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PM Modi to attend Gita Press centenary celebrations in Gorakhpur on July 7
Established in 1923, Gita Press is one of the world’s largest publishers, having published 417 million books in 14 languages, including 162 million copies of the Shrimad Bhagvad Gita,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the closing ceremony of the Gita Press centenary celebrations in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur on July 7, weeks after his government conferred the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2021 on the publisher.
Established in 1923, Gita Press is one of the world’s largest publishers, having published 417 million books in 14 languages, including 162 million Shrimad Bhagvad Gita, the culture ministry said in a statement released on June 18.
Confirming the development, Gita Press manager Lal Mani Tiwari said: “Yes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the audience, have a special meeting with the management and also visit the Lila Chitra Mandir as he will attend the Gita Press’s centenary celebrations at Gorakhpur on July 7.”
The PM’s visit comes nearly three weeks after a controversy erupted over the Union government’s decision to confer the Gandhi Peace Prize on the publisher in recognition of its “outstanding contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violent and other Gandhian methods”.
Instituted by the government in 1995, the Gandhi Peace Prize is an annual award as a tribute to the ideals espoused by Mahatma Gandhi. The award is open to all persons, regardless of nationality, race, language, caste, creed or gender.
Soon after the announcement, PM Modi took to Twitter to congratulate Gita Press for “commendable work over the last 100 years towards furthering social and cultural transformations among the people”.
BJP chief J P Nadda too said: “Your contribution for the last 100 years in the preservation and flourishing of India’s glorious Sanatan culture is commendable”.
The announcement, however, triggered sharp reactions from the Congress, with the party calling the move a “travesty” and akin to awarding Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar and Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse.
“The Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 has been conferred on the Gita Press... There is a very fine biography from 2015 of this organisation by Akshaya Mukul in which he unearths the stormy relations it had with the Mahatma and the running battles it carried on with him on his political, religious & social agenda. The decision is really a travesty and is like awarding Savarkar and Godse,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted on June 19.
