The much publicised proposal of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha of installing a statue of Nathuram Godse in Meerut failed to materialise because of the imposition of prohibitory orders under the CrPC Section 144 in the city.
Besides, police personnel were deployed in large numbers near the office of the Hindutva group, which was sealed by the police last week.
The Hindu Mahasabha celebrates ‘Shaurya Divas’ every January 30, the day Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse in 1948.
Now, the Mahasabha plans to open a ‘Godse Library’ to propagate the “worldview” of the “martyr”.
Because of various kinds of obstacles coming in its way of installing Godse statues at identified places in India, the Hindutva group now plans to install statues on temple premises. It is in touch with several temple trusts in Hindi-speaking States which have assured it of their support.
The Mahasabha leader in Meerut, Pandit Ashok Sharma, and other workers intend to go ahead with the scheduled programme, but since Thursday night the city administration had made heavy police deployment to prevent the installation of the statue.
According to Mr. Sharma, the Hindutva group submitted a petition to the Allahabad High Court, challenging the sealing of the area where the Mahasabha wanted to install the statue.
Mr. Sharma said despite the hostile attitude of the Uttar Pradesh administration, the Mahasabha would install the statue.
“In the propagandist history of India, Godse was an evil guy because he killed Gandhi, but we want to tell the masses that he was an ultra nationalist who wanted to stop the division of the country and thereby also stop the bloodshed which marked the division of the ‘Akhand Bharat’ (unified India),” said Munna Khmar Sharma, nation general secretary of the Hindutva outfit, told The Hindu on phone.
“So, we plan to launch a series of libraries across the country,” he added.
The Mahasabha in its Delhi office performed a ‘yagna’ and organised a ‘Sankalp sabha’ to fulfil the “dreams of Godse of unified India”.
