By IANS,
Lucknow : Official Gandhi Jayanti celebrations organised routinely by the Uttar Pradesh government have never been so quiet as it was Friday – neither Chief Minister Mayawati nor Governor B.L. Joshi said anything in remembrance of the father of the nation.
Unlike in the past, when successive governors and chief ministers would make it a point to say a few words in honour of Mahatma Gandhi on his birth anniversary, both Mayawati and Joshi preferred to remain absolutely quiet.
While Mayawati’s reasons for not speaking on the occasion were attributed to her known antipathy towards Gandhi, the governor’s silence was quite bewildering for all and sundry.
Mayawati had earlier in the morning made it amply evident that she preferred distancing herself from the Oct 2 functions dedicated to Gandhi. She abstained from garlanding the statue of the father of the nation – a ritual which no chief minister in the past was known to have skipped.
Even Mayawati herself had dutifully done the garlanding on Gandhi Jayanti last year. What prompted her to break the tradition was not known.
The governor, however, made it a point to perform the annual ritual.
But the only other official function held in the Tilak Hall at the state secretariat remained an unusually solemn affair, with not a single person uttering a word.
The governor, chief minister and the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Central Command of the Indian Army, who were seated on the dais, simply offered flowers at Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait. This was followed by the playing of the national anthem after which the show was concluded.
“I have been attending most Gandhi Jayanti functions over the past three decades, but I do not remember a single occasion when the governor has not uttered a word,” remarked a senior officer who attended the function.
“I wonder if the chief minister’s silence prompted him to avoid a speech,” he added.