Patna's historic Ashram in danger

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Patna: The Sadaquat Ashram in Patna is a place rich with memories of the freedom struggle and the JP movement. Eminent personalities such as Dr Rajendra Prasad and Acharya Kripalani have stayed in the place in the past.

But the Congress in Bihar is now planning to lease out this historic place for a commercial venture.

What price for the historic real estate? The question is ringing in the corridors of Patna's Sadaquat Ashram these days.

Donated by Mahatma Gandhi's close associate MazaharuI Haque to the national movement and established by the Mahatma himself, this ashram is proposed to be leased out now to build an apartment complex.

The Congress, which owns the place, says it needs the money desperately.

Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee President Sadanand Singh says, “We are not selling the land. It's only going to be leased out. The money recovered will be used for the day-to-day functioning of the party. And all this is still in the proposal stage.”

The sprawling campus, valued at nearly Rs 100 crore, was where India's first president Dr Rajendra Prasad spent the last days of his life.

A host of eminent leaders including Acharya Kripalani have stayed in the place in the past. And this is where many a strategy session would take place during the JP movement. The proposal to lease it out is thus causing unease in the party itself.

Former Congress Minister Ashok Choudhary says, “It cannot happen without sanction from the AICC.''

“Our party workers have been hurt. The ashram is a heritage site for the party. It should not be leased out,” Congress Seva Dal Chairman Ajay Kumar Chaudhary adds.

What stands tall as a place that witnessed India's freedom struggle may soon be razed to the ground, clouding memories of many a historic moment that the Sadaquat Ashram witnessed.

Will the party, which claims to have spearheaded the Freedom movement allow this to happen? That question remains to be answered.

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