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print versionThe advent of the Modi-led BJP government has emboldened the ideologues of religion-based nationalism. They apparently feel that the whole country is now ready for the politics of Gandhi’s murderers. Several members of the so-called ’Sangh Parivar’ have been making statements of this nature, filled with lies and hateful propaganda. The courtroom speech of the assassin Nathuram Godse is now being widely circulated, with its mixture of self-justification, lies and half-truths. Godse appointed himself judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one - with lots of help from his mentor V.D. Savarkar, the presiding deity of the Hindutva version of nationalism. Many terrorists do likewise - they decide guilt and they carry out the punishment. I’m all for an open airing of political and religious beliefs. Will our rulers arrange for the writings of Charu Mazumdar, J.S. Bhindranwale, the Hizbul Mujahidin, ULFA and Prabhakaran to be sold in India’s railway stations? Hitler’s Mein Kampf already sells widely. Why not? We’re a democracy after all.
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
Our polity is now faced with an assault on the mind. Our very sense of discrimination between right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood is under attack. We live in an ideological climate of nihilism, wherein human life is of no consequence, and conversation is fast evaporating. It is time thoughtful Indians of every political inclination asked themselves a simple question: Has the new-found status of the ’Parivar’ made us take leave of our senses? A fanatical conspirator enters a prayer meeting open to all, and shoots dead a 79 year-old unarmed and unguarded man at point-blank range. For nearly seven decades, one section of our intelligentsia looked upon the murderer as a martyr and hailed his act as it were something admirable. Today these fans of Godse and Savarkar are thrusting their hate-filled ideas down our throats.
What is this if not the brazen celebration of communal terrorism and murder?
Let us be clear about this - if Godse’s preparedness for death signifies something virtuous to the ’parivar’, the activities of all the jehadis, maoists, khalistanis and sundry insurgents across the sub-continent also become virtuous. Don’t all terrorists have their admirers? How do we adjudge one brand of murder as virtue and another as evil? Why are MP’s, MLA’s and other persons close to the highest executives of the BJP government engaged in white-washing political assassination?
The ’Parivar’ is distinguished not only by its avowal of communal violence and revenge killings. The Home Ministry under Sardar Patel banned them on February 4, 1948. Patel also said that ’a fanatical wing of the Mahasabha directly under Savarkar’ had hatched the conspiracy and seen it through. (Letter to Nehru on Feb 27, 1948, vol 6 of his correspondence, edited by Durga Das). However, Savarkar’s ’parivar’ is now in power, and still engages in shameless and systematic character-assassination. These days we may see this activity in the comments section of various news portals, where Gandhi is subject to vicious abuse on a daily basis.
[. . .] FULL TEXT HERE:
http://dilipsimeon.blogspot.in/2015/01/the-abolition-of-truth_29.html
