India Election Gives Modi a 2nd Term. Here Are 5 Takeaways.

India Election Gives Modi a 2nd Term. Here Are 5 Takeaways.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India addressing members of his Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Thursday.CreditCreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

By Jeffrey Gettleman, Kai Schultz, Ayesha Venkataraman and Sameer Yasir
May 23, 2019

After hundreds of millions of Indians cast ballots across megacities, mountains and islands, Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the biggest re-election India has witnessed in decades.

Mr. Modi, 68, has dominated India since he won a first term in 2014. Many Indians praise his efforts to stamp out corruption and bring development to poor regions, but his commitment to empowering the nation’s Hindu majority has raised fears in its Muslim minority. Mob lynchings have increased, and right-wing Hindus have felt emboldened to push an extreme agenda.


Here are five takeaways from his re-election.

Modi has become one of the most powerful politicians in Indian history.

Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies won close to 350 seats in the 545-seat lower house of Parliament, according to nearly complete results. He is the first prime minister in nearly 50 years to win majorities in the Parliament in back-to-back elections, and now commands a sweeping mandate to govern a nation of 1.3 billion people.

To his supporters, Mr. Modi is entering the pantheon of India’s most legendary leaders, such as Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister, and Indira Gandhi, Mr. Nehru’s daughter and India’s iron lady of the 1960s, ’70s and early ’80s. India has no term limits, and people are already talking of a third Modi term.

Many voters were drawn to Mr. Modi’s intense speaking style, his reputation for getting things done and his carefully crafted image of being a tough defender of India. He called himself the chowkidar — the watchman — and he has pushed a more forceful foreign policy than India has pursued in years, including standing up to China, nearly going to war with Pakistan and drawing closer to the United States.

Part of Mr. Modi’s appeal also lies in his Hindu nationalist beliefs, which emphasize India’s Hindu heritage and seek to further empower the country’s Hindu majority, making up about 80 percent of the population.

Indian Hindu hard-liners attending a rally in New Delhi calling for the construction of a temple on the site of the demolished 16th-century mosque, located in Ayodhya, in December.

Credit
Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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Indian Hindu hard-liners attending a rally in New Delhi calling for the construction of a temple on the site of the demolished 16th-century mosque, located in Ayodhya, in December.CreditSajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Hindu right is ascendant.
Hindu nationalism has been a thread in Indian politics since even before the country won independence from Britain in 1947. With this election, Hindu nationalists have more power than ever before in modern Indian history.

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Hindu nationalism is a major plank of the B.J.P., and according to the voting results, the party expanded its reach beyond its base in northern India, considered the conservative Hindu heartland, and won more than a dozen seats in West Bengal, what used to be a leftist stronghold, while picking up others in Odisha and Karnataka.

Many analysts expect Mr. Modi to push a more aggressive Hindu nationalist agenda, including the construction of a Hindu temple at the site of a destroyed mosque in the city of Ayodhya and the expulsion of recent Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, who Mr. Modi’s party claims have illegally taken up residence in India.

All these moves could unsettle many of India’s Muslims, who make up about 15 percent of the population.

Mr. Modi may also seek to change the special laws regarding the disputed territory of Kashmir, which has a large Muslim population and is claimed by both India and Pakistan, to make it easier for Hindus to move there and buy property.

Hindu extremists are likely to feel emboldened by Mr. Modi’s election win. The prime minister came up in politics through a far-right Hindu nationalist group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which he joined as a boy. A Hindu nationalist who once belonged to that group, Nathuram Godse, assassinated the independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1948.

An admirer of Mr. Godse and a member of Mr. Modi’s B.J.P., Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, ran for a Parliament seat in the election, even as she was awaiting trial, accused of a role in a 2008 terrorist attack.

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Ms. Thakur won that seat on Thursday, just days after she praised Gandhi’s assassin as a “patriot.”

