I happen to read a recent article by Congress party spokesperson Mr Digvijay Singh. I prefer calling him a loudmouth. Not because i have something against him. But because he has a knack of raging political controversies for his personal vendetta politics and superficial gains and then when it blows over and comes to haunt him, he simply sidelines and drops it on the media, quoting he was misinterpreted. I wonder whether he thinks us to be that naive or he thinks himself to be smarter than our generation. Enough about him though. This is about him and his child prodigy ( read Rahul Gandhi). Rahul Gandhi recently stirred a hornet’s nest when he claimed that RSS was behind the Gandhi assassination and that it should be banned. And further his political mentor Mr Singh today irked that though Mr Modi is ready to erect Sardar Patel’s statue to mark his contribution to the freedom and integrity of the nation, but he is not ready to accept his ideology that RSS was behind the assassination.
Now, For starters !
This is nothing new. I have heard these accusations before and much to my dismay, they never have been proved. Come to the facts now.
Nathuram Godse, who was the main conspirator of the Gandhi’s murder, did not do that in his first attempt. he failed earlier while he tried killing Gandhi at Birla House in New Delhi. But he failed and his fellow men Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte returned to Pune via Mumbai. With the help of Dattatraya Parchure and Gangadhar Dandavate, Nathuram Vinayak Godse and Narayan Apte purchased a Beretta and reached Delhi on 29 January 1948, checking into the retiring room No. 6 at Delhi Railway Station where they chalked out the plan for his assassination.
Day of assassination
Godse approached Gandhi on January 30, 1948 during the evening prayer at 5:17 pm. When Godse bowed, one of the girls flanking and supporting Gandhi, Abha Chattopadhyay, said to Godse, “Brother, Bapu is already late” and tried to put him off, but he pushed her aside and shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point-blank range with a Beretta M 1934 semi-automatic pistol chambered in .380 ACP bearing the serial number 606824. Gandhi died almost immediately. Godse himself shouted “police” and surrendered himself.
Now There has been no explanation of why he was not rushed to the hospital and was instead taken to Birla House, where he later died. And that smells of political conspiracy.
THE FINAL ATTEMPT ON MAHATAMA GANDHI
On 20 January 1948, Madanlal Pahwa, Shankar Kistaiya, Digambar Badge, Vishnu Karkare, Gopal Godse, Nathuram Godse, and Narayan Apte came to Birla Bhavan (aka Birla House) in Delhi to carry out another attack on Mahatma Gandhi and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Except for Madanlal Pahwa and Vishnu Karkare, everyone else reached the venue through the rear entrance in a cab. Madanlal Pahwa tried to bribe Choturam, the driver at Birla Bhavan, to let him go behind the podium to take pictures of Gandhi. However, Choturam became suspicious and asked Madanlal Pahwa why he needed photographs from behind, and inquired about the absence of a camera. Madanlal Pahwa instead left, making Choturam think he was going back to the taxi; however, he placed a cotton ball enclosing a bomb on the wall behind the podium and ignited it. The bomb went off without creating any panic. The team had left after abandoning Madanlal Pahwa.
On interrogation, Madanlal Pahwa admitted that he was part of a seven member gang who wanted to kill Gandhi. The plan was that Madanlal Pahwa would explode a bomb as close to the podium as possible while Digambar Bagde or Shankar Kishtaiyya would shoot Gandhi in the head during the ensuing panic and stampede, using the chaotic situation to cover their escape. (Vishnu Karkare was to compound the chaos by hurling hand grenades.) Faced with Choturam’s suspicious attitude, Digambar Badge decided at the last minute not to act, and instructed Shankar Kishtaiyya (his servant) to also stand down.
Later, Madanlal Phawa led the police to the Marina Hotel where Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte had been staying and also to Sharief Hotel where all other gang members had been staying. Everyone had left by that time and the police were only able to recover some letters and clothes which had the initials “NVG” on it. By this time they were able to ascertain that the members of that team were from Maharashtra; however they were not able to establish the identity and the involvement of Nathuram Godse.
