The Freethought Party of India (FPI) celebrated Charles Bradlaugh’s 188th Birthday here. The function was held under the chairmanship of AMOFOI president Manas Jena. State BSP general secretary MS Yadav was chief guest.
While welcoming the guests and highlighting the greatness of Bradlaugh as a leader of freethought, atheism, secular humanism, FPI general secretary B Ramchandra CST Voltaire stressed that the whole of India and specifically Odisha need to be illuminated by Bradlaughian thoughts and vision.
Voltaire expressed his deep anguish that even though more than two years have gone by, the authorities of Utkal University have not cared to implement the order of the Orissa High Court dated August 16, 2018 asking them to demolish the 22 Hindu temples that have illegally cropped up in the university campus.
Voltaire further demanded for removal of superstitions and blind beliefs as exhibited in various pujas like Ganesh Puja, Saraswati Puja, Durga Puja, Rath Yatra etc.
The Utkal University must be named Charles Bradlaugh University of Utkal (CBUU). He further demanded that the two other important Universities, namely, Sambalpur University and Berhampur University be respectively named as Nicolaus Copernicus University of Sambalpur and Bertrand Russell University of Berhampur.
Among others, Dr Ramesh Chandra Behera, Head of the Department of Odia, Raja MSD College, Patia, Madhusudan Yadav, Bansidhar Parida of the CPI ML (Liberation), Swapna Bijayini, co-founder of AMOFOI, Manas Jena spoke.