The burning Manipur issue has created a lot of clamor against the ruling party, the BJP, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The entire nation is saddened because the BJP, the center, and the state have failed to control the violence and brutality against women in Manipur. Parliament was stalled for several days because leaders of the opposition wanted discussion or dialogue from PM Modi.
Amid all this ruckus, the founder of Shri Shiv Pratishthan, Sambhaji Bhide, had made some controversial statements against Mahatma Gandhi, and that has successfully diverted all the attention of the opposition party from Manipur to Mahatma. He even claimed that people unnecessarily give importance to Pandit Nehru in the freedom struggle. Bhide said there was not an iota of contribution by Pandit Nehru to the freedom struggle.
Pressure was mounted on the incumbent BJP-led government in Maharashtra to arrest Bhide. Condemning Bhide’s remarks, Maharashtra Deputy CM and Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Mahatma Gandhi is viewed as the leader of the history of India’s freedom struggle. Such a statement against him is inappropriate, and people will not tolerate it. The state government will take appropriate action in this case. Insulting Mahatma Gandhi will not be tolerated under any circumstances.”
On the other hand, Ajit Pawar, who is part of the incumbent government, also demanded the arrest of Sambhaji Bhide. The Amravati police have already registered the police complaint against Sambhaji Bhide under IPC Section 153 A—promoting enmity between two groups. This is a cognizable offense with three years of imprisonment and a penalty. Earlier, former Maharashtra Congress chief minister Prithviraj Chavan brought up Bhide’s remarks against Mahatma Gandhi on the floor of the House in the Maharashtra state assembly monsoon session and demanded the arrest of Bhide. Former Maharashtra cabinet minister and Congress MLA Yashomati Thakur had asked “for whose permission the BJP-led government is waiting” when there were demands for Bhide to be arrested.
Surprisingly, no Congress leaders know about the book that Bhide referred to. We personally spoke to dozens of Congress leaders, each of whom told us that they had not read the book or were not even aware that such a book was available online. Many opposition leaders said that they don’t know the writer A. Ghosh, and some of them said, We have ordered the book; we will read it and seek appropriate action against the writer. Political think tanks look at this entire controversy as a diversion tactic; they believe that Bhide was assigned to make such a statement by the BJP to divert attention from the burning issue of Manipur, which has severely embraced the BJP.
A. Ghosh is an Indian writer. He won India’s highest literary honor. Ghosh worked at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi and several academic institutions. Ghosh holds two Lifetime Achievement awards and four honorary doctorates. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest honors, by the President of India. This most acclaimed writer’s book was missed by the Congress leaders.
Ghosh, in his book “The Kuran and The Kafir,” writes that some say that Gandhi’s natural father was the Moslem employer of Gandhi’s father. Gandhi’s father used to work for a Moslem landowner who had stolen money from the cash box and fled. He was a fugitive for three years, and his wife was taken over by the Moslem landlord and placed in his harem. Gandhi was born during this period, when his father was a fugitive. There are people who assert that Gandhi’s father used to come inside the harem like a thief to sleep with his wife, and he indeed was the true father, but that seems highly unlikely. However! Gandhi had promised his mother to be a strict vegetarian. These promises he kept all throughout his life. Otherwise, he was a servant of Islam in his political dealings.”
No one knows from where A. Gosh has gathered this kind of information; there is no authentication to his claims. This can be propaganda, but surprisingly, no one has objected to his book, and the book is in the best category at Amazon. Learned Congress leaders should have questioned the motive of the author, or they could have demanded the ban on this said book, but the irony is that until Bhide’s statement, they were clueless about it.
No congress leader so far has taken any action against the writer or the book; they all went after 90-year-old Bhide and made several condemnations and complaints against him. Bhide is accused of making offensive remarks about Gandhi in his speech during a program at Bharat Mangal Hall in the Badnera Road area of Amravati district on Thursday, July 27. The Rajapeth police in Amravati booked Sambhaji Bhide under Indian Penal Code Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony). Though his statements were not against any religion, caste, creed, or group, he just stated the paragraph written in the book. The question is, will the Congress leaders take action against Bose? Or will they haunt the book reader?