The leader of the Indian National Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, second from left, in New Delhi, on Tuesday.
Credit
Manish Swarup/Associated Press


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The leader of the Indian National Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, second from left, in New Delhi, on Tuesday.CreditManish Swarup/Associated Press
The Congress party was eviscerated.
Results for the opposition Indian National Congress party, once an unbeatable political force — it led India to independence, counted Gandhi as a member and governed for most of the decades since — were dismal. By Thursday evening, the party had won or was leading in just 51 seats, a small improvement from 2014 but still one of its worst showings ever.

As reality set in on Thursday evening, Congress leaders said they needed to revamp their approach to elections. They admitted that the B.J.P. had raised more money and run a superior campaign. Rahul Gandhi, the head of Congress and the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister, conceded defeat in a brief news conference in New Delhi. Looking heartbroken, he told supporters to prepare for a long battle ahead.

“I said during the campaign that the people were the masters, and today they have given their verdict,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi, 48, is seen by many voters as a lightweight compared with Mr. Modi, and has struggled to compete with his much more assertive and intense rival. Of the two Parliament seats Mr. Gandhi contested, he lost one in northern India that the Gandhi family had held for many years.

In just one sign of how dire things have become for the party, Mr. Gandhi offered to resign as party leader, according to India Today, a major news outlet.

The markets like Modi.
Many investors are confident that another Modi government will be good for business, and his victory was seen as a vote for stability. During his first term, Mr. Modi simplified a byzantine tax system, cracked down on corruption and overhauled India’s corporate bankruptcy system.

After it became clear that Mr. Modi’s government was returning to power, India’s stock market shot up 2 percent, to a record high.

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Though small- and medium-size industries have not always kept up with the pace of change, the last thing many in the business community wanted was a fractured coalition government, run by small regional parties that struggle to get along.

Voters felt similarly about the economy. Analysts said India’s electorate was clearly not upset enough about the deep-seated challenges facing India, including stagnant job growth, to vote against Mr. Modi. Many wanted to give him a second chance, seeing his first five years as not enough time to make the sweeping changes he has promised.

And many voters said they had already noticed positive changes. In interviews throughout the campaign, they pointed to the B.J.P.’s campaigns to build millions of toilets, clean up smaller cities and ensure that government money reached recipients without being lost to bribes.

Voters waiting to cast ballots outside a polling station in Ganderbal District in Jammu and Kashmir State, last month.
Credit
Danish Ismail/Reuters


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Voters waiting to cast ballots outside a polling station in Ganderbal District in Jammu and Kashmir State, last month.CreditDanish Ismail/Reuters
The elections were orderly and mostly peaceful.
There was no election in the world as big as this one. About 600 million people voted, with more than 8,000 candidates contesting seats in the Parliament.

The elections were mostly peaceful, though there were a few sporadic clashes between supporters of rival parties. At least one person was killed.

But this was far less violent than during the 2014 elections, when 16 election officials were killed and more than 2,000 people were injured in poll-related violence, according to an analysis by India Today.

The turnout was a record high, at 67.1 percent.

And despite strong passions, gargantuan numbers and high stakes, the elections have nearly concluded with no major allegations of fraud or rigging. Most of the voting was done on electronic voting machines that seemed to work just fine, according to observers and election officials.

Vindu Goel contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on May 24, 2019, on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Hundreds of Millions of Votes and Huge Majority Cement an Undeniable Power. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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How Narendra Modi Seduced India With Envy and Hate

How Narendra Modi Seduced India With Envy and Hate
The prime minister has won re-election on a tide of violence, fake news and resentment.

By Pankaj Mishra
Mr. Mishra is the author, most recently, of “Age of Anger: A History of the Present.”

