Odisha govt withdraws Gandhi booklet for saying he died due to ‘accident’

The two-page booklet, published by the school and mass education department, would be corrected and redistributed among school children, said state education minister Sami Ranjan Dash.

A day after a controversy over a booklet on Mahatma Gandhi, which said the Father of Nation died due to accidental reasons, Odisha government said on Saturday the mistake was unintentional and announced its withdrawal.

Several intellectuals in the state, including Gandhians, also criticised the misrepresentation of facts over Gandhiji’s assassination.

The state’s minister for school and mass education Sami Ranjan Dash said in the assembly on Saturday that the government had no intention of presenting children with wrong information, create confusion or alter the sequence of events.

“It was unintentional. The state government has already withdrawn the booklet and served show-cause notice to two officials. Two officials have been suspended over their negligence,” said Dash.

Dash said the two-page booklet, published by the school and mass education department, would be corrected and redistributed among school children.

‘Ama Bapuji: Eka Jhalaka (Our Bapuji: A Glimpse)’ comprising the life history of Mahatma Gandhi with colourful photographs was distributed in all the 53,000-odd schools to commemorate his 150th birth anniversary.

The assembly had witnessed furore on Friday over the booklet that purportedly said Mahatma Gandhi died due to accidental reasons on January 30, 1948. The opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had slammed chief minister Naveen Patnaik over the issue.

“The inaccuracies are too glaring and would mislead the younger generations who would assume that Gandhiji died of some accident and was not murdered by a bigot like Nathuram Godse. It is a tremendous disrespect to the father of the nation when we are celebrating his 150th anniversary,” said activist Prafulla Samantra.

“The motive behind spreading this information is to hide from the children the fact that Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Hindutva radical Nathuram Godse,” Samantra added.

The secretary of the Gandhi Memorial Library in Bargarh, Manoranjan Sahu, said the booklet has unsuccessfully tried to hide the truth.

“What does one mean by accident? Did Gandhiji die after tripping on the road? Everyone knows that he died from the bullets fired by Nathuram Godse,” said Sahu.