BHOPAL: A play staged by students at a private school on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in Jabalpur town of Madhya Pradesh has landed into controversy – for allegedly showing Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse in RSS uniform.
Acting on the complaint of an RSS worker Yatindra Upadhyaya, the Lordganj police in Jabalpur registered a Non Cognizable offence Report (NCR) on Thursday against the management of the Small Wonders Senior Secondary school.
With the complainant alleging that the play had tarnished the image of RSS as well as presented wrong historical facts to students by presenting Godse in RSS ganvesh (uniform of black cap, while shirt and khakhi half pant) hence the NCR has been lodged under Section 500 of IPC (defamation) at Lordganj police station.
According to Jabalpur district police superintendent Amit Singh, since the allegations made in the complaint didn’t suggest involvement of any criminality hence there wasn’t a possibility of any FIR being lodged, hence an NCR has been registered. With the matter pertaining to alleged defamation, it will now be decided by the court.
In a related development, activists of a right-wing Hindu outfit Hindu Seva Parishad also met the SP Jabalpur on Friday and demanded that strict action be taken against the school administration and teachers for tarnishing the image of RSS, which is a nationalist organization.
On Wednesday, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a cultural program was organized at Small Wonder Senior Secondary School, where students staged a play in which Gandhi’s assassination was also enacted. In the play, a student essaying the role of Nathuram Godse dressed in khaki half pant, white shirt and black cap was shown assassinating Gandhi with a gun.
The development came a day after cops in Rewa district of MP lodged a case under Sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) 504 (intentional insult with an intent to provoke the breach peace) and 505 (statements conducing public mischief) against unidentified persons for allegedly defacing the picture of Mahatma Gandhi at Bapu Bhawan on the premises of sprawling Laksman Bag museum.
The case was lodged on the complaint of ruling Congress’s Rewa district president Gurmeet Singh, who had also alleged in the complaint that an urn containing Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes had also been stolen. However, with no historical present to suggest the presence of any such urn containing Gandhi’s ashes at the place, the police register a case of theft.