January 30 marks the martyrdom day of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Nathuram Godse, who fired the bullets assassinating the unarmed Gandhiji, is India’s first terrorist. Today, we see BJP MP Pragya Thakur and BJP leader Sakshi Maharaj and hate-mongers at so-called “dharm sansads” honour the terrorist Godse. We also see RSS ideologues suggest that it is Nehru not Savarkar and Godse, who are responsible for Gandhi’s assassination. PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah pay lip service to Gandhiji – but why are they silent on terrorist Godse and his present-day supporters? Why do they support Savarkar who was the mastermind of the terrorist conspiracy to assassinate Gandhiji?
On Gandhi’s martyrdom day, RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha tweeted to suggest that Nehru deliberately neglected Gandhi ji’s security, and this was why 15 days after a failed assassination attempt, security for Gandhi ji remained lax. One must remind Mr Sinha that the Home Minister at the time, responsible for Gandhiji’s security, was Sardar Patel whom the RSS claims to treat as a hero as opposed to Nehru. We must also remind Mr Sinha that Patel himself had no doubt about what cost Gandhi ji’s life. In a letter to RSS chief Golwalkar, Patel justified the decision to ban the RSS, saying, “All their (RSS leaders') speeches were full of communal poison....As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the valuable life of Gandhiji. … RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death.” Patel also wrote to Hindu Mahasabha leader Shyama Prasad Mookerjee about Gandhiji’s assassination, “As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha… our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies, particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible.”
Addressing a gathering of 2,500 RSS members on 8 December 1947, Golwalkar threatened Gandhiji’s life: “Mahatma Gandhi could not mislead Hindus any longer. We have the means whereby such men can be immediately silenced, but it is our tradition not to be inimical to Hindus. If we are compelled, we will have to resort to that course too.”
Nathuram Godse himself, in his pretrial statement, had admitted that he had started his political life as an active member of the RSS and then begun working for the Hindu Mahasabha without ending his RSS membership. Nathuram’s brother Gopal Godse after his release from prison in 1964, clearly stated that Nathuram had been a lifelong member of the RSS.
Savarkar, Godse’s mentor, was accused of being the mastermind of the conspiracy to assassinate Gandhiji, but managed to get acquitted because Godse and others lied to protect him. But the Justice Kapur Commission, set up in 1964 after fresh evidence came to light, proved that Savarkar’s claim in court that he did not meet Nathuram Godse and Madanlal Apte on 17 January 1948, was a lie. In fact the Kapur Commission concluded decisively that there was a “conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group” that had been hatched in Savarkar Sadan. The testimony of Savarkar’s bodyguard and secretary to the Kapur Commission established that Savarkar was the mastermind of the conspiracy to kill Gandhiji, and he had provided the gun to Godse and blessed him with the words “Yashaswi Bhava (be successful).”
Godse’s and Savarkar’s descendants together ran the terrorist organisation Abhinav Bharat which the martyred police officer Hemant Karkare had exposed for its role in bomb blasts. BJP MP Pragya Thakur repeatedly calls Godse a patriot and abuses martyr Karkare – without any punishment from Modi or Shah. BJP’s pretence of admiration for Gandhi is exposed by its tacit support for the modern-day Godses: Pragya Thakur, Sakshi Maharaj, Yati Narsinganand, and many other hate-mongers. Godse and Savarkar hated India’s Constitution and its vision of equality and democracy, supported British rule, and sponsored and practiced terrorism. BJP’s secret support for this destructive anti-India vision can no longer be hidden.
