"We don't comment on political matters," says Gita Press trustee Devidayal Agarwal

Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 19 : Reacting to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's criticism of the Centre awarding the Gandhi Peace Prize to Gita Press, trustee of the publisher Devidayal Agarwal said on Monday that Gita Press does not comment on political matters.

Devidayal Agarwal said that Gita Press follows the suggestions made by Mahatma Gandhi in the year 1926 that the publication should avoid expressing political statements and should not carry advertisements in its issues.

"Gandhi Ji had great affection for Gita Press. We have completed 97 years of our journey. He had advised us never to place advertisements and to refrain from expressing political views," Devidayal Agarwal told ANI.

"Whosoever wants to speak they are allowed to do so but we will not comment on such matter as we have always followed suggestions given by Gandhi Ji," he added.

Earlier today Congress leader Jairam Ramesh slammed the Centre over its decision to award the Gandhi Peace Award for 2021 to Gita Press and said "It is really a travesty and is like awarding Savarkar and Godse."

"The Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021 has been conferred on the Gita Press at Gorakhpur which is celebrating its centenary this year. There is a very fine biography from 2015 of this organisation by Akshaya Mukul in which he unearths the stormy relations it had with the Mahatma and the running battles it carried on with him on his political, religious & social agenda. The decision is really a travesty and is like awarding Savarkar and Godse," Jairam Ramesh, a Congress general secretary, said in a tweet.

The Culture Ministry on Sunday said that Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2021 is being conferred on Gita Press, Gorakhpur.

Gandhi Peace Prize is an annual award instituted by the Government of India in 1995, on the occasion of the 125th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi as a tribute to the ideals espoused by Mahatma Gandhi.

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