Focus: GS I: Personalities
Why in News?
The Prime Minister, has paid homage to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya on his Jayanti.
About Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Ji
- The Pandit Ji born in Mathura, UP in 1916, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay is an Indian politician.
- He was one of the most important leaders of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the present day Bharatiya Janata Party.
- He qualified the civil services examination, where he got his nickname as Panditji for appearing in the examination hall wearing traditional dhoti-kurta and cap.
- He however did not join the service, but became in 1942, a life-time volunteer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
- However, Upadhyaya is seen to have played a larger role in India’s thought process and political life, transcending party lines.
About the Ideals of Pandit Ji
- The concept of Integral Humanism he propounded envisages remedies for the post-globalization maladies of the world.
- The Upadhyaya Ji conceived a classless, casteless and conflict-free social order.
- He stressed on the ancient Indian wisdom of oneness of the human kind.
- For him, the brotherhood of a shared, common heritage was central to political activism. He emphasized on coexistence and harmony with nature.
- He conceptualized an alternative approach which was free from the dialectics of competition and envy, a third way from the inertia of Capitalism and Communism.
- He was a pioneer of many political experiments. He was the architect of the first coalition phase in Indian politics.
- The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Ji was an advocate of less government and more governance.
- He believed in self-sustaining autonomous units, more power to states and decentralized and competitive federalism, solidly cemented on the cultural mosaic of our tradition, heritage and experience of the past.
About Major Schemes in the name of Pandit Ji
- The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY) – integrating the NULM and NRLM for alleviating poverty.
- The Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) Antyodaya Diwas – to diversify the incomes of rural poor families and to cater to the career aspirations of rural youth.
- The Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana – to provide electricity to rural homes.
- The Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Shramev Jayate Karyakram – to create a conducive environment for industrial development primarily through skill training.
- The Deendayal Upadhyaya Swaniyojan Yojana (DUSY) – the rural version of the Start Up India scheme.
