NINTH MILE: The Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy has inaugurated the international conference on “Mahatma Gandhi’s Vision and Contemporary Political Leadership in North East India” here on Friday in presence of eminent Gandhain scholars and reputed academicians from India and abroad.
Organised by the International Centre for Gandhian Studies (ICGS), a research centre of the University of Science & Technology Meghalaya (USTM), the two-day conference is being participated by more than hundred scholars, academicians and intellectuals from different parts of the country and also from few other countries like Bangladesh, Australia, USA and Singapore.
Tushar Arun Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and Chairman of Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, Prof Sudarshan Iyengar, renowned Gandhian and former Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapith, Dr. Liaquat Ali, Vice Chancellor, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Dhaka, Prof. B. Khadria, Chairman, ZakirHussain Centre, JNU have addressed the conference, apart from others.
Gandhiji’s great grandson Tushar Arun Gandhi said, “Since many years, political leadership in India has been party based, instead of broad nationalistic view. Bapu’s ideals must be adopted in our nature and not simply in references. If we cannot do this, it is disrespect to him.” He said that people should not keep themselves in narrow nationalistic borders. “We should never forget his Talisman and should recall the face of the poorest and the weakest whenever we think of doing something,” he said.
Inaugurating the conference, Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy said Gandhiji not only gave India its freedom but also gave the world a new thought on non-violence and sustainable living. His teachings and experiments are more valid today than ever before, especially when we are trying to find solutions to worldwide greed, corruption, and violence.
