Arjun Singh lashes out at saffron brigade

Minister asks students to keep Mahatma's philosophy alive

Union human resources development minister, Arjun Singh, on Monday lashed out at the saffron brigade, saying that people of the same ideology had made deliberate attempts to remove the Preamble of the Constitution from textbooks and also attempted to undermine the importance of Mahatma Gandhi's teachings.

He was addressing the convocation ceremony of the Gujarat Vidyapith, which was founded by Mahatma Gandhi.

Calling upon the students of Gujarat Vidyapith to use the ideas of Gandhiji, to counter such forces, Arjun Singh said that a huge responsibility lies on them.

"Communal forces are still present in the country and are as active as before. Otherwise, the mass killing witnessed in the state would not have taken place in Gujarat, the birthplace of Gandhiji. Also, it is in Gujarat that a person like Hitler is being given the position of an ideal person," he said referring to the 2002 communal riots and a reference in a textbook describing Adolf Hitler as an ideal person.

Arjun Singh began his convocation address by saying that he believed it is his responsibility to state that the very forces that were responsible for the killing of Mahatma Gandhi were now attempting reduce the importance of his teachings and philosophy.

"The Preamble of the Constitution is one of India's greatest treasures. But a deliberate attempt was made in 2000 to remove it from textbooks. What we need to deliberate upon is what are those words in the Preamble that these people are afraid of.

"I firmly believe that there are people in this country who do not believe in equality of persons of all religions and who do not accept the Constitution in its totality. That is why an attempt to review the Constitution was the first thing that the Union government did five years ago," Singh said.

The Union HRD minister admitted that the country has not been able to fully implement the ideals set in the constitution. "The answer, however, is to bring about faster development and ensure that all citizens get the benefits of the provisions of the constitution," he said.

Singh said that he was drawing parallels between an attempt to remove the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi from India's history and removing the Preamble from textbooks, as both these acts were deliberate and by a particular ideology.

"This is such an attempt that cannot be done openly and by issuing an ordinance, and so was being done in a clandestine manner. The country deserves to know why this was done and on whose insistence," said the minister.

Singh stated that it was indeed ironical that when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, his last words were `Hey Ram'.

"The same people who follow the philosophy of Nathuram Godse (who killed the Mahatma) are using the name of Lord Ram to spread communal hatred among the people of India," he told the gathering.