May 23, 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigning in Hyderabad, India, last month.
Credit
Mahesh Kumar A./Associated Press


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Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigning in Hyderabad, India, last month.CreditCreditMahesh Kumar A./Associated Press
Before dawn on Feb. 26, Narendra Modi, the Hindu nationalist prime minister of India, ordered an aerial attack on the country’s nuclear-armed neighbor, Pakistan. There were thick clouds that morning over the border. But Mr. Modi claimed earlier this month, during his successful campaign for re-election, that he had overruled advisers who worried about them. He is ignorant of science, he admitted, but nevertheless trusted his “raw wisdom,” which told him that the cloud cover would prevent Pakistani radar from detecting Indian fighter jets.

Over five years of Mr. Modi’s rule, India has suffered variously from his raw wisdom, most gratuitously in November 2016, when his government abruptly withdrew nearly 90 percent of currency notes from circulation. From devastating the Indian economy to risking nuclear Armageddon in South Asia, Mr. Modi has confirmed that the leader of the world’s largest democracy is dangerously incompetent. During this spring’s campaign, he also clarified that he is an unreconstructed ethnic-religious supremacist, with fear and loathing as his main political means.

Indian girls, wearing masks depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in support of the ban on old high denomination currency in 2016.
Credit
Jaipal Singh/European Pressphoto Agency


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Indian girls, wearing masks depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in support of the ban on old high denomination currency in 2016.CreditJaipal Singh/European Pressphoto Agency
India under Mr. Modi’s rule has been marked by continuous explosions of violence in both virtual and real worlds. As pro-Modi television anchors hunted for “anti-nationals” and troll armies rampaged through social media, threatening women with rape, lynch mobs slaughtered Muslims and low-caste Hindus. Hindu supremacists have captured or infiltrated institutions from the military and the judiciary to the news media and universities, while dissenting scholars and journalists have found themselves exposed to the risk of assassination and arbitrary detention. Stridently advancing bogus claims that ancient Hindus invented genetic engineering and airplanes, Mr. Modi and his Hindu nationalist supporters seemed to plunge an entire country into a moronic inferno. Last month the Indian army’s official twitter account excitedly broadcast its discovery of the Yeti’s footprints.

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Yet in the election that began last month, voters chose overwhelmingly to prolong this nightmare. The sources of Mr. Modi’s impregnable charisma seem more mysterious when you consider that he failed completely to realize his central promises of the 2014 election: jobs and national security. He presided over an enormous rise in unemployment and a spike in militancy in India-ruled Kashmir. His much-sensationalized punitive assault on Pakistan in February damaged nothing more than a few trees across the border, while killing seven Indian civilians in an instance of friendly fire.

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Modi has infused India’s public sphere with a riotously popular loathing of the country’s old urban elites.
Mr. Modi did indeed benefit electorally this time from his garishly advertised schemes to provide toilets, bank accounts, cheap loans, housing, electricity and cooking-gas cylinders to some of the poorest Indians. Lavish donations from India’s biggest companies allowed his party to outspend all others on its re-election campaign. A corporate-owned media fervently built up Mr. Modi as India’s savior, and opposition parties are right to suggest that the Election Commission, once one of India’s few unimpeachable bodies, was also shamelessly partisan.

None of these factors, however, can explain the spell Modi has cast on an overwhelmingly young Indian population. “Now and then,” Lionel Trilling once wrote, “it is possible to observe the moral life in process of revising itself.” Mr. Modi has created that process in India by drastically refashioning, with the help of technology, how many Indians see themselves and their world, and by infusing India’s public sphere with a riotously popular loathing of the country’s old urban elites.

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Rived by caste as well as class divisions, and dominated in Bollywood as well as politics by dynasties, India is a grotesquely unequal society. Its constitution, and much political rhetoric, upholds the notion that all individuals are equal and possess the same right to education and job opportunities; but the everyday experience of most Indians testify to appalling violations of this principle. A great majority of Indians, forced to inhabit the vast gap between a glossy democratic ideal and a squalid undemocratic reality, have long stored up deep feelings of injury, weakness, inferiority, degradation, inadequacy and envy; these stem from defeats or humiliation suffered at the hands of those of higher status than themselves in a rigid hierarchy.

