Senior Congress chief Jairam Ramesh slammed the Centre for its choice to confer the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 on Gita Press, Gorakhpur and known as the transfer a ‘travesty’.
The central authorities determined to confer the award to the Gita Press in recognition of its ‘excellent contribution in direction of social, financial and political transformation by non-violent and different Gandhian strategies’.
Ramesh took to Twitter to criticise the choice and mentioned that giving the Gandhi Peace Prize 2021 to Gita Press is like ‘awarding Savarkar and Godse’. He additionally shared the quilt web page of ‘Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India’ written by Akshaya Mukul and argued how the writer ‘finds the stormy relations it had with the Mahatma and the working battles it carried on with him on his political, spiritual & social agenda’.
“The Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 has been conferred on the Gita Press at Gorakhpur which is celebrating its centenary this 12 months. There’s a very high-quality biography from 2015 of this organisation by Akshaya Mukul wherein he finds the stormy relations it had with the Mahatma and the working battles it carried on with him on his political, spiritual & social agenda. The choice can be a travesty and is like awarding Savarkar and Godse,” he mentioned.
Instituted by the federal government in 1995, the Gandhi Peace Prize is an annual award as a tribute to the beliefs espoused by Mahatma Gandhi. The award is open to all individuals no matter nationality, race, language, caste, creed or gender.
The award carries a money prize of ₹1 crore, a quotation, a plaque and an beautiful conventional handicraft/handloom merchandise. The previous awardees embrace organisations resembling ISRO and Ramakrishna Mission.
One of many world’s largest publishers, Gita Press was established in 1923. It has revealed 417 million books in 14 languages, together with 162 million Shrimad Bhagvad Gita, in accordance with an announcement by Union ministry.