At Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, on September 19, 2018, has unveiled the logo and the web portal for the memorial of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation.
As per an indorsed announcement, it has been decided that the logo imprinting will be done in trains, Air India flights, state transport buses, government websites, and government advertisements, besides public sector undertakings.
The new web portal is made available at URL http://gandhi.gov.in. This website has been launched by the Ministry of Culture, and it will classify visitors from dissimilar geography and serve them with the information made to order. Above and beyond, data related to Gandhian literature, philosophy, audios, videos, rare photos are offered in the gateway. Most notably, the website offers the collected works of Mahatma Gandhi stretching from Vol-I to Vol-C (a total of 100 volumes). This would definitely serve as the gigantic resource to the wholehearted younger generations, besides the researchers, particularly.
Under the tagline Karyanjali, the web portal elicits the zest among the people. There is no doubt that the occasion of 150th birth anniversary celebrations has given us an opening to jog our memory with the humanity of the efficiency of the message of Mahatma Gandhi. If we clearly look into the stocks, Gandhi’s teachings are germane in every dogma of the nation. For example, his wisdom is palpable in all such things as Swacch Bharat, rights of women and children, and of civil liberties of small and underprivileged groups, health and well-being of the Indian farmer and the Indian village.
The two-year-long celebrations from October 2, 2018, to October 2, 2020, will be held across the country and internationally to mark the significance of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The nation offers tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at this juncture. As part of the national transporter’s plans to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, all coaches of the Indian Railways will now show the logo of the government’s pet project Swachch Bharat and the national flag. The Indian Railways has already identified 43 stations with a special connotation with Mahatma Gandhi which will be decorated thematically while 28 others near iconic places would endure immense sanitation drives.
The Railway board has also chosen themes for the next six months starting October 2018 — sanitation, non-violence, voluntary community service, communal unity, removal of untouchability, and women empowerment. In this context, the zonal railways have been asked to use these themes to paint the identified stations. Guidelines have also been passed to plant trees along railway tracks and get both serving and retired railway personnel along with passengers to participate in Shram Daan.
In my decree, there is no great accolade than honoring the teachings of a great soul by charming them to run-through and to spread them over for the human good. Gandhiji once said, “after attaining Swaraj (self-governance), it is now time to attain Suraj (good-governance)”. Yes, while the entire world is on the lookout for the sustainable development, celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi under the tagline Karyanjali with an intent to put his teachings into pragmatism, would certainly be a great rave review to the Father of the Nation!
– Dr. Suman Kumar Kasturi