I both witnessed and experienced these explosive tensions in the late 1980s, when I was a student at a dead-end provincial university, one of many there confronting a near-impossible task: not only sustained academic excellence, but also a wrenching cultural and psychological makeover in the image of the self-assured, English-speaking metropolitan. One common object of our ressentiment — an impotent mix of envy and hatred — was Rajiv Gandhi, the deceased father of main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, whom Mr. Modi indecorously but cunningly chose to denounce in his election campaign. An airline pilot who became prime minister largely because his mother and grandfather had held the same post, and who allegedly received kickbacks from a Swedish arms manufacturer into Swiss bank accounts, Mr. Gandhi appeared to perfectly embody a pseudo-socialist elite that claimed to supervise post-colonial India’s attempt to catch up with the modern West but that in reality single-mindedly pursued its own interests.

There seemed no possibility of dialogue with a metropolitan ruling class of such Godlike aloofness, which had cruelly stranded us in history while itself moving serenely toward convergence with the prosperous West. This sense of abandonment became more wounding as India began in the 1990s to embrace global capitalism together with a quasi-American ethic of individualism amid a colossal population shift from rural to urban areas. Satellite television and the internet spawned previously inconceivable fantasies of private wealth and consumption, even as inequality, corruption and nepotism grew and India’s social hierarchies appeared as entrenched as ever.

No politician, however, sought to exploit the long dormant rage against India’s self-perpetuating post-colonial rulers, or to channel the boiling frustration over blocked social mobility, until Mr. Modi emerged from political disgrace in the early 2010s with his rhetoric of meritocracy and lusty assaults on hereditary privilege.

India’s former Anglophone establishment and Western governments had stigmatized Mr. Modi for his suspected role — ranging from malign indifference to complicity and direct supervision — in the murder of hundreds of Muslims in his home state of Gujarat in 2002. But Mr. Modi, backed by some of India’s richest people, managed to return to the political mainstream, and, ahead of the 2014 election, he mesmerized aspiring Indians with a flamboyant narrative about his hardscrabble past, and their glorious future. From the beginning, he was careful to present himself to his primary audience of stragglers as one of them: a self-made individual who had to overcome hurdles thrown in his way by an arrogant and venal elite that indulged treasonous Muslims while pouring contempt on salt-of-the-earth Hindus like himself. Boasting of his 56-inch chest, he promised to transform India into an international superpower and to reinsert Hindus into the grand march of history.

Since 2014, Mr. Modi’s near-novelistic ability to create irresistible fictions has been steadily enhanced by India’s troll-dominated social media as well as cravenly sycophantic newspapers and television channels. India’s online population doubled in the five years of Mr. Modi’s rule. With cheap smartphones in the hands of the poorest of Indians, a large part of the world’s population was exposed to fake news on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp. Indeed, Mr. Modi received one of his biggest electoral boosts from false accounts claiming that his airstrikes exterminated hundreds of Pakistanis, and that he frightened Pakistan into returning the Indian pilot it had captured.

Mr. Modi is preternaturally alert to the fact that the smartphone’s screen is pulling hundreds of millions of Indians, who have barely emerged from illiteracy, into a wonderland of fantasy and myth. An early adopter of Twitter, like Donald Trump, he performs unceasingly for the camera, often dressed in outlandish costumes. After decades of Western-educated and emotionally constricted Indian leaders, Mr. Modi uninhibitedly participates — whether speaking tearfully of his poverty-stricken past or boasting of his bromance with Barack Obama — in digital media’s quasi-egalitarian culture of exhibitionism.

