On the day when the nation is celebrating Gandhi Jayanti (Gandhi’s birth anniversary), it is shocking to see that the Modi government has not released a single advertisement dedicated to the Father of the Nation, MK Gandhi.

Nearly all ads released by the government had only one image and that is of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Even ads released by different ministries had quotations from Modi. Almost none carried quotes from the Mahatma.

Observers feel that while United Nations (UN) had declared Gandhi’s Jayanti as the International day of Non-Violence, the government of India has reduced it to a symbol of “Swachta Divas.”

When contacted, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar said that the RSS and the BJP had pathological hatred for Gandhi. Right wing organisations accuse Gandhi for making Hindus ‘meek’ and ‘submissive’.

“In all government ads, Modi has replaced Gandhi and he is being featured as if he is the Mahatma. That is shameful,” he added.

Analysts feel that by not showing Gandhi on the ads, the Central government has shown what it really thinks of Gandhi.

It is worth recalling that BJP president Amit Shah has recently made derogatory comment about Gandhi by calling him a Chatur Baniya.

An observer said on the condition of anonymity that the Modi government had not only tried to appropriate Gandhi but other things like yoga as well.

“Modi has spent crores of rupees in the promotion of yoga as if yoga was invented by them and it became popular only because of them,” he added.

Modi, RSS and the BJP do not remember Gandhi as a symbol of non-violence, because they essentially believe in the politics of violence, said another commentator. “You can understand it as a deliberate attempt to belittle Gandhi. He has been reduced to a symbol of cleanliness drive,” he concluded.