GUWAHATI: A complaint was lodged against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, May 30 at the Hatigaon police station in Guwahati on his remarks on Mahatma Gandhi.
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The complainant, one Luit Kumar Barman, said the prime minister’s statement was “derogatory.”
In an interview with a news channel on Wednesday, May 28, Modi said that no one knew about Mahatma Gandhi until a film on him was made.
In his FIR, Barman said, "Our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has stated in election campaigning that our father of nation Mahatma Gandhi is known to the world till a movie is made on him. This is a highly derogatory statement and cannot be acceptable by a citizen of India whom we considered as father of the nation and that was taught in our school also. As citizens, we cannot accept insults targeted to Mahatma Gandhi (sic)."
An official from Hatigaon police station informed GPlus, "We have received the complaint, but it is a non-cognizable offence, so no such action can be initiated as of now."
In the interview, Modi claimed Mahatma Gandhi was an eminent figure but the world was not aware of him, and asked whether it was not the nation's responsibility to get Gandhi a level of global recognition in the last 75 years.
"Mahatma Gandhi was a great soul in the world. In these 75 years, was it not our responsibility to inform the world about Mahatma Gandhi? No one knew about him. Forgive me, but the first time there was curiosity about him in the world was when the film 'Gandhi' was made. We did not do it," the prime minister claimed.
He added that if the world was aware of other leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, Gandhi was no less than them.
While Modi did not name the film, he was possibly referring to the 1982 biopic Gandhi by Richard Attenborough.
Modi’s comments have sparked a political row.
“People whose world views are shaped up in shakhas (RSS branches), will not be able to understand Gandhi ji. They can understand (Nathuram) Godse and adopt the path shown by Godse. Gandhi ji was an inspiration for the entire world. Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein… they all got inspired by Gandhi,” Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi said in a short video.
