Closed-door book event on Gandhi's assassination cancelled in Surat, after police fear 'law and order situation'

A closed-door event to discuss and promote a book on Mahatma Gandhi's assassination had to be called off at the last minute after Surat police said it could not be permitted for fear of leading to a "law and order situation."Organised by Surat NGO Prarthna Sangh and Maitri Trust, the event, titled 'Godse ne Gandhi ko kyon mara' (Why did Godse kill Gandhi), based on the Hindi book 'Usne Gandhi ko kyon mara' by poet and author Ashok Kumar Pandey, was to be held on Thursday at the Rotary Hall which is run by the Jeevan Bharti Trust in Nanpura. Invitations for the event had been extended to people from different sections of society by the organisers over the past few days when officials from the Athwa Lines police station contacted the hall authorities to check if police permission had been obtained.

- GNS News Agency

Talking to, the manager of Jeevan Bharti Trust, Kalpesh Patel, said, "This is an age-old hall, and for the entire last year, the hall was closed for public events due to renovations. The Thursday evening event was the first such after the renovation. We have not taken any police permission for any program conducted in the hall to date."Patel told The Indian Express, "On Wednesday night, an official from the Athwalines police station contacted us to inquire if the event organisers had secured police permission for the event. I informed them that no such permission had been obtained for the closed-door programme at that point... The officers warned us that if the programme proceeded without police approval, there would be strict actions taken against the event organisers as well as the trustees of the Jeevan Bharti trust. We then reached out to the Prathna Sangh representatives and informed them of the police's stance, at which point they agreed to cancel the programme."