Since Narendra Modi has become the 15th PM of India, he has managed to stun the whole world, especially the opposition, with his out of the box thinking. This time it is his Swacch Bharat campaign, which everybody is appreciating. On 2 October that happens to be the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, scores of BJP leaders, workers, bureaucrats, and lakhs of people joined PM Modi with brooms in hands to launch an extensive Swacch Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Movement.
Image Source: TheHindu
This move deserves a lot of appreciation, as this on gesture could lead to a clean and a green India. In order to provide necessary impetus to this movement, PM Modi himself led the campaign with a broom in his hands. The goal of this campaign is to make India a clean and green country by the end of the five-year Modi government term. This campaign aims to eliminate open defecation, for which PM Modi has planned to construct individual, community and cluster toilets, and separate toilets for boys and girls in all schools by the end of next year.
Modi has stunned some parties and has angered some other parties. For instance, Arvind Kejriwal led AAP party. The broom is their party symbol that showed their close connection with the common, downtrodden, and lower middle class people. The broom also signified the anger and the desperate feelings in the AAP party people to uproot the evil of corruption from the Indian politics and the governance. Their party managed to outshine BJP in Delhi assembly elections and formed a government, although a short-lived government. However, BJP now has robbed the symbol of AAP, the broom, and this has certainly infuriated Kejriwal, as he refused to join the Swacch Bharat campaign.
Many critics are of the opinion that the cause is noble but the day PM Modi chose is not right. They think it is an excellent thought but sadly, PM Modi chose a wrong day. Critics say the BJP government hijacked a day that belonged to Mahatma Gandhi, and the day that was celebrated as the International Day of Non Violence. PM Modi could have done something great to spread the message of non-violence to the masses and should have kept the Swachh Bharat campaign for some other day.
Summary
The Swacch Bharat campaign initiated by PM Modi on the 2 October 2014 is no doubt a very good thought for a very good cause but the selection of date is controversial.
