As the UN general assembly observed Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday as the International Day of Non-Violence, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi spoke of the international community’s “collective failure” to move towards universal nuclear disarmament.

Addressing the UNGA in New York, she also spoke of the “violence against earth” reflected through man-made climatic change and of the “disturbing emergence” of non-state players in the spread of terrorism. Sonia said the world is facing violence of various kinds and there was a collective failure of the international community in tackling terrorism and checking nuclear proliferation. “Violence has come to be regarded as a norm and non-violence an aberration,” she rued.

“It is not the relevance of Mahatma Gandhi that is in question today. It is whether we have the courage to emulate his preaching and what he lived and died for,” she said. She also had a word of caution for representatives from across the world asking them not to make Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary another annual ritual. Among her audience were External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, his deputy Anand Sharma and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underscored the relevance of Gandhi’s Ahimsa and said Gandhi was not a lofty saint but a political leader who practised what he preached. “Let us not forget that Gandhiji was not some lofty saint. He was a political leader. He was regarded as a Mahatma because he practised what he preached, because he cared for the poorest of the poor, the weakest of the weak,” he said.

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