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Patna,(BiharTimes): Though immediately after the death of renowned historian, Prof Ram Sharan Sharma, the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced that his last rites would be performed with full state honour yet the guard of honour was not accorded to him at Bansghat on August 21.
This issue has been doing the rounds in various circles ever since he was consigned to flames on that day but the media did not highlight it.
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However, the CPI(M) MLC, Basudeo Singh, has now openly asked the chief minister to explain his position on the issue as it amounts to insult to Prof Sharma, whose intellectual stature is “above any MLA, minister or chief minister”.
He said that though the human resources development minister, P K Shahi, was present on the occasion yet the late historian was not accorded the guard of honour.
“When I asked Shahi, he replied that since there is no provision of guard of honour in the protocol it was not accorded to him,” Basudeo’s letter to the chief minister said.
The letter to Nitish, held the BJP, which is sharing power in Bihar, squarely responsible for this deliberate state insult, instead of state honour, to the world renowned historian. Basudeo asked the chief minister as to why he made such an announcement about the state honour when nobody ever demanded so from him. Have you done so under the pressure of the BJP? “According to my knowledge state funeral is not complete without the guard of honour,” the hard-hitting letter said. After all what prompted Nitish to change his stand on the guard of honour when he had called him Bihar ka Gaurav after his death.
The 85-year old CPI (M) MLC said that by not according guard of honour to the internationally acclaimed historian after making such an announcement the state government not only showed its contempt towards an individual but towards the entire society. He asked whether the state government has made any change in its protocol?
Prof Sharma, according to the letter, not only wrote on the status of Dalits in the ancient India, he even questioned the existence of Ram.
Meanwhile, social activist and author of the book, Nandigram Diary, Pushpraj, has also sought chief minister’s stand on the issue of denial of guard of honour to Prof Sharma.In a written statement he said that Nitish should muster enough courage to explain his position as after Prof Sharma’s death Nitish paid glowing tributes to him and even went to his house.
He said Prof Sharma never bothered to keep the powers that be in good humour. Nitish should know that knowledge is the greatest asset and power and if he did not take notice of this utter disrespect and contempt for such a giant among scholars, he would soon find his image besmirched in dust.
Simply because Prof Sharma’s view on Ayodhya and Babri Masjid dispute is against the BJP it does not mean that he should be treated so.
Interestingly, Basudev’s letter was received by the chief minister’s secretariat on August 26 itself but none of the mediapersons, some of them even former comrades of Prof Sharma, dared to highlight this fact though the copy was sent to all of them.
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