By PTI
JAIPUR: Terming the merger of Amar Jawan Jyoti with eternal flame at the National War Memorial in New Delhi as an attempt to change history, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday questioned what was the problem for the Modi government if two different flames continued burning in honour of the martyrs.
He said a golden history is made by doing great deeds.
Gehlot said the move of extinguishing the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate and merging the two is “beyond everyone’s comprehension”.
“If two different flames kept burning in honour of the martyrs, then what was the problem for the Modi government? It is an insult to martyrdom to extinguish the Amar Jawan Jyoti, which has been paying homage to the martyrs for 50 years,” Gehlot tweeted.
“Doing such misdeeds is an attempt to change history, but the Modi government should understand that such efforts do not change history, but a golden history has to be made by doing great deeds,” he said.
The chief minister said the Amar Jawan Jyoti is the memory of the soldiers who divided Pakistan into two nations.
Extinguishing it and giving it the name of “merger” is an attempt to dilute the purity of that light, he said.
“It is highly condemnable to do such an act on completion of 50 years of Bangladesh war victory,” Gehlot added.
The ruling BJP on Friday accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of trying to create an “unnecessary controversy” over the decision to extinguish Amar Jawan Jyoti and merge it with the immortal flame at the National War Memorial, and said he lacks knowledge of basic historical facts.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri noted that India Gate is a monument to Indian soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in the first World War, and Amar Jawan Jyoti was lit there to commemorate the sacrifice of soldiers in the 1971 victory over Pakistan as there was no war memorial then.
