Jaitley launches e-version of Mahatama Gandhi's works

Union minister Arun Jaitley today paid rich tributes to Mahatama Gandhi and said it was hard to imagine another person with his stature, vision and inspiration as the government released an e-version of the 'Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi'.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Jaitley said that the Publications Division under his ministry had in 1994 published the collected works of Mahatama Gandhi in book form with an edition of of it in Hindi as well.

The digital version is a collector's item and can also be accessed on the Internet for people around the world to use as a resource for reference, he added.

Highlighting the versatility of Mahatama Gandhi, Jaitley said that the amount of things he had spoken or written about and the thinking behind that, for somebody of this generation to acquire that kind of knowledge was near impossible.

"He (Mahatma Gandhi) was a lawyer by education and could write on medicine, economic affairs, issues related to Independence movement, social issues, global relationships, religion; there may be hardly a subject on which he may not have spoken on written," Jaitley said.

The senior BJP MP said it was a matter for research as to what was Mahatma Gandhi's strength. The minister noted at the same time that to make morality a source of strength and to retain the high moral stand under any circumstances was one of Mahatma Gandhi's abilities.

"Did foreign rulers leave India only because of Gandhiji's 'andolan'... Did he push the British out or did he create a moral environment in which the British themselves had to leave, perhaps the second argument would be more true," Jaitley said.

He also added that Mahatma Gandhi had an exceptional ability to communicate while speaking at the launch of the e-version of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi which was attended, among others, by the Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore and I&B secretary Sunil Arora.

The 100 volumes of Mahatma Gandhi's complete works are contained in two DVDs and officials said that the ministry will soon follow with a Hindi version of the e-publication.