Shah tells party MPs to promote Gandhi’s ideals

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 21

BJP chief Amit Shah today addressed party MPs and state office-bearers via video-conferencing to lay out an action plan for celebrating Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.

The BJP aims to propagate ‘Gandhian ideology’ through public events such as cleanliness and plastic-free campaigns and reach out to the poor on the day, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to ban the use of single-use plastic by October 2.

They said Shah asked the MPs to connect with the people and propagate pro-poor schemes of the Narendra Modi government. He also asked them to launch campaigns in their constituencies to propagate Gandhi’s ideals.

Separately, Shah addressed Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states and discussed economic issues while highlighting measures taken by the Centre to boost the economy. The Home Minister asserted that the measures, especially a cut in corporate tax rate, will give spur the economy, the sources said. 

Shah was joined by working president JP Nadda and other senior leaders during his address.

Even since he came to power in 2014, PM Modi has repeatedly referred to the Mahatma’s 150th birth anniversary as a milestone event, underlining his government’s intentions to celebrate it in a big way. The PM has already asked the party MPs to undertake a 150 km ‘padyatra’ between October 2, Gandhi’s birth anniversary, and October 31, the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel.