Porbandar Junagadh Rajkot Saurashtra District News Gujarat India

Pace of peace to pick up from Bapu's land.

Peace activists, writers, religious leaders and senior police officials are all set to go to grassroots level to spread the message of peace in the society.

A Shanti-sadbhavna and Samvad Yatra' is being taken out by Sadbhavna Forum from Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace Kirti Mandir in Porbandar to Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. The (vehicle) yatra will be flagged off on December 14 by religious leader Morari Bapu. The forum is an open platform of people who work for peace and communal harmony in the state.

"During the 20-day yatra, former member of Parliament (MP) Ramjisinh, Narayan Desai, Gunvant Shah, Kumarpal Desai,Maulana Abbas Sahib Khui, Anna Hajare, Shahbuddin Rathod, Chandrasekhar Dharmadhikari, Kulinchandra Yagnik, PK Laheri, Mehbub Desai, director general of police SS Khandvawala, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Hasmukh Patel, Sanath Mehta, Swami Agnivesh, Vidyut Joshi and writer Narrottam Palan among others will interact with people,'' said one of the organizers Sanjay Bhavsar.

Bhavsar and his wife Tula have devoted their life to work for peace in the state through Vishwagram' at Jagudan village in Mehsana district.

The yatra will pass from Junagadh City, Amreli City, Savarkundla City, Mahuva City, Bhavnagar City, Sanosara, Rajkot City, Surendranagar City, Deesa, Palanpur, Mehsana, Visnagar, Himmatnagar, Modasa, Gandhinagar City and Ahmedabad City.

"At each station, dignitaries will interact with local people, students and teachers about conflict issues. The speakers will try to resolve their perception towards certain communities and other issues. A street play Parth ne kaho utare ban, have Buddh ej kalyan' will be performed at every place,'' Bhavsar said.

"The aim is to work for peace. Generally we rush to places like fire fighters when riots break out, but after that we forget about it. But after 2002 riots, we realized that we need to work more during the peace time and strengthen it at grassroots level by establishing peace committees,'' Bhavsar added.