The campaign, announced by the PM on October 31 last year on the 140th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, will now be carried out by the ministries of Human Resource Development (HRD), Social Justice and Empowerment, and Youth Affairs and Sports.
One year after its launch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat cultural initiative to bind states has been taken away from the ministry of culture and handed over to three other ministries that may be able to better implement it.
The campaign, announced by the PM on October 31 last year on the 140th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, will now be carried out by the ministries of Human Resource Development (HRD), Social Justice and Empowerment, and Youth Affairs and Sports.
The culture ministry that was to steer the campaign earlier will now only look at the cultural aspects. "It was realised that the initiative is beyond culture exchange and so other important ministries of the government that enjoy more state partners have been roped in to roll out the campaign," explained an official.
The National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) and National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) that fall under the HRD ministry will be preparing modules for schools and universities. The social justice ministry will ensure that marginalised communities, including Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes, are made part of the programme that aims at unifying various communities and geographies across the country. And the sports ministry is being directed to rope in sports bodies across states to organise interstate programmes.
The nationwide initiative was aimed at promoting cultures, traditions and languages of one state in the other states. The idea was to ensure exchange of people, ideas, music, cuisine, theatre, sports, handicrafts, painting, and literature between the various cultural diversities of India to imbibe a feeling of brotherhood, an official said.
One year on, however, the Ministry of Culture has been unable to come with a concrete plan and has cited unavailability of adequate infrastructure and manpower.
"While exchange of culture remains the focus of the campaign, PMO through its MyGov portal and a new mobile application will be providing the initial platform and will be monitoring the campaign," the official said.
Every state in India is being grouped with a culturally and geographically diverse partner for the first year of the campaign. Jammu and Kashmir, for instance, has been paired with Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra with Odisha, Delhi with Sikkim. "We have tried to pair diverse states together. The schools and universities in these states will be paired with each other. Professionals will be able to exchange best government practice."
What it entails
The campaign will facilitate joint assembly sessions and legislative delegations between paired states. The apex committee for the campaign will be chaired by the Prime Minister himself with other ministries contributing to the programme.
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