An RSS pracharak, who had shot dead a Muslim woman during the Partition riots of 1947, ostensibly to save her from rape by his compatriots, has now been appointed the President of India’s nominee on the committee to select 60 professors and readers in the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The Asian Age, October 25:
"The appointment of Dr K G Rastogi , a retired NCERT professor, by human resources ministry headed by Dr Murli Manohar Joshi is for the current academic year. Dr Rastogi has already sat as an observer at interviews conducted for the post of professor in the department of groups for special needs. In his autobiographical Aap Beeti, Krishna Gopal Rastogi 62, discloses how he took out his gun and shot a woman in a Muslim locality somewhere between Rourkee and Hardwar during the Hindu Muslim riots which broke out immediately after Partition of India in 1947. The autobiography has been dedicated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its foreword has been written by the RSS joint Secretary Mr K. S. Sudarshan.
In a chapter entitled Pracharak Ka Jeevan Mr Rastogi provides a detailed account of the background in which the shooting took place. During those days of struggle both Hindus and Muslims were uniting themselves and attacking each other. The Muslims were more united in comparision to the Hindus. They used to prepare for the attack and used to attack first. As a strategy for our security we decided that from where ever we got information about Muslim attacks we should attack first.
One such incident occurred in a locality called Puran Kaliyar, a place in between Hardwar and Rourkee. This was a Muslim locality. They were fully prepared to attack us They had spears swords, guns and small cannons. When we came to know this we took 250 people which included goons from Rourkee and attacked the Muslim locality and people from both sides died…
And then about the actual incident, " A strange incident happened in the locality as the attackers (read Hindus) started fighting with each other over a beautiful woman found in one house where the killing was going on. The attackers forgot their mission and started claiming the woman. I threatened them and then a solution came to my mind. I shot her dead". At no point, it appears, did the thought of turning his gun on the attackers cross Mr. Rastogi’s mind.
Elsewhere in the book he mentions how Mahatma Gandhi,while pained by the fallout of Partition, angered some people by his insistence of generosity towards Pakistan. He writes " 1947 passed off peacefully I passed B.A and in the 30 odd villages in my area the shakha was started. There were riots in the country and people were moving across the two borders . Mahtama Gandhi was pained at all this …… The generosity of the Hindu mind could not tolerate this. The partition of the country was based on the two nation theory and all sorts of inhuman treatments were meted out to the Hindus in Pakistan, but Gandhiji did not consider the ouster of Muslims from India as correct. Jinnah was even offered the Prime Ministership of undivided India by Gandhiji. Even after partition Pakistan was given crores of rupees for the canal thanks to Gandhiji, Nathuram Godse silenced him forever on January 30th, 1948."
Rastogi is Joshi’s latest appointment to the NCERT selection committe. This leaves little to the imagination of what the BJP/RSS plans are in the sphere of education, this time round when they head the NDA government in power at the centre.
Archived from Communalism Combat, November 1999, Year 7 No. 53, Saffronwatch