The statue of Mahatma Gandhi being inaugurated by Lalu Prasad at Motihari railway station. Pictures by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Oct. 5: Mahatma Gandhi, thanks to Lage Raho Munnabhai, is the flavour of the season.

Therefore, when railway minister Lalu Prasad unveiled the Mahatma’s statue yesterday at Motihari station, he would not have expected it to generate a controversy.

But the statue, critics say, is the first one to be put up on any railway platform in India. They claim that the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had prohibited installation of statues on platforms in a noting way back in 1957.

Leading the protests is former railway minister, and now Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar. He called the installation “unlawful and unacceptable”, although he is not quite correct on the legal aspect.

Notings by officials or ministers are not laws, say legal experts, because only Parliament and state legislatures are authorised to make laws. The installation, therefore, cannot be described as “unlawful”, though it certainly is unusual.

Kumar, however, described the move as “disgraceful”.

“Our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, through his noting in the railway files in 1957, prohibited the installation of leaders’ statues at railway stations,” Kumar told The Telegraph. “That’s why one does not find the statue of any great man anywhere inside railway stations.”

Kumar explained that Nehru objected to statues in railway stations because stations are usually littered with garbage and people do not think twice before relieving themselves on platforms or throwing leftovers.

“Installation of Gandhi’s statue at such places amounts to showing disrespect to the Father of the Nation,” he said.

Stinking railway stations, the chief minister added, are scarcely the ideal place to put up his statue.

An unfazed Lalu Prasad, however, was quick to ridicule Kumar’s criticism in his inimitable style.

“Nitish is jealous of my work in the railway ministry. Out of jealousy, he (Nitish) is criticising all the good work that I am doing,” he said.

Asked to comment on Nehru’s noting, Lalu was ready with his explanation. “Nehruji prohibited installation of statues to prevent Toms, Dicks and Harries from putting up statues. But I have installed the statue of the Mahatma, an icon for all Indians.”

RJD MP from Bettiah Raghunath Jha, who accompanied Lalu Prasad to Motihari, said: “Only Laluji has the stature to reverse Pandit Nehru’s noting….” But he was cut short by the frowning railway minister.

The renowned Gandhian and secretary of the Gandhi Sangrahalay at Patna, Razi Ahmed, was unmoved by the controversy. “Present day leaders don’t value Gandhi’s ideals. It does not, therefore, matter whether they install his statue at railway stations or anywhere else because Gandhi’s ideals don’t inspire them any longer,” he said.

But the Congress stood firmly behind Lalu Prasad.

“Since the railway minister has installed Bapu’s statue at Motihari railway station, he will ensure that sanctity is maintained,” said state Congress president Sadanand Singh.

“Motihari is a special place, for Bapu started his tirade against British rule from Motihari,” he said to justify the decision to put up the statue there.

It was at Bhittiharwa village in old Motihari district where Mahatma Gandhi set up his first ashram, on his return from South Africa, to launch a farmers’ struggle against a system introduced by the British who made it mandatory for farmers to produce indigo on one-third of the land they owned.

The yield brought good returns to the colonial rulers but left the farmers impoverished as indigo plantation made their land infertile. Gandhi, through his peaceful agitation, liberated the farmers from this tinkathiya system.