(Image source from: thehill.com)

Legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr are to be promoted says a bill that was introduced in the US House of Representatives by Congressman John Lewis, America’s legendary civil rights leader and sought a budgetary allocation of $150 million for the next five years.

As it was introduced to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi, the friendship between the the two nations having the largest democracies in the world have been affirmed by the House Bill (HR 5517) and it honours the contributions and the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

This bill is being considered as a significant landmark and has the support of House speaker Nancy Pelosi which has been initiated by the United States Congress.

The establishment of a Gandhi-King Development Foundation created by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Indian laws will be proposed by the bill.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla, the India’s Ambassador to the US said that the reinforcement of the close culture and the ideological bonds between India and the US will be done with the introduction of the bill.

The bill that was introduced tries to find a budgetary allocation of $30 million every year for the next successive five years to the USAID for this foundation.

Grants to NGOs in the areas of health, pollution and climate change, education and women empowerment would be overseen by the governing council that has been convened by the governments of the US and India, according to the bill.

Six other Democratic lawmakers which includes three Indian-Americans viz., Ami Bera, Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal and the other Congressmen Brenda Lawrence, Brad Sherman and James McGovern will be co-sponsoring as well.

Allocation of $2 million until 2025 i.e., for the next five years for the establishment of a Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative has been proposed by the bill.

An annual educational forum for the scholars from India and the US which will be held alternatively in the two countries will also be comprised.

The works and the philosophies of Gandhi and King including the visits to historical places will be focused by the conference.

A taped message by the Dr King was discovered by the All India Radio, fifty years after his visit to India in February 1959. The taped message emphasized the intellectual harmony between the messages of Dr King and Gandhi on non violent social action.

“Mohandas Gandhi, who employed the principle of satyagraha or fighting with peace, has come to represent the moral force inspiring many civil and social rights movement around the worlds,” the bill says.

By Shrithika Kushangi