A video, showing Mahasabha’s National Secretary Puja Shakun Pandey shooting the effigy went viral on social media. Office bearers and members burned the effigy as it bled. They even garlanded the statue of his assassin Nathuram Godse.
The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha celebrated the 71st death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday by shooting his effigy. A video, showing Mahasabha’s National Secretary Puja Shakun Pandey shooting the effigy went viral on social media. Office bearers and members burned the effigy as it bled. They even garlanded the statue of his assassin Nathuram Godse, reports said.
After Pandey shot at the effigy, ‘blood’ was seen oozing out of it. Reports suggest that Pandey also distributed sweets among her supporters and fellow Mahasabha members.
Pandey said she was starting a tradition of recreating Gandhi’s assassination every year on 30 January, comparing it to the burning of Ravana effigies every Dussehra, Times of India reported. According to the report, she held Gandhi responsible for the Partition and called Godse’s act of killing Gandhi admirable.
After the video went viral, a case was registered against 13 persons associated with Hindu Mahasabha including Pandey, Senior Superintendent of Police of Aligarh, Akash Kulhary SSP, said, adding no arrests have been made so far.
“The incident took place in a house in Naurangabad locality of the city. Later, the video of the event went viral on social media,” Kulhary told PTI.
The police are conducting raids to nab the accused persons.
The Hindu Mahasabha celebrates January 30 as ‘Shaurya Divas’ in the memory of right-wing leader Nathuram Godse, who had shot down Mahatma Gandhi on this very day in 1948.
They reminded the people of India that Gandhi was assassinated by one of their own, Nathuram Godse, on January 30, 1948, within six months of Indian Independence.
Surprisingly, this time a woman office bearer enacted the assassination and even had it recorded. They even chanted Mahatma Nathuram Godse Amar Rahey (Long Live Nathu Ram Godse).
“Since its inception in 1915, the Mahasabha has been distinctly “anti-national” in its activities, its devotion to a singular Hindu system overshadowing every other political concern. One of the very first instances of the organisation’s dissent was seen when it colluded with the British during Gandhi’s Quit India Movement in the 1940s because the Mahatma opposed the idea of having Muslims under the domination of Hindus,” a Firstpost report said.
While the Partition did realise Jinnah’s vision with the formation of the Islamic state of Pakistan, the Hindu Mahasabha’s demand remained unfulfilled, leading it to nurture a hatred towards Gandhi and any form of politics which is not violently Hindu for decades, the report added.