Participating in a Khadi promotion event held to mark the 152 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi here, BJP national president JP Nadda on Saturday exhorted party workers across the country to purchase locally made khadi products from 2-7 October.
Nadda’s appeal to party workers came during his visit to a Khadi store in the national capital’s Connaught Place. Speaking to media persons later Nadda said, “From today till October 7, crores of BJP workers in the country are contributing to promoting the use of Khadi in order to increase its usage.”
The BJP president referred to the role played by Mahatma Gandhi in India’s freedom movement. He said the Prime Minister’s ‘self-reliant India’ and ‘Vocal for local’ had given Khadi a shot in the arm.
“Today is the 152nd birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and the 118th birth anniversary of our former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Mahatma Gandhi played a key role in the freedom struggle of the country,” Nadda said. He said use of khadi went up by 188 per cent after 2014. The production of khadi also increased by 129 per cent, he added.
As a result of an increase in the use of khadi and its production the total turnover of khadi in 2020-2021 reached Rs 96,000 crore. All these led to the generation of around 6 lakh jobs in the sector, Nadda said, adding that increasing the use of khadi would help in the strengthening of gram swaraj and make India self-reliant.