On the eve of Shri. Rambhau Mhalgi’s birth anniversary (July 9), RMP has started the tradition to organise a lecture called the ‘Rambhau Mhalgi Memorial Lecture’. Rambhau Mhalgi was an ideal representative of the people. Prabodhini, which has been named after him, launched an initiative of a memorial lecture in his name and on his 75th birth anniversary. RMP has been inviting senior leaders from different areas of expertise to deliver this lecture every year. So far, in this lecture series, laureates like Shri. Lal Krishna Advani, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Dr. Prabhakar Mande, Shri. Suresh Soni, Shri. Ram Madhav and Dr. Rakesh Sinha have delivered insightful speeches.
In 2018, the lecture was based on ‘Arya Chanakya – Life and Work: In the Present Context’, and was delivered by Shri. Amit Shah, the then National President of BJP. Arya Chanakya is one personality in the history of our country, who achieved a distinct place in the cultural and political life through his administrative, political and economic abilities, in spite of being located beyond the purview of power circles. Shri. Shah went on to explain how Arya Chanakya’s theories are useful even today.
During his insightful speech, he focused at length on several concepts like nation, administration, duties of a king, public life, trade, foreign policy, shrewd manoeuvres in power politics and intelligence department referring to scholarly books authored by Chanakya such as Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Chanakya Neetidarpan, Chanakya Saar-Sangraha, Laghu-Chanakya, Vruddha Chanakya, Chanakya Sutra and Vishnugupta Siddhanta.
With the background of this insightful speech, an essay competition was conducted for youth on the theme ‘Arya Chanakya’ during 22nd June and 30th June 2018. The topics were: Chanakya’s concept of ideal nation-building, Chanakya – A management Guru, and Chanakya’s concept of public welfare. In all 1,457 participants contested and the winners were awarded prizes by Shri. Shah.
