Representative image.

BHOPAL: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Union government wants to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi like never before. Events have been planned at the national as well as international level for the purpose. The celebrations, which will commence in October 2018, would go on till 2020.

Chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh (MP) received a letter from the secretary of Union ministry of culture Raghavendra Singh in this regard. It stated that a national committee under the chairmanship of the President and an executive committee headed by the Prime Minister has been constituted. The chief secretary has been requested to direct the concerned departments to take these activities on a mission mode and as a tribute to the father of nation. A 52-point guideline has been issued to all the states in this regard.

A video conference of the state and the Centre was held on July 28 for drawing the action plan. Meetings of the two committees constituted under the President and the Prime Minister were held on May 2 and July 18 respectively. Plans were also discussed in the governor’s conference and Niti Aayog’s meeting of chief ministers.

Events lined up as part of the celebrations include: organizing Indian vegetarian food festivals in Indian embassies across the world; joint conferences on Gandhi’s life wherein top universities of the country will collaborate with the international universities; padyatras involving 150 youths at a time walking for ten kilometres per day for 150 days covering every village of the country; all the tableaux on the Republic Day based on Mahatma Gandhi; display panels and sign boards with the Mahatma’s quotations on national highways; TV serials on Gandhi, logos branding aircraft of Air India, major trains and state roadways buses; installation of bio-toilets in trains, Swachh Bharat internship programmes; distribution of set top boxes and smart mobile phones to sanitary workers and ‘Mahatma ki Baat’ on the sidelines of UN special session.

A suggestion was also floated that a special session of Parliament and state assemblies be called next year. To ensure the collected works of Mahatma Gandhi are translated into all major world languages, digital libraries having these works will be promoted through Indian embassies. An attempt will be made to crate a world record of maximum number of people cycling on a particular day all over the world for one cause.

