BENGALURU: If MK Gandhi’s thoughts had been adopted, migrant workers would perhaps have not suffered what they did, Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka said on Friday. He was speaking during a webinar on ‘Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi in 2020’ on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi, organised by the Karnataka Legal Services Authority, the High Court and Bengaluru Urban District Legal Services Committee in association with the Water Institute of Bangalore University.
Justice Oka touched on Gandhi’s ideas about village development through self-sufficiency. “I am not an expert in the field of economy, but in the present-day context, when we see the serious issue of migrants, I personally feel the time has come for us to revisit the thought process adopted by Gandhi and give utmost importance to village industries. If we had implemented the thoughts of Gandhi in independent India, perhaps migrants would not have suffered what they did,” Justice Oka said. He urged the attendees of the webinar which included students, judicial officers and others to revisit Gandhi’s writings.
Talking about Gandhi’s legal career, Justice Oka said that what he did in South Africa was a lesson for every member of the Bar. Gandhi was a civil rights activist, who advocated non-violence and Satyagraha. “This is a model for how a great service can be rendered,” he said.