During the Gandhi murder trial, Madanlal Pahwa was identified by Mrs. Sulochana Devi, who had come to Birla Bhavan in search of her three-year old son (who used to play in the servant quarters). She was the fifteenth witness in the trial, and Surjeet Singh, the driver, was the fourteenth witness.
On 12 November 1964, a religious programme was organised in Pune, to celebrate the release of the Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Vishnu Karkare from jail after the expiry of their sentences. Dr. G. V. Ketkar, grandson of Bal Gangadhar Tilak,former editor of Kesari and then editor of Tarun Bharat, who presided over the function, revealed six months before the actual event, that Nathuram Godse disclosed his ideas to kill Gandhi and was opposed by Ketkar. Ketkar said that he passed the information to Balukaka Kanitkar who conveyed it to the then Chief Minister of Bombay State, B. G. Kher. The Indian Express in its issue of 14 November 1964, commented adversely on Ketkar’s conduct that Ketkar’s fore-knowledge of the assassination of Gandhi added to the mystery of the circumstances preceding to the assassination. Ketkar was arrested. A public furore ensued both outside and inside the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and both houses of the Indian parliament. There was a suggestion that there had been a deliberate dereliction of duty on the part of people in high authority, who failed to act responsibly even though they had information that could have prevented Gandhi’s shooting. Under pressure of 29 members of parliament and public opinion the then Union home minister Gulzarilal Nanda, appointed Gopal Swarup Pathaka, M. P. and a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India, in charge of inquiry of conspiracy to murder Gandhi. Since both Kanitkar and Kher were deceased, the central government intended on conducting a thorough inquiry with the help of old records in consultation with the government of Maharashtra, Pathak was given three months to conduct his inquiry. But as Pathak was appointed a central minister and then governor of Mysore state, the commission of inquiry was reconstituted and Jevanlal Kapur a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India was appointed to conduct the inquiry.
REAPPRAISAL OF SAVARKAR’S ROLE
Kapur commission also examined Savarkar’s role in the assassination. Godse had claimed full responsibility for planning and carrying out the attack, in absence of an independent corroboration of the prosecution witness Digambar Badge‘s evidence implicating Savarkar directly, the court exonerated him citing insufficient evidence. According to Badge, on 17 January 1948, Nathuram Godse went to have a last darshan of Savarkar in Bombay before the assassination. While Badge and Shankar waited outside, Nathuram and Apte went in. On coming out Apte told Badge that Savarkar blessed them “Yashasvi houn ya” (“यशस्वी होऊन या” return victorious). Apte also said that Savarkar predicted that Gandhiji’s 100 years were over and there was no doubt that the task would be successfully finished. However Badge’s testimony was not accepted as it lacked independent corroboration. This was later corroborated by the testimony of two of Savarkar’s close aides – Appa Ramachandra Kasar, his bodyguard, and Gajanan Vishnu Damle, his secretary, who had not testified in the original trial but later testified before the Justice Kapur commission set up in 1965. Kasar told the Kapur Commission that they visited him on or about 23 or 24 January, which was when they returned from Delhi after the bomb incident. Damle deposed that Godse and Apte saw Savarkar in the middle of January and sat with him (Savarkar) in his garden. Justice Kapur concluded: “All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group.”
Simply inclining Savarkar was not involved. he was exonerated by the court of law and yet congress and other so called Gandhians rebuff his legacy as a freedom fighter and revolutionary and cite him as a murderer. These are the same Gandhians who have prospered post independence but the kins of those revolutionaries who laid down lives for our present and future are living in constant oblivion.
”Is it true that on the day of the bomb blast during the search of the room at Marina Hotel clothes were found bearing the initials N.V.G. – Nathuram Vinayak Godse -?
On the basis of which the police went to Bombay and requested the Bombay police to look for this person, the Bombay police assured the Delhi police to do the needful and asked them to return, but did nothing. Is it true that the Bombay Police failed in tracing Nathuram Vinayak Godse?
— Balkrishna Sharma, during the debate on murder of Mahatma Gandhi in the Constituent Assembly of India.
