Sachin Phadte
Cong workers attack Alliance Francaise February 24, 2005 BHOPAL, DHNS: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/feb242005/n4.asp
A group of Congressmen, led by a former MLA and a former city Mayor, ransacked the office of “Alliance Francaise de Bhopal”, a French-teaching institution, to protest against the “humiliation heaped on Mahatma Gandhi”. The Congressmen were sore that a painting exhibition put up at the institute depicted, among other things, the Mahatma wearing a suit and standing before a fried Chicken shop. Another picture showed Gandhiji holding a liquor bottle in his hands.
The pictures were part of a solo exhibition of sketch artist Vishwajyoti Ghosh. The Congressmen barged into the office, tore up the “offending” pictures and set them afire. The director of the institute Sten Le Berrigaud was also manhandled. The institute chose not to report the matter to the police, but has only sought police protection.
Former Bhopal MLA P C Sharma and former city Mayor Ms Vibha Patel have blamed the BJP government of the state for “allowing a national icon to be ridiculed by foreigners”. They also referred to a government-sponsored book fair in Bhopal where “anti-Gandhi” and “anti-Gandhism” books were on display. Among others, controversial books written by Gandhiji assassin Nathuram Godse’s brother were on sale in the fair.
The matter was also raised in the state assembly where Opposition members castigated the government for “maligning and ridiculing” Mahatma Gandhi.
Chief Minister Babulal Gaur, while accepting that the books were indeed sold, said that as the fair was over and as the allegedly offending books had been published and printed in Delhi, the Congress government of Delhi should take action. “The ball is in your court”, Mr Gaur told agitated Congressmen.
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