Followers of Mahatma Gandhi and Jayprakash Narayan will assemble in Varanasi on Friday to protest the demolition of the Sarva Sewa Sangh, a Gandhian social service organisation, and organise a “civil disobedience movement”.
The Sangh houses the Gandhi Vidya Sansthan, an institute that holds classes on Gandhian philosophy and was co-founded by JP, and the quarters of over 40 employees who live there with their families.
Anand Kumar, 75, a former colleague of JP and professor emeritus at the Gandhian School of Democracy and Socialism, ITM University, Gwalior, has called on all Gandhians and followers of JP to assemble at Rajghat in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, on Friday when the local administration is to bring down the structures with bulldozers.
Some of the buildings at the Sangh were founded by JP in 1962 to propagate the non-violent ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave.
“We will observe civil disobedience to fight against the atrocious action of the BJP government against the Gandhian institutes. We can lay down our lives to protect the Sansthan and the Sangh, where hundreds of Gandhians from across the country come every year to study Gandhian ideology,” Kumar said.
A plea was on Wednesday filed in Allahabad High Court against the decision to demolish the Sarva Sewa Sangh.
Ram Dhiraj, the head of the Sangh, said the Northern Railway had put up notices on the buildings of the Sansthan and the Sangh on Tuesday, saying the land belonged to the railways and illegal constructions had been made on it. Dhiraj said the Sangh had documents to prove the land belonged to it.
“The notices said the railways would start demolishing the buildings on June 30 on the order of the district magistrate,” he said.
The Gandhians have alleged that the Centre was trying to illegally hand over the Sansthan, along with its building and 2.5-acre plot, to the Union government’s Indira Gandhi National Centre of Art (IGNCA).
“Last month, the local administration had forcibly opened the locks of the Sansthan and handed it to the Indira Gandhi National Centre of Art. We had moved Allahabad High Court, which had directed the Varanasi administration to take a decision only after reviewing all documents. We have submitted most (land-related) documents to divisional commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma and district magistrate S. Rajalingam and sought some time to submit more papers. They had agreed to wait, but suddenly decided on Tuesday to send bulldozers on Friday to bring down not only the buildings of the Sansthan but also of the Sangh,” Dhiraj said.
“What the government fails to realise is that we are not criminals on whom they can run their bulldozers. We have tremendous moral authority to take up cudgels for the institutes, which were founded many decades ago to propagate peace. We were put in jail and tortured during the Emergency, but the government couldn’t break our indomitable spirit. We would prefer to die instead of allowing the government to grab the properties and kill Gandhi once again. At least 50 Gandhians above the age of 60 are reaching here from across India to see how powerful a bulldozer can be,” he added.
Dhiraj said the IGNCA is dominated by former members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the campus arm of the RSS. The RSS was banned after the assassination of Gandhi.
“It is clear that the RSS-BJP wants to erase the names of Gandhi, Vinoba Bhabe and JP from India’s history,” Dhiraj said.
Saurabh Singh, a member of the Sarva Sewa Sangh, said: “We had submitted documents dating back to 1956-1970 to prove our ownership of the 14 acres of land of the Sarva Sewa Sangh and its 10 buildings developed from 1956 to 1962. Earlier, the local administration had tried to take over the three buildings of the Gandhi Vidya Sansthan built on 2.5 acres. A large number of Gandhians had gathered here and protested.”
“There are over 40 families living in these buildings and we believe the government will violently remove them from here,” Singh said.
The IGNCA has said it has been taking over “defunct” institutes to facilitate research on Gandhism.