The Congress party has sharply reacted to an offensive remark made against Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the Visitors’ Book kept at the Netaji Birthplace Museum here. Taking strong exceptions to the “distasteful” language used against the freedom fighter and the first Prime Minister, the City Congress on Monday lodged an FIR against the visitor, one Pramod Ranjan Dey of Bhubaneswar.
“We have registered a case under Section 292(a) of IPC for publicly speaking ill of somebody using obscene language and have started investigation,” said Darghabazar police station IIC Anil Kumar Beuria. Since the museum was closed on the day, we could not verify the Visitors’ Book, Beuria said, adding that the CCTV footage would also be verified to ascertain details.
Using offensive language against Nehru, Dey in his remarks has said, “Netaji could not get his due recognition because of Nehru.” In the same remark, the visitor has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declassify all the files relating to the disappearance of Netaji. Signing his name, the visitor has also given his postal address, Email ID and telephone number below his remarks when he visited the museum on Sunday afternoon.
These remarks first came to the notice of Congress leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, who wanted to sign in the Visitors’ Book after visiting the museum on Sunday evening. Expressing anguish over Dey’s remarks, Ramesh nevertheless gave his remarks in the next page of the book appreciating the efforts of museum staff for very neatly displaying the artefacts of the legendary leader at his ancestral home that was converted into a museum in 2003.