ‘Jai Anusandhan’ (Research) to it this year.
From me, greetings to all the countrymen on holy birth anniversary of father of the nation Mahatama Gandhi. Hope every citizen of the country will try to imbibe in them great thoughts and principles of the Father of Nation.
(The author is National General Secretary BJP).
