Come Friday, six panellists will discuss and debate the relevance of Gandhi.

The topic of the Bengal Club 9th Annual Panel discussion, in association with The Telegraph, is “Gandhi at 150. Still the Father of the Nation?”

The Centre keeps paying obeisance to Gandhi but is the man relevant beyond being the mascot of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan?

The panellists are: Maroona Murmu, who teaches history at Jadavpur University; Rudrangshu Mukherjee, chancellor of Ashoka University; Sudarshan Iyengar, Gandhian scholar and former vice-chancellor of Gujarat University; columnist Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was part of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government and has written a treatise on Gandhi; Sugata Bose, professor of oceanic history at Harvard University; and Tathagata Roy, governor of Meghalaya.

“The topic is relevant both in the context of past and present. Few countries have produced a more colossal personality,” cardiac surgeon Kunal Sarkar, the moderator, told The Telegraph.