Thousands of Mumbaikars marched on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2. History of sorts was made as people marched on the streets to commemorate the 153rd Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, as well as the Jayanti of former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri. Cries of ‘Mahatma Gandhi Amar Rahen‘, ‘Lal Bahadur Shastri Amar Rahen‘, ‘Nafrat Chhodo Bharat Jodo‘, ‘Samvidhan Bachao Desh Bachao‘, rent the air on the streets of Mumbai.
The march commenced from the historic August Kranti Maidan, where the marchers paid tributes to the martyrs of the freedom struggle. The march then continued to the Gandhi Statue opposite the Mantralaya in south Mumbai. On the way, homage was paid at the Hutatma Chowk. The march saw the participation of leaders of several political parties, holding the national flag right at the front of the march with Congress Sewa Dal volunteers marching with the tricolour wearing their Gandhi topis. Citizens organisations and political parties had together organised the effort. The political parties included the Indian National Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, CPI, CPI-ML, Janata Dal Secular & the Republican Party of India.
Leaders from political parties who were visible included Digvijay Singh, Bhai Jagtap, Charan Singh Sapra, Yuvraj Mohite representing the Congress Party, Narendra Rane & Rakhiji representing the NCP, Prakash reddy and Milind Ranade from the CPI, Abu Asim Azmi from the Samajwadi Party Arvind Sawant and Dr. Manisha Kayande from the Shiv Sena, Dr. Rajendra Gawai from the Republican Party, Ravi Bhilane from JD-S and Mittal from the CPI-ML.
The veteran freedom fighter Dr. G. G. Parikh, Tushar Gandhi, Feroze Mithiborwala, Kishor Jagtap, Irfan Engineer, Guddi S. L., Prof. Zeenat Shaukat Ali, Vishal Hiwale, Sarfaraz Arzu, Varsha Vidya Vilas, Amrita Bhatacharjee, Bharti Sharma, Farouk Mapkar, Yashodhan Paranjpe, Ali Bhojani, Suraj Bhoir among others also participated.
The people’s organizations that marched under the banner of Nafrat Chhodo Samvidhan Bachao ABhiyaan included the Aarey Bachao Andolan, Ghar Banao Ghar Bachao, Bharat Bachao Andolan, Friends of Democracy,CSSS, Yusuf Meherally Centre, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, Bombay Catholic Sabha, Vidyarthi Bharti, amongst others.