To comment on matters under investigation is both difficult and unwarranted. I can only say that after the arrest and interrogation of the bomber, an officer of Delhi police went to Bombay and briefed the C.I.D. in Bombay. After the briefing, it was decided that some people should be arrested but to arrest them immediately would lead to the other conspirators going underground. So the Delhi police and Bombay C.I.D. decided to defer the arrests for some time to enable them to uncover the conspiracy and all who were involved in it. It is true that the police were on a look out for them but all of them were not in Bombay
— Sardar Patel, during the debate on murder of Mahatma Gandhi in the Constituent Assembly of India.
Now based on these above comments which i have encountered on wikipedia, one can clearly find that Delhi Police was aware of the Conspiracy to kill Mahatama Gandhi but they did nothing to check it or rather prevent it. They wanted to encode the whole conspiracy. Which in a way allowed Nathuram and his co-conspirators to go ahead and kill Gandhi. So i would prefer that it is the Congress that is to blame because they failed to secure Mahatama Gandhi, the lone key political figure in India, at that time. Well they dump it on RSS. And here is why.
Nathuram and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Nahuram’s accomplices all belonged to RSS. in the after math of the investigation that followed post 30th January 1948, it became clear that Nathuram was involved. But the involvement of Savarkar has never been proven, not legally. So, i respect the integrity of our courts and believe them when they say Savarkar was not involved. But because Nathuram was involved, and that he belonged to RSS, a group and a political outfit with nationalist views in politics and with extremely right wing ideologies; RSS became the point of struggle. RSS was so aptly burdened with brewing the atmosphere that led to the assassination of Gandhi. That too is a politically motivated and a greatly misconstrued fact. How can a political party be blamed for something that one of their members did ?
if they could, they how about holding Congress guilty for inciting 1984 Sikh riots. case is still in court even after 30 years and Congress party Vice President on his recent interview with Arnab Goswami of Times Now, clearly accepted that certain Congress party members were involved in the riots. What about banning Congress based on this information ? it was anti-national for sure.
Coming back to the RSS and Nathuram angle and what Sardar patel thought about it. Sardar Patel was a Congress leader. He believed what congress did. he believed RSS planned and killed Gandhi.
Following Mahatma Gandhi‘s assassination in 1948 by a former member of the RSS, Nathuram Godse, many prominent leaders of the RSS were arrested and RSS as an organisation was banned on 4 February 1948. A Commission of Inquiry into Conspiracy to murder of Gandhi was set and its report was published by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs in the year 1970. Accordingly Justice Kapur Commission noted the following:
“…RSS as such were not responsible for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, meaning thereby that one could not name the organisation as such as being responsible for that most diabolical crime, the murder of the apostle of peace. It has not been proved that they (the accused) were members of the RSS…”
—Kapur Commission Report,RSS Leaders were acquitted of the conspiracy charge by the Supreme Court of India and following an intervention by the Court, the Indian Government agreed to lift the ban with condition that the RSS adopt a formal constitution. The second Sarsanghachalak, Golwalkar drafted the constitution for the RSS which he sent to the government in March 1949. In July of the same year, after many negotiations over the constitution and its acceptance, the ban on RSS was lifted.
On 15 January 2000, a daily, The Statesman, carried a story about the RSS by A G Noorani, which depicted the RSS as the killer of Gandhi.Subsequently the Delhi unit of the RSS filed a criminal case of defamation against author of the article A G Noorani along with the cartoonist and the Managing Director of the publishing house. When two of the accused did not respond to the Court summons, non-bailable warrants were issued in their name by the Court. On 25 February 2002, Noorani wrote an unconditional apology to the court in which he regretted writing the defamatory article against the RSS. On 3 March 2002, ‘The Statesman’ also published an apology regretting the publication of the said article.
Finally take a look at this.
After reading this, i find that even Patel was not after RSS. Then i think so called Gandhi scion is either misinformed or utilising this controversy for political gains, for once and so does his mentor, just like his protege.
These are the truths. Rest is left for you to decide. Who to listen to when next time you hear a whoopie-dee-doo claiming RSS killed Gandhi.
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About the writer
I am neither a member of BJP or any political outfit. What i write here is based on facts and with a little bit of help from articles on wikipedia. Well most of it. If one finds it offensive. Spare me ! i am not the architect of such damaging information. Wikipedia probably is.
