NEW DELHI: Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood on Saturday inaugurated the campaign “Jal Sangam se Jan Sangam – The Festival of Unity”, marking the beginning of the “Sardar @150” celebrations on the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The campaign, inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat, seeks to connect students across India through the symbolic journey of “Ekta ka Jal” (Water of Unity). The sacred water collected from the Yamuna will travel to 25 culturally significant rivers across the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari before being brought back to Delhi for a Jal Abhishek ceremony at Patel Chowk on October 31, 2025.
Addressing the gathering at Sonia Vihar Yamuna Ghat, where the inaugural event took place, Sood, who is an MLA from Janakpuri, said the campaign celebrates not just unity in diversity but also the role of youth in building a self-reliant India.
“Our students are not merely reading books; they are learning the art of nation-building,” Sood said. “We want every child to say, I have not come just to study, I have come to build the nation.”
He recalled Sardar Patel’s historic achievement of integrating 562 princely states at the time of Independence and drew a parallel with the abrogation of Article 370 under Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, describing it as an act of the same “unifying willpower.” Sood said, “The Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat” vision of Sardar Patel is today manifest in the government’s mission of “Viksit Bharat @2047.”
