Days after the government selected Gita Press for the Gandhi Peace Prize, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on June 20 said that despite being a member of the jury that decides the winner, he was not part of the selection process this time.
“I was not informed either verbally or in writing. As the leader of the single largest Opposition party, I never got any invitation from the government. Neither was I informed about the meeting [to pick the awardee],” Mr. Chowdhury told The Hindu over phone.
A five-member jury decides the winner of the Gandhi Peace Prize, which was instituted in 1995 to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s 125th birth anniversary. The jury is headed by the Prime Minister and comprises the Chief Justice of India, Leader of the Opposition/single largest Opposition party and two eminent personalities.
The decision to confer the Gandhi Peace Prize on the Gorakhpur-based Gita Press, one of the largest publishers of Hindu religious texts, had triggered a political row.
“The decision is really a travesty and is like awarding [Hindutva ideologue] Savarkar and [Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram] Godse,” Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh tweeted on Sunday.
Referring to Gita Press And The Making of Hindu India, authored by journalist Akshay Mukul, Mr. Ramesh said the author “unearths the stormy relations it had with the Mahatma and the running battles it carried on with him on his political, religious and social agenda”.
Reacting to the Congress leader’s tweet, the BJP said the opposition to Gita Press proved that the Congress was an “anti-Hindu” party.
Asked if he would have opposed the choice of Gita Press, Mr. Chowdhury said, “I would have given my views after seeing the documents and reasons for shortlisting them [the nominees].”
“How can I comment on a hypothetical situation when I was not even invited for the meeting,” he added.
