Nitish requested the thinkers to devise an alternative agenda based on the values of Mahatma Gandhi and relevant to today's times, to counter the present milieu.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday attacked the "growing intolerance and confrontations" in the country and asked Gandhian thinkers to come up with an alternative agenda relevant in today's era, to take the nation forward.
Nitish was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day national discourse on Mahatma Gandhi, being held in Patna, to herald the year-long centenary celebrations of Gandhi's arrival in Bihar, on April 10, 1917. Gandhi had then launched an agitation against forced indigo cultivation (tinkathia system) by British colonialists which ultimately led to its abolition.
Gandhian thinkers from across the country, including Mahatma's grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi, former judge and Gandhi's acquaintance Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari, activist Medha Patkar, former judge Rajinder Sachar, social worker SN Subba Rao, economist Prerana Desai, and a host of other scholars and delegates, participated in the discourse.
"There is a peculiar environment in the country and across the globe today. There is intolerance, materialism, violence, social confrontations, sophism and lack of dialogue," Nitish said and cited an example of denotification of highways by some state governments to go around the Supreme Court's ban on sale of liquor on highways. "Those in governance are resorting to such manipulation?" he asked.
Nitish requested the thinkers to devise an alternative agenda based on the values of Mahatma Gandhi and relevant to today's times, to counter the present milieu.
In an oblique attack on the BJP, Nitish said even those who do not believe in Gandhi's philosophy are organising 'smriti yatras' (BJP president Amit Shah will participate in a centenary march in Motihari later this month).
Three other kins of Mahatma Gandhi, Raj Mohan Gandhi, Tushar Gandhi and Tara Gandhi, will also participate in the two-day discourse.
The Gandhian ideologues were in general critical of the policies of the NDA government at Centre. While Gopal Gandhi criticised the ordinance on Land Acquisition and misuse of Aadhar, Dharmadhikari said a Swachch Bharat will not be possible till people cleanse their hearts. Sachar said it was time to think for 2019 (general election) because Gandhi was turning in his grave at present.
A live exhibition of spinning charkha and a photo exhibition of Gandhi's days in Bihar were also put up at Samrat Ashok Convention Centre in Patna.
Meanwhile, on a day when Bihar marked 100 year's of Mahatma Gandhi's arrival in Bihar to work for the cause of farmers in Champaran, two employees of closed sugar factory in Motihari, East Champaran, tried to immolate themselves, to protest non-payment of wages for over a decade. Later, the police open fired in air and lathicharged on their colleagues to control the situation, in which some workers sustained injuries.
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 "Nitish Kumar")
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