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India has witnessed a savage assault on not just democratic institutions and rational discourse but also ordinary human decency.
Posing last weekend as a saffron-robed monk in a cave at a Hindu pilgrimage site, Mr. Modi provoked much mockery among India’s English-speaking intelligentsia. But to many Indians who felt scorned and marginalized by a westernized establishment, an unabashedly Hindu politician with thickly-accented English has appeared, as the novelist Aatish Taseer claimed in 2014, “a rare instance of India trusting to herself, throwing up one of her own, one who did not have the blessings of the West at all.”

He was certainly fortunate to have in Rahul Gandhi a live mascot of India’s defunct dynastic politics and insolvent ideological centrism. However, contrary to what many neoliberal commentators in India and the West hoped for, Mr. Modi is far from alchemizing the passions of left-behind Indians into spectacular economic growth. Rather, he has opened up what Friedrich Nietzsche, speaking of the “men of ressentiment,” called “a whole tremulous realm of subterranean revenge, inexhaustible and insatiable in outbursts.”

Mr. Modi’s appointed task in India is the same as that of many far-right demagogues: to titillate a fearful and angry population with the scapegoating of minorities, refugees, leftists, liberals and others while accelerating predatory forms of capitalism. He may have failed to create job opportunities for disadvantaged Indians. But he has sanctioned them, with his own vengeful contempt for English-speaking elites, to raucously talk back to, and shout down, the already privileged. In lieu of any liberation from injustice, he has emancipated the darkest of emotions; he has licensed his supporters to explicitly hate a range of people from perfidious Pakistanis and Indian Muslims to their “anti-national” Indian appeasers.

As Mr. Modi allowed long-simmering ressentiment to erupt volcanically, India witnessed a savage assault on not just democratic institutions and rational discourse but also ordinary human decency. The India that Mr. Modi has made was never more accurately summed up than both in the demonstrations last year, led by women, and the justifications offered by politicians, police officials and lawyers in support of eight Hindu men accused of raping and murdering an eight-year-old Muslim girl.

Intoxicating voters with the seductive passion of vengeance, and grandiose fantasies of power and domination, Mr. Modi has deftly escaped public scrutiny of his record of raw wisdom — one that would have ruined any other politician. Back in 2014, the Hindu supremacist pioneered the politics of enmity that corrodes many democracies today. This week, he triumphantly reaped one of the biggest electoral harvests of the post-truth age, giving us more reason to fear the future.

Pankaj Mishra is the author, most recently, of “Age of Anger: A History of the Present.”

భారత్ ఎలా తప్పుదోవ పట్టింది? Pankaj Mishra

భారత్ ఎలా తప్పుదోవ పట్టింది?
28-05-2019 00:31:44

ప్రతీకార ఉద్వేగాలు, వైభవోపేత అధికారం, ఆధిక్యతల స్వప్నాలతో ఓటర్లను మైమరిపించడం ద్వారా తన సహజ వివేకపు వినాశనాత్మక పర్యవసానాలు ప్రజల నిశిత పరిశీలనలోకి రాకుండా నరేంద్రమోదీ చాలా నేర్పుగా తప్పించుకోగలిగారు. నేడు పలు ప్రజాస్వామ్య వ్యవస్థలను బలహీనపరుస్తున్న విద్వేష రాజకీయాలకు 2014లో ఈ హిందూత్వ నేత పథ నిర్దేశం చేశారు. 2019లో సత్యానంతర యుగపు సంచలనాత్మక ఎన్నికల విజయాలలో ఒకదానికి ఆయన సారథ్యం వహించారు. మోదీ జయధ్వానం భారత ప్రజాస్వామ్య భవిష్యత్తు గురించి భయపడక తప్పని అగత్యాన్ని కల్పించింది.

