PM: Swachh Bharat belongs to people, not select leaders
Modi says aim is to face and overcome challenges, the dream of clean campaign will be fulfilled by 125 crore Indians
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Clean India campaign has become a people’s movement and a Swachh Bharat would be realised by 125 crore Indians and not a select group of leaders or officials.
Launched on Gandhi Jayanti in 2014, the Modi government’s ambitious programme aims to make India clean and open defecation free by 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, by building individual, community and cluster toilets.
“India faces challenges but that does not mean we run away from them. We will face them and work to overcome them,” Modi said at an event here to mark the third anniversary of the Swachh Bharat mission.
The campaign, he said, had instilled a positive spirit of competition as was seen in the cleanliness rankings. It has become a people’s movement due to the ‘siddhi’ or dedication of Swachhagrahis, Modi said, playing on the word ‘satyagrahi’. Satyagraha or “force of truth” is a term coined by Mahatma Gandhi who called for a non-violent people’s movement to secure India’s freedom from the British.
Calling for people’s participation, Modi said that the dream of a Swachh Bharat “won’t come true even if 1,000 Mahatma Gandhis, 1 lakh Narendra Modis, all chief ministers and government come together. It will be done by 125 crore Indians”.
Modi paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri on their birth anniversaries at their memorials, Raj Ghat and Vijay Ghat. “Bow to beloved Bapu on Gandhi Jayanti. His noble ideals motivate millions across the world,” he tweeted.
In another tweet, he hailed Shastri as a source of inspiration for soldiers and farmers. President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, and former PM Manmohan Singh also paid floral tributes to Bapu at Rajghat.