On May 19, members of the Hindu Sena celebrated the birth anniversary of Nathuram Godse in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. They also reportedly plan to install a statue of Godse in Jamnagar.
Terming it as ‘Balidan Diwas’ (Day of Sacrifice), the Hindu Sena recently commemorated the death anniversary of the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi.
In the videos of the celebration, people can be seen bursting firecrackers and raising slogans in support of Godse such as “Nathuram Godse Zindabad”, along with slogans of Jai Sri Ram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai.
The organisation has routinely celebrated the birthday of Godse, from 2015 to 2022 to 2024.
The current national president of the organisation is Vishnu Gupta, who according to Economic Times, has been arrested earlier for having filed a fake complaint over beef being served at the Kerala House, a state government canteen in New Delhi.
Hate Detectors, which is an X social media account that posts incidents of atrocities in India, shared a video of the celebrations, which was also retweeted by Gupta.
This is from #Ahmedabad, #Gujarat.
On May 19, Hindu Sena members celebrate birth anniversary of #MahatmaGandhi’s assassin #NathuramGodse. pic.twitter.com/fKYZ2aIwux
— Hate Detector 🔍 (@HateDetectors) May 21, 2024
Interestingly, the organisation has also in 2019 paid tribute to Empress Queen Victoria of England.They expressed their admiration towards her for taking power from ‘Islamic invaders’, and for giving India its “first independence from Muslims.”
BJP and its affiliates on Godse
While Prime Minister Modi has often praised Mahatma Gandhi as father of the nation, do his party officials reflect the name? As recently as March 2024, a former Calcutta High Court judge who has now joined the BJP, Abhijit Gangopadhyay spoke in favour of Godse saying that he must understand why Godse killed Gandhi and that “cannot choose between Gandhi and Godse.”
Nathuram Godse was the person who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. He was sentenced to death for the assassination by a court in Delhi in 1948 and finally hanged a year later in 1949. While the BJP has earlier distanced themselves from the Hindu Sena’s celebrations, several instances have risen where their approach has been put into question. For instance, MP Pragya Thakur has called Godse a ‘deshbhakt’, (patriot), even though she later apologised for her words. The Hindu Mahasabha, of which Godse was a member, has made repeated attempts to rehabilitate the image of Godse and characterise him as a patriot.
In 2017, the Hindu Mahasabha sought to make a temple for him and even laid the foundation stone for the temple in the Gwalior office of the organisation. The opposition in Madhya Pradesh had even alleged that the step was supported by the government led by the BJP in secret. Furthermore, there were even reports of the UP government asking the district magistrate’s response for a proposal to change Meerut’s name to Pandit Nathuram Godse Nagar. This took place after activists from the Hindu Mahasabha wrote to the district administration. The District Magistrate however had ruled out the possibility.
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