Hours before Patkar’s fast, MP govt dismantles Gandhi Samadhi
Barely hours before Narmada Bachao Aandolan leader Medha Patkar started a hunger strike at Rajghat, the Gandhi Samadhi on the banks of Narmada river in Barwani, the district administration dismantled the structure for relocation.
Officials took away three urns containing the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba, and secretary Mahadev Desai during the operation carried out after Wednesday midnight.
“The kalash (urns) were brought back amid protests,” Patkar, who has been at the forefront of agitations against dams on Narmada river, and had announced her fast for proper rehabilitation of people affected by the projects, said on Thursday.
Gandhian Kashinath Trivedi had brought the ashes and set up the samadhi at Barwani in 1965.
With the gates of Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat closed last month, there are concerns that many areas in four Madhya Pradesh districts — Barwani, Khargone, Dhar and Alirajpur — will be submerged. This necessitated the samadhi’s relocation, said a government official. But Patkar objected to the manner in which the operation was carried out.
“Shifting Gandhiji’s samadhi without the knowledge of the locals and without following due procedure is illegal and disrespectful towards Mahatma Gandhi. It was done deliberately a few hours ahead of my fast. We protested and the urns containing ashes have been brought back.”
Barwani collector Tejaswi S Naik said the samadhi had to be relocated as the area faces the possibility of being submerged.