President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat on his birth anniversary. Several other political leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani, were also present at Rajghat.

Kovind paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on Monday. Image credit: President of India/Twitter
The prime minister paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. Image Credit: Narendra Modi/Twitter
Modi at Rajghat. Image Credit: PIB India/Twitter

“The biggest tribute we can pay to the Father of the Nation is to follow his ideals in letter and spirit,” Naidu said on Twitter on Monday. “Fight against poverty, corruption, illiteracy, casteism, communalism, gender discrimination, atrocities against weaker sections.”

Kovind, Modi and Singh also paid floral tributes at former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s memorial at Vijay Ghat on Monday on the occasion of his birth anniversary.

Kovind at Lal Bahadur Shastri's memorial at Vijay Ghat. Image Credit: President of India/Twitter
Modi at Lal Bahadur Shastri's memorial at Vijay Ghat. Image Credit: Narendra Modi/Twitter

Earlier on Monday, Modi shared a video paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. “I bow to beloved Bapu on Gandhi Jayanti. His noble ideals motivate millions across the world,” Modi wrote on Twitter.

He also shared a video of Shastri on the micro-blogging website.

‘Swachch Bharat the dream of 125 crore Indians’

Monday also marked the third anniversary of the government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan programme. At a speech at Vigyan Bhawan, Modi said the the dream of a Swachh Bharat (clean India) will be realised by 125 crore Indians, and not a select group of leaders or officials. “Even if 1,000 Mahatma Gandhis, 1 lakh Modis, all chief ministers and all state governments come together, the dream for a clean India can never be fulfilled,” the Times of India quoted Modi as saying. “But if 125 crore Indians come together, that dream will come true.”

Modi had launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on October 2, 2014, with a vision to achieve a Clean India by 2019. On Monday, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani will launch ‘Swachchata-in 60-Minute’ as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, ANI reported.

Several political leaders and school students are participating in cleanliness drives on Monday.