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Written by Iram Siddique
| Bhopal |
Updated: January 13, 2021 9:23:44 am
Gwalior was chosen as the site of the library dedicated to Godse. TWO DAYS after the Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha opened a library dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse at its Gwalior office, district authorities on Tuesday shut it down and seized its material over law and order concerns.
This came a day after the District Magistrate imposed Section 144 to ensure law and order following circulation of several complaints and critical messages on social media against the Godse Gyanshala, said Gwalior Superintendent Amit Sanghi.
“A meeting was held with members of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Gyanshala was shut down. All the literature, posters, banners and other materials were seized,” said Sanghi.
Apart from offering literature on the life and views of Godse, the library was to also hold lectures on Godse’s journey and Mahatma Gandhi’s “failure” to stop the Partition. Hindu Mahasabha vice-president Jaiveer Bharadwaj told The Indian Express, “We wanted our message to reach out to the people at large and this was done. We did not want any law and order situation, so the library was shut down.”
In 2017, the Hindu Mahasabha installed a Godse statue, where prayer meetings were to be held. It was removed soon and a case was registered against the members of the Mahasabha. This time, however, no case has been registered so far.
The opposition Congress criticised the government for failing to register an FIR. Party spokesperson K K Mishra said, “If the BJP government does not agree with someone, they call him a traitor and enemy of the nation. But in this case, the father of the nation has been insulted and yet there is not even an FIR.”
SP Sanghi said, “In 2017, an offence was registered as a statue was installed that violated provisions of the MP Freedom to Religion Act. Although this time too there was a likelihood of them installing a statue, the library was shut down before that happened. There is no dispute about Mahatma Gandhi being the father of our nation and anything offending will attract police action.”