MEA buys Syama Prasad Mookerjee books for 183 missions

In a move that has raised eyebrows and could draw the ire of Opposition parties, the ministry of external affairs has ordered purchase of 183 sets of books on Sangh parivar ideologue and founder member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee for all 183 Indian diplomatic missions abroad.

The move was recently approved by the MEA’s Books Committee. Sources pointed out that even earlier, the MEA has purchased books previously on eminent personalities including on the principal architect of the Indian Constitution and “Dalit icon” Dr B.R. Ambedkar. But in this case, the move has raised eyebrows, since Dr Mookherjee was seen as a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist leader of both pre-independent and post-independent India who remains the ideological inspiration for the ruling BJP.

Dr Mookerjee was part of the Nehru Cabinet after Independence but quit it and the Congress following ideological differences, going on to establish the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951. He died under mysterious circumstances in Kashmir in 1953. The ruling BJP is seen as the ideological successor of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.