‘Like awarding Godse’: Jairam Ramesh on Centre’s decision to confer Gandhi Peace Prize on Gita Press

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh slammed the Centre for its decision to confer the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 on Gita Press, Gorakhpur and called the move a ‘travesty’.

The central government decided to confer the award to the Gita Press in recognition of its ‘outstanding contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violent and other Gandhian methods’.

Ramesh took to Twitter to criticise the decision and said that giving the Gandhi Peace Prize 2021 to Gita Press is like ‘awarding Savarkar and Godse’. He also shared the cover page of ‘Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India’ written by Akshaya Mukul and argued how the author ‘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 Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 has been conferred on the Gita Press at Gorakhpur which is celebrating its centenary this year. 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,” he said.

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.

The award carries a cash prize of ₹1 crore, a citation, a plaque and an exquisite traditional handicraft/handloom item. The past awardees include organisations such as ISRO and Ramakrishna Mission.

One of the world’s largest publishers, Gita Press was established in 1923. It has published 417 million books in 14 languages, including 162 million Shrimad Bhagvad Gita, according to a statement by Union ministry.