‘Mahatma Gandhi is not Father of the Nation’
Dailybhaskar.com
| Oct 02, 2013, 11:53AM IST
New Delhi: We all have been taught that Mahatma Gandhi is
the ‘Father of the Nation’ but surprisingly the government of India
does not consider Bapu as the Father of the Nation. Constitution does
not permit any titles except educational and military ones.
It may be recalled that a Lucknow-based student Aishwarya Parashar
filed an RTI in 2012. In reply to RTI, the home ministry had told her
that no action was taken on her plea to the President to declare Mahatma
Gandhi as 'Father of the Nation' because Article 18 (1) of the
Constitution does not permit any titles except education and military
ones.
Aishwarya had filed number of RTI petitions seeking details about
Gandhi and the reasons of referring him as Father of the Nation. In
response, she was told that no such title has been accorded to Gandhi.
Driven by patriot zeal, Class VI student Aishwarya wrote to the then
President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to issue a notification declaring Mahatma Gandhi as 'Father of the Nation'.
Since childhood, we all have been taught that the great son of India,
Mahatma Gandhi is the "Father of the Nation". But surprisingly, the
government of India does not consider Gandhiji as the Father of the
Nation! According to government's documents, Gandhiji was not conferred
with this title, constitutionally.
The reply to the RTI query came as a shock to all those Indians who
believed that Republic day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti are
national holidays. Apparently, these three dates were never notified by
the government.
