AGARTALA, October 2 (TIWN): Jail Minister Manindra Reang on Thursday paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhighat on his 145th birth anniversary. Several other senior leaders were also present at Gandhighat.

Speaking in the occasion Jail Minister Manindra Reang said that Gandhiji believed that cleanliness is next only to Godliness. Let us pledge this day to convert cleanliness into a national passion, he added.
Every road, every path, every office, every home, every hut, every stream and every particle in the air around us can and must be kept clean, he mentioned.
He called upon every citizens of the state to do their utmost to make a success of the "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan" (Clean India Project) launched by the Government to ensure hygiene, waste management and sanitation across the country.
Gandhiji's leadership inspired millions to unite in the cause of freedom and independence. He also taught us to stand resolutely against fear, to understand the importance of truth and to work for the betterment of our motherland, the minister said.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. 

Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.