Mahatma Gandhi's heir says no importance to political 'bhakti' of Bapu

The great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar Gandhi on Wednesday said that everybody is the same as far as political exploitation of Mahatma Gandhi is concerned. This statement comes on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi which was celebrated in India and worldwide on Wednesday. He also mentioned that today's political scenario and the state of the country shows the importance of Mahatma Gandhi in the life of politicians.

Tushar Gandhi slams politicians

"On Gandhi Jayanti, everybody wants to claim a part of that legacy and I believe that everyone has the right to claim the legacy because Bapu belongs to humanity in general and nobody has any proprietary ownership of that legacy," Tushar said.

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"Some people do it sincerely, some don't. Politics of all kind is insincere in their eulogy of Bapu and their show of aligning with him but I don't think anybody is fooled by that insincerity. That's all across, you can't say that somebody is better than the other. If they respected Bapu, we wouldn't have seen politics of this nature and state of the nation as it is today. I don't give any importance to political 'bhakti' of Bapu," he added.

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'Cleanliness is Next to Godliness'- Mahatma Gandhi

Speaking about the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Tushar Gandhi said, "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is praiseworthy because Bapu said 'Cleanliness is Next to Godliness', but Bapu's cleanliness was not only external, his cleanliness was the cleansing of the soul and mind also, which was equally important."

"No amount of cleaning the streets of the nation will clean the psyche of the nation and that is what is very important. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is also reduced to a ritual and I don't think that when something is reduced to a ritual, it remains honest," he added.

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(with ANI inputs)