Tushar Gandhi booked for ‘criticizing’ Bhagat Singh

Jalandhar (Punjab) : It’s an ironical tale. Jalandhar police have registered a case of “hurting religious sentiments” against Mahtma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi after a local BJP functionary objected to his remarks about iconic freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, who was a known atheist. Speaking in Jaipur recently, Tushar had reportedly said that Bhagat Singh was “guilty of British rule, due to which Mahatma Gandhi had not asked for suspension of his sentence” and Bapu did not approve his violent acts.

The case has been registered under section 295 A of IPC which pertained to “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”. The FIR against Tushar said that other nationalist organizations had also submitted complaints to commissioner of police and now a case was being registered.

Local BJP leader Krishan lal Sharma, who is chairman of Jan Jagriti Manch and is also state convenor of the party’s cultural cell, in his complaint to the police on Sunday, claimed that Tushar Gandhi termed Bhagat Singh a criminal (apradhi) as per a newspaper report and this had hurt his personal sentiments and religious sentiments of people in general.

Sharma claimed that they were organizing programmes in the memory of Bhagat Singh and this remark hurt the religious feelings of members of his organization too. He specifically demanded that a case be registered for hurting religious sentiments.

When asked that how could it be a case of hurting religious sentiments as defined by section 295 A of IPC especially when Bhagat Singh himself claimed to be an atheist, ACP north Amneet Kaundal said that they had registered the case as per the complaint received by the police which said that the remarks hurt “religious feelings”. “We have not gone into the religion of Bhagat Singh,” she said.

“Why I am an Atheist,” is a popular article penned by Bhagat Singh. It may be mentioned here that Tushar Gandhi, while speaking in Jaipur, was quoted as saying that the Mahatama did not intervene to get Bhagat Singh’s death sentence commuted as he was a criminal for the British rulers and Gandhi’s critical views about the revolutionary line of line of Bhagat Singh and his associates were well known.

Notably there have been numerous instances when Bhagat Singh’s followers in Punjab have condemned Gandhi in strongest words both in writings and speeches but never any complaint for “hurting religious sentiments” has been filed.

Source : TOI