India will be declared open defecation-free on Oct 2 , says BJP Spokesperson

More than 3,000 lawmakers, legislators, councilors and state party functionaries of the BJP will go among the public to popularise Gandhian principles as part of "Gandhi Sankalp Yatra" planned on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary.

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party has organised various programmes with the tagline 'Man Mein Bapu' to spread awareness about Mahatma Gandhi's principles ahead of his 150th birth anniversary.

More than 3,000 lawmakers, legislators, councillors and state party functionaries of the BJP will go among the public to popularise Gandhian principles as part of "Gandhi Sankalp Yatra" planned on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary.

Each such party functionary will be travelling a minimum five kilometres covering a minimum of six villages every day for 15 days which will run from October 2 and October 31, as part the yatra to spread the principles of Mahatma Gandhi.

Talking to ETV Bharat BJP national spokesperson Sudesh Verma said: " We want the celebrations of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi to be grand and our party members are totally engrossed in propagating his message, ideals, including on cleanliness, khadi and protecting the environment ."

On being asked that earlier Gandhi's name was always associated with Congress but after 2014, BJP has been promoting his ideas extensively, he said, "Gandhiji always knew that Congress will misuse his name and he never belonged to any party. Just because Mahatma Gandhi's name was associated with Congress that doesn't the party was following his principles and ideals."

"BJP has time and again shown through its work that it follows Gandhian principles. ' Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan' is the biggest example as cleanliness and sanitation is an integral part of the Gandhian way of living," Verma added.

According to reports, the saffron party has recently launched a campaign against single-use plastic and all the BJP lawmakers have been told to organise pad yatras, plantation drive, cleanliness programs in their constituencies from 2nd October to 31 October.

The most significant Gandhian principle that people usually ignore is that he used to say "Sanitation is more important than independence" the minister said adding that on 2nd October our country will be declared open defecation-free and it is a great achievement.