Mahatama Gandhi grandson decries digitisation of photos at Gandhi Smriti

Tushar Gandhi alleged that an attempt is on to obliterate historical evidence by the BJP government, as it proposed to digitalise the photos at the Gandhi Smriti.

New Delhi: After the photograph of Mahatama Gandhi was taken out from the Gandhi Smriti, Grandson of Mahatama Gandhi, Tushar alleged that the government is trying to "destroy the history of our country."

Birla House, where Mahatama Gandhi took his last breath on the evening of January 30, 1948, was later converted into Gandhi Smriti, a museum dedicated to the father of the nation.

Legendary photographer, Henri Cartier Bresson’s gallery of photographs of Mahatma Gandhi’s last moments at Gandhi Smriti has been digitised and displayed on LED screens in a loop without any text.

While Tushar Gandhi alleged an attempt to obliterate historical evidence, likening it to removing Renaissance paintings at the Louvre and replacing them digitally, Gandhi Smriti director Dipankar Shri Gyan denied the charge and said the display was still under construction.

Tushar Gandhi told ETV Bharat that the digital format running on LED TV screens at Gandhi Smriti only displays the photographs in a loop, completely ignoring its historical context written in a text when the prints were displayed.

“The photographs are running on LED screens like a slideshow with no text. There was no reason why such beautiful prints of Bresson were removed. It’s like removing the paintings of the Rennaissance painters from the Louvre and replacing them digitally. There is no text to explain the situation and people don’t get to know anything from them. There are eyewitnesses accounts of journalists which people used to read. When it comes on the screen without any text, it is just like any other photograph,” he said.

Tushar Gandhi also said the photographs on display were prints of the originals gifted by Bresson himself to Gandhi Smriti and thus had artistic value.

Moreover, Gandhi participated in the anti- Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) organised at Delhi University.

Slamming BJP led government for implementing CAA in the country Gandhi said that the government is trying to divide the country on the basis of religion.