Two dozen-odd Gandhians who want the BJP government to hand back a six-decade-old Gandhian research institution it took over in Varanasi last year have launched a “100-day satyagraha” or relay fast that entered its ninth day on Thursday.

Teams of protesters have also been holding yatras across Varanasi district to seek support for their movement against the takeover of the Akhil Bharat Sarva Sewa Sangh.

The Yogi Adityanath government had in July last year taken over the Sewa Sangh on the ground that it stood on encroached-on railway land. The following month, it demolished with bulldozers about a dozen buildings on the
2.5-acre premises.

According to the Gandhians who ran the Sewa Sangh, the institution had a land deal with the railways, approved by then
President Rajendra Prasad. The matter is in court.

“The Varanasi administration took over the Sewa Sangh forcibly on July 22 last year and arrested us. We proved before them with the help of documents that the institution was started by JP (Jaya Prakash Narayan) with the help of Vinoba Bhave and Lal Bahadur Shastri and approved by Rajendra Prasad, then the President of India,” Ram Dhiraj, a member of the Sewa Sangh, said at the protest site in Rajghat, Varanasi.

“Since then, it had been in the possession of our leaders, and later in ours. But the BJP government is trying to destroy all institutions where any research is done on the Gandhian ideology.”

The local administration has handed over the plot to the central government’s Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. Dhiraj claims the IGNCA is under RSS control.

“Although we had all the (land ownership) papers, the government forced us out of the compound with the help of the police,” Surya Narayan Nath, convener of the Odisha branch of the Rashtriya Yuva Sangathan, a Gandhian body, said while addressing the protesters on Wednesday.

“We demand that the government give the land back to us. It may turn out to be a long battle but we will win eventually.”

The protesters claim that Jaya Prakash Narayan often came and stayed at the Gandhi Vidya Sansthan, a study circle on the Gandhian ideology that stood on the Sewa Sangh premises. Besides researching and publishing books on Gandhian thought, it held classes for poor children.

The protesters have met Rahul Gandhi several times, and hope they will get the property back if the Congress returns to power.