Gandhi's ashes immersed at the Sangam in Allahabad
Sharat Pradhan in Allahabad
The controversy relating to the ashes of Gandhi came to an end
with the immersion of the last remains of the Father of the Nation
at the holy Sangam here on his 49th death anniversary
on Thursday, January 30.
"Words cannot express the joy and satisfaction I feel by
performing my duty as a great grandson," said Tushar Arun
Gandhi, the 36-year-old scion of the Gandhi family, who all by
himself managed to retrieve the Mahatma's ashes from the strong
room of the State Bank of India, Cuttack, where they were kept
in an urn, sealed and locked inside a wooden box since 1950.
Amidst chanting of shlokas from the Vedas and other Hindu
scriptures, Tushar, his wife Sonal and two children emptied the
ashes from the urn at exactly 3 pm from a specially erected wooden
platform at the Sangam.
UP Governor Romesh Bhandari, federal ministers Chaturanan Mishra
and Janeshwar Mishra, and UP Congress chief Jitendra Prasad, together
with a host of Congress leaders and the city mayor, Rita Bahuguna
Joshi, were present at the spots while hundreds of people watched
from the banks of the well known confluence of there rivers -
Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.
Much to everybody's surprise, there was a somewhat lukewarm response
from the locals, though city mayor Rita Bahuguna Joshi attributed
it to the "lack of publicity". And went on to say: "Well,
if it had been declared a holiday, perhaps there would have been
much greater participation of both schoolchildren and men and
women."
But for the presence of two United Front government ministers
and a few local Samajwadi Party leaders, it remains a largely
Congress dominated show.
Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who was earlier stated to be coming
for the ceremony, eventually dropped the programme. "He had
not only told me when I met him on October 2 last year that he
would come, but I had also received a written confirmation from
him in this regard later. I am not aware why he chose to call
it off," said Tushar Gandhi.
"Isn't it pitiable that in order to get the ashes of my own
great grandfather who is also regarded as the Father of the Nation,
I had to move a petition in the Orissa high court, which finally
authorised me to bring these all the way to Allahabad for immersion,"
Tushar lamented.
According to him "Not enough respect was shown to our feelings
or the fact that these were Mahatma Gandhi's last remains and
it was only because of the court order that even this much was
permitted."
And what pained him even more "was the canard that I was
trying to play politics or take political mileage out of his ashes".
"Why should I do anything of that sort. In any case, I am
neither in politicos nor do I have the remotest intention of plunging
into politics. None of the present parties are worth it,"
he said.
Asked to comment on the absence of the country's top political
leaders, who otherwise swore by the name of the Mahatma, Tushar
quipped "If they have not cared to come here on this occasion,
it does not bother me. But I am fully convinced that most of them
have believed only in lip service."
He said he would have been happier if all the members of the remaining
Gandhi clan had joined him on the occasion.
The ashes were brought on January 29 evening in an ordinary second
class coach of the Puri-New Delhi Purshottam Express. The train
arrived over two hours behind schedule due to prolonged halts
at various stations en route on account of the unexpected rush
of people who had come to pay homage to the Mahatma.
Accompanying the coach were armed police personnel, besides the
registrar of the Orissa high court and an official of the State
Bank of India, in accordance with the court order.
The railway authorities in Allahabad had managed to get old recordings
of Mahatma Gandhi's favourite bhajans. The train rolled
in amidst chants of 'Long live Mahatma Gandhi', and 'Jab tak
suraj, chand rahega; Gandhi tera naam rahega' (As long as
the Sun and Moon remain, Gandhi's name too will).
The ashes were carried in an official vehicles from the railway
station to the local Circuit House to be kept in a specially erected
spotless white pandal on a flower decked platform. It was
thrown open to the public the next morning, with Gandhi's favourite
bhajans sung by local artists.
Priests representing the four major religions - Hinduism, Islam,
Sikhism and Christianity - were called in to perform all-religion
prayers.
The final journey of the red wooden box, containing the copper
urn in which the ashes were kept, began from the circuit house
at about 1.30 pm. It was first brought to the Saraswati Ghat,
where the UP governor joined the family and others in motorboats
to reach the Sangam.
The priest, who carried out the religious rituals, Santosh Kumar
Pandey, told Rediff On The Net that the same ceremony had
been performed by his father Kamta Prasad Pandey at this very
spot 49 years ago, when the first batch of ashes of the Mahatma
were brought here for immersion.
Though none knows why the ashes were at all taken to Cuttack,
Tushar maintains that since Gandhi's ashes were sent to different
parts of the country, perhaps this batch was sent to Orissa and
could not be immersed there for some reason and were therefore
deposited two years later (in 1950) in a strong room of a bank
there on behalf of the state chief minister.
He came to know of it only through media reports in 1994 when
the then manager of the bank disclosed how repeated reminders
over the years to various government authorities had failed to
evoke any response about the box.
Tushar finally filed a petition in the court which entrusted the
ashes to him as there were no other claimants. Tushar wanted to
carry the ashes to different parts of the country before immersing
them but was not permitted to do so by the courts.
Even though doubts had been raised from some quarters about the
authenticity of the ashes, significantly the wooden box carried
an old label saying that the box contained an urn in which there
were ashes of Mahatma Gandhi.
UNI
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