Planning Commission organises Twitter conference on Mahatma Gandhi

The Planning Commission has organized a global Twitter conference to discuss the life and message of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi to mark his 144th birth anniversary celebrations.

Sam Pitroda, Chairman National Innovation Council and the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure to Improve Governance and Public Services will lead it from his Twitter handle @pitrodasam (www.twitter.com/pitrodasam).

The Twitter conference to be held between 7.00 p.m. and 8.00 p.m. today is open to everyone. The hash tag for the conference is #Gandhi.

The Twitter conference is expected to be joined by Kartikeya Sarabhai, Trustee of Sabarmati Ashram, other Gandhians and several other people from world over.

The Prime Minister had recently launched a Gandhi Heritage Portal and it is now available at www.gandhiheritageportal.org. The Portal developed by the Sabarmati Ashram under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India hosts Gandhiji's Autobiography in 22 languages.

It also has placed the 'Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi' in three languages: English 100 volumes, Hindi 97 volumes and Gujarati 82 volumes. In all, the Portal presents more than 5 lakh pages, 21 films, 72 audio speeches of Gandhiji and over a 1000 photographs.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as 'Bapu', or Gandhiji, was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbander, Gujarat.

Gandhiji was a preacher of truth (Satyagraha) and 'ahimsa' (non-violence). He started the 'Satyagraha' movement for the Indian freedom struggle. He believed in living a simple life and in 'Swadeshi'.

He proved to the world that freedom can be achieved through the path of non-violence - a true symbol of peace and truth!

The United Nations had declared in 2007 that October 2 would be observed as 'International Day of Non-Violence'.