ప్రధానమంత్రి నరేంద్ర మోదీ ఆదేశంపై ఈ ఏడాది ఫిబ్రవరి 26 తెల్ల వారు జామున పాకిస్థాన్‌లోని బాలాకోట్‌లో గల ఉగ్రవాద శిబిరాలపై భారత వాయుసేన మెరుపుదాడులు జరిపింది. ఆ ఉదయం భారత్- పాకిస్థాన్ సరిహద్దు ప్రాంతాల వాయుతలం దట్టంగా మేఘావృతమై వున్నది. వైమానిక దాడులకు మేఘాలు విఘాతమవుతాయేమోనని వాయుసేన అధికారులు సంశయిస్తుంటే వారి సంకోచాన్ని తోసిపుచ్చి కర్తవ్య పాలనకు పూనుకోమని స్పష్టం చేశానని 17 వ లోక్ సభ ఎన్నికల ప్రచార తుదిదశలో మోదీ వెల్లడించారు. ఆయన ఇంకా ఇలా చెప్పారు: ‘సైన్స్ గురిచి నాకు ఏమీ తెలీదన్న మాట నిజం. అయితే నా ‘సహజ వివేకాన్ని’ పూర్తిగా విశ్వసించాను. ఆకాశం మేఘావృతమై ఉన్నందున భారతీయ ఫైటర్ జెట్స్ ను పాకిస్థానీ రాడార్ కనుగొనలేదని నా ‘సహజ వివేకం నాకు చెప్పింది’.

ఐదేళ్ళ మోదీ పాలనలో ఆయన ‘సహజ వివేకం’ మూలంగా భారత్ అనేక విధాల నష్ట పోయింది. నానా యాతనలు పడింది. ముఖ్యంగా 2016 నవంబర్‌లో మోదీ ప్రభుత్వం హఠాత్తుగా 90 శాతం కరెన్సీ నోట్లను చెలామణీ నుంచి ఉపసంహరించుకోవాలని నిర్ణయం తీసుకోవడంతో అసంఖ్యాక భారతీయులు అకారణంగా అవస్థలపాలయ్యారు. భారత ఆర్థిక వ్యవస్థకు అపార నష్టం కల్గించడం, దక్షిణాసియాను అణు యుద్ధం ముంగిటిలోకి తీసుకువెళ్ళడం మొదలైన వాటితో ప్రపంచపు అతి పెద్ద ప్రజాస్వామ్య వ్యవస్థ అధిపతి అపాయకరమైన అనర్హుడు అని నరేంద్ర మోదీ రుజువు చేశారు. మోదీ పాలనలో నిరుద్యోగం అపారంగా పెరిగిపోయింది.., జమ్మూ -కశ్మీర్‌లో ఉగ్రవాద హింసాకాండ బాగా పెచ్చరిల్లిపోయింది. గత ఫిబ్రవరిలో పాకిస్థాన్‌పై సంచలనాత్మక వైమానిక దాడుల్లో కొన్ని చెట్లు కూలిపోవడం మినహా ఆ దేశానికి ఏమీ నష్టం సంభవించలేదు. పేద భారతీయులు కొంతమందికి మోదీ పాలన మేలు చేయకపోలేదు. సొంత పాయిఖానా వసతి కల్పించారు. ప్రతి ఒక్కరూ బ్యాంక్ అకౌంట్‌ను కలిగివుండేందుకు సహకరించారు. స్వల్ప వడ్డీపై రుణ సదుపాయం, గృహ వసతి, విద్యుత్ సరఫరా, వంటగ్యాస్ సిలిండర్ మొదలైన వాటిని సమకూర్చారు. ఈ సహాయాల గురించి మోదీ ప్రభుత్వం ఎంతో గొప్పగా చెప్పుకున్నది. మహా ఆడంబర పూర్వకంగా ప్రచారం చేసుకున్నది. ఇదిగో, ఆ ప్రచారం నుంచి మోదీ 2019 సార్వత్రక ఎన్నికలలో బాగా లబ్ధి పొందారు. కార్పొరేట్ కంపెనీల నుంచి అందిన భారీ విరాళాలతో ఎన్నికల ప్రచారానికి, ప్రయోజనాలకు బీజేపీ అమితంగా ఖర్చు పెట్ట గలిగింది. కార్పొరేట్ సంస్థల ఆధ్వర్యంలోని మీడియా మోదీని ‘భారతదేశ సంరక్షకుడు’గా ఓటర్ల మనస్సులో సుప్రతిష్ఠితం చేసింది. ఇంతవరకు ఎటువంటి అభిశంసనకు గురికాని భారత రాజ్యాంగ సంస్థలలో ఎన్నికల సంఘం ఒకటి. అటువంటి సంస్థకూడా ప్రస్తుత ఎన్నికలలో సిగ్గూఎగ్గూ లేకుండా అధికార పార్టీకి అనుకూలంగా వ్యవహరించిందని ప్రతిపక్షాలు చేసిన విమర్శల్లో సహేతుకత ఎంతైనా ఉన్నది.

