On the day father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi was born, the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha on Sunday hailed his killer Nathuram Godse and asked the BJP not to discriminate between Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Nathuram Godse.
The Hindutva outfit established a bust of Godse in its office in Meerut and observed Gandhiji's birth anniversary as “ dhikkar diwas (day of shame and disgust)”.
National vice president of the Hindutva outfit Pandit Ashok Sharma organised a puja before establishing the memorial for Godse.
Declaring Godse for “hero” of the country, Mr. Sharma said, “We expected that the BJP government will understand the contributions of Nathuram Godse, like it appreciates that of Savarkar. But it appears that out of political opportunism the political party does not have the courage to accept the legacy of Godse.”
“If the Modi government praises Savarkar and garlands his photo in the Parliament house every year, then it will have to also acknowledge the contribution of Godse. It can not discriminate between Godse and Savarkar because both come from the same ideological stream which the RSS and BJP is so scared to accpet out of political opportunism,” added 72-year-old Pandit Sharma who is an old time Hindu Mahasabha activist.
A modest number of people from Hindu Mahasabha were present when Godse's bust was inaugurated by Pandit Sharma at the local office of the outfit in Meerut.
Bharat Rajput, a foot solider of Hindutva who attends all the functions devoted to Godse, said that Modi government's “surgical strike” along the Line of Control was a reaction which stems from the ideology of Godse and not that of Gandhiji. “It was due to Gandhi that we lost war with China. Godse was a poet and a philosopher who like the Modi government wanted to make India great again,” he said.
Last year, Hindu Mahasabha was ready with a statue of Godse to build a temple for him on January 30 at its offices across the country. It organised "bhumi pujan" for the temple but the respective state governments sealed the offices to prevent the Hindutva body from installing the statue last year.
