Prayer meet for Amrut Modi at Sabarmati Ashram

Speaking on the occasion, Iyengar, the former vice chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith, said that perhaps Modi escaped a “trasadi” (tragedy). “Ek baat kahe bina nahi reh sakta. Umar to ho chali thi. Aur shayad kisi trasadi se wo bach gaye. Ab ye bhagya hain. (I cannot stop myself from saying one thing. He (Modi) was old… Perhaps he escaped a tragedy. It, now, is his luck.),” he said.

Later, speaking to The Indian Express, Iyengar said he was referring to the changes that are taking place in the Ashram under the Sabarmati Ashram Redevelopment Project, which could have been “too drastic for a man like Modi, who spent so many years in an environment that was well known to him”.

“Now, whatever changes that are going to take place, they are going to make the whole (Gandhi Ashram) premise very different,” he added.

“I do not know if it (the changes) will be positive or negative, but it will be so big that such an elderly person (like Amrut Modi) might have taken time to accept (it),” Iyengar said, adding that he is not opposed to the Ashram redevelopment project.

He further said that the SAMPT has submitted a concept note to the state authorities, suggesting that Gandhian elements must be retained in the redevelopment project. “People like Amrut Modi lived by those (Gandhian) values,” he added.