యువ భారతీయులపై మోదీ ప్రభావం అంతా ఇంతా కాదు. వారిని ఆయన తన వచో నైపుణ్యంతో మంత్రముగ్దుల్ని చేశారు. ‘నైతిక జీవితం తనను తాను సరిదిద్దుకొంటున్న ప్రక్రియను పరిశీలించడం అప్పుడప్పుడు సాధ్యమవుతుందని’ అమెరికన్ సాహిత్య విమర్శకుడు లియోనెల్ ట్రిల్లింగ్ అన్నారు. భారతీయులు తమను తాము భావించుకుంటున్న, ప్రపంచాన్ని చూస్తున్న రీతిని నవీన సాంకేతికతల సహాయంతో పూర్తిగా మార్చి వేయడం, అలాగే సామాజిక పౌర జీవనం (పబ్లిక్ స్పియర్- కలసి సమాజం ఎదుర్కొంటున్న సమస్యలను గుర్తించి, వాటిపై చర్చించి, ఆ చర్చల ద్వారా రాజకీయ కార్యాచరణను ప్రభావితం చేసేందుకై సామాజిక జీవితంలో వ్యక్తులు ఒక్కటిగా కలిసివచ్చే కార్యక్షేత్రం)లో సంప్రదాయ పట్టణ ప్రాంత కులీన వర్గాలపై ప్రజల్లో విశృంఖల ఏహ్య భావాన్ని కల్పించడం ద్వారా మోదీ భారతదేశంలో అటువంటి ప్రక్రియను సృష్టించారు.

భారత్ ఒక అసంబద్ధ అసమానతల సమాజం. భారత రాజ్యాంగమూ, భారత రాజకీయ పక్షాలూ కులమతాలకు అతీతంగా భారతీయులందరూ సమానులేనని ఉద్ఘోషిస్తున్నాయి. విద్యా, ఉద్యోగావకాశాల విషయంలో ప్రతి ఒక్కరికీ సమాన హక్కు ఉన్నదని చెబుతున్నాయి. అయితే ఈ సమానత్వ సూత్రాలు ఎంత భయానకంగా ఉల్లంఘనకు గురవుతున్నాయో అత్యధిక భారతీయుల నిత్య జీవితానుభవాలు నిరూపిస్తున్నాయి. భారతీయులలో అత్యధికులు మానవతా మెరుపుల ప్రజాస్వామిక ఆదర్శాలు, తుచ్ఛ, నీచ అప్రజాస్వామిక యథార్థాల మధ్య బలవంతంగా జీవిస్తున్నారు. వారి మనసు అగాథాల్లో ఆత్మన్యూనతా భావాలు, అసూయా ద్వేషాలు, నానా అవమానాల గాయాలు పేరుకుపోయివున్నాయి; ఒక కఠోర సామాజిక క్రమానుగత శ్రేణి (హిందూ వర్ణ వ్యవస్థకు మించిన ఉదాహరణ దీనికి మరొకటి ఏముంటుంది?)లో ఉన్నతస్థాయిలో ఉన్నవారి నుంచి ఎదురయిన అవమానాలు, అపజయాల నుంచే అవి అసంఖ్యాక భారతీయుల మనస్సుల్లో నిక్షిప్తమయ్యాయి.

