Gita Press Declines Rs 1 Cr Cash of Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021

New Delhi: Gita Press, Gorakhpur, has refused to accept the Rs 1 crore cash reward for the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2021. The publisher in a statement on Monday said it would only accept the citation and suggested the government to spend the cash reward for some other purpose.

The other awardees selected for Gandhi Peace Prize include Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said, Oman (2019) and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (2020), Bangladesh.

The jury headed by PM Modi unanimously decided to select Gita Press as the recipient of the award on Sunday. “I congratulate Gita Press, Gorakhpur on being conferred the Gandhi Peace Prize 2021. They have done commendable work over the last 100 years toward furthering social and cultural transformations among the people. @GitaPress,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

The Congress severely criticized the decision to honor Gita Press, calling it a “travesty” and “like awarding Savarkar and Godse”.

“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 and social agenda,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted.