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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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