ఈ ప్రమాదకర ఉద్రిక్తతలను, 1980వ దశకం తుదినాళ్ళలో ఒక ప్రాంతీయ విశ్వవిద్యాలయ విద్యార్థిగా నేను ప్రత్యక్షంగా చూశాను, అనుభవించాను. విద్యా విషయిక ప్రతిభాపాటవాలలోనూ, సాంస్కృతిక రీతులు, ఆలోచనా ధోరణులలోనూ మెట్రో పాలిటన్ ఆంగ్ల విద్యాధికులకు దీటుగా భాసిల్లాలని మేము ఆరాటపడేవాళ్ళం. నరేంద్ర మోదీ ఇటీవలి ఎన్నికల ప్రచారంలో ఎంతో అనుచితంగా మాట్లాడిన దివంగత ప్రధాని రాజీవ్ గాంధీ మా ఆగ్రహానికి లక్ష్యంగా ఉండేవారు.
వలసపాలన ముగిసిన అనంతరం ఆధునిక పాశ్చాత్య ప్రపంచస్థాయికి భారత్‌ను తీసుకువెళ్ళే బాధ్యతలు చేపట్టిన, అయితే వాస్తవానికి తమ సొంత ప్రయోజనాల పరిరక్షణకు మాత్రమే ప్రాధాన్యమిచ్చిన కుహనా సామ్యవాద కులీన వర్గానికి ప్రతినిధి రాజీవ్ గాంధీ. ఈ ఆంగ్ల విద్యాధిక మెట్రోపాలిటన్ పాలక వర్గం మమ్ములను చరిత్రలో ఒక నిస్సహాయ స్థితిలో వదిలివేసి, తాము మాత్రం సంపన్న పాశ్చాత్య ప్రపంచం సరసన ఉండడానికి ఆరాటపడింది. జాతి సర్వతో ముఖాభివృద్ధికి బాధ్యత వహించాల్సిన ఆ కులీన వర్గం తమను నిర్లక్ష్యం చేయడం అసంఖ్యాక భారతీయులకు తీవ్ర మనస్తాపం కల్గించింది. ముఖ్యంగా 1990 వ దశకంలో ప్రపంచీకరణ విధానాలను అనుసరించడం మొదలయిన తరువాత ఈ మనస్తాపం మరింత అధికమయింది. అమెరికన్ వ్యష్టి వాద ధోరణులు పెరిగిపోవడమూ, పల్లెల నుంచి పట్టణాలకు వలసలు ముమ్మరమవ్వడమూ మొదలైన పరిణామాలు కూడా ఆ మానసిక గాయాలను మరింత తీవ్రంచేశాయి. వ్యక్తిగత సంపద, వినియోగం గురించి టీవీ, ఇంటర్నెట్‌లు ప్రజలను అనూహ్యరీతుల్లో ప్రభావితం చేశాయి.

సొంత ప్రయోజనాలకే ప్రాధాన్యమిచ్చిన స్వతంత్ర భారత పాలకులకు వ్యతిరేకంగా అత్యధిక భారతీయులలో గుప్తంగా నెలకొన్న ఆగ్రహాన్ని, సామాజిక ఊర్థ్వ గమనానికి తీవ్ర అవరోధాలుగా ఉన్న శక్తులపై నెలకొన్న తీవ్ర అసంతృప్తిని తమ రాజకీయ లక్ష్యాలకు ఉపయోగించుకునేందుకు జాతీయ రాజకీయాలలోకి నరేంద్ర మోదీ ప్రవేశించేంతవరకు -ఏ రాజకీయ వేత్తా ప్రయత్నించనే లేదు. 2002 గుజరాత్ మారణకాండకు నరేంద్రమోదీయే కారకుడని ఆంగ్ల విద్యాధికులు, పాశ్చాత్