Nathuram Godse’s Birthday Celebration by Hindu Mahasabha Disrupted by Congress Workers in Bhopal

The affection of the Hindu Mahasabha in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse is well-known. Six months after setting up a Godse temple in Gwalior, the right-wing group was celebrating his birth anniversary on 19 May in Bhopal. But the celebrations ended abruptly after Congress workers showed up and protested.

The Godse worshippers had gathered under a railway overbridge called Veer Savarkar Setu in the state capital with a garlanded picture of Gandhi’s murderer and were distributing sherbet (sweetened drink) to the people passing by.

All was well until a group of youth Congress workers reached the overbridge and disrupted the festivities. Led by youth Congress spokesperson for Madhya Pradesh, Krishna Ghadge, the workers shouted slogans against Godse and in favour of Gandhi.

A video of the incident went viral on social media. In the video, a woman associated with the Mahasabha is seen asking Congress workers to prove that Godse had killed Gandhi. Later, the right-wingers also began raising slogans in favour of Godse.

Before the situation went out of control, the police arrived at the celebration site, which comes under the Bagsewania police station. The cops asked the Hindu Mahasabha members to remove the paraphernalia for the birthday celebration and ordered both parties to leave.

Later, PK Tiwari of the  Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha told media persons that it was peaceful celebration but the Congress workers had created the commotion, while Ghadge of the youth Congress said they would not allow such celebrations that insulted Gandhi.

State president of the Hindu Mahasabha, Kallu Maharaj, told Newsclick, “We organised this camp after getting permission from the district administration. Godse was the member of Hindu Mahasabha and we have right to celebrate his birth anniversary.”

Referring to the recent Jinnah portrait controversy in Aligarh Muslim University, he added, “People remember Muhammad Ali Jinnah, don’t they? So, why can’t we celebrate Godse’s birth anniversary? But on request of the police, we stopped our celebration midway, despite having permission.”

But the police denied that permission had been given for Godse’s birthday celebration.

Bagsewania police station inspector Lalit Singh Dangur said, “After getting information of Godse’s anniversary celebration, I rushed to the spot. We found that the event was organised without permission of the district administration. We asked them to wrap up the celebration and advised them to hold such events only after getting permission.”

The Hindu Mahasabha also celebrated Godse’s birth anniversary at its office in Gwalior, where the temple of Godse was installed and subsequently removed by the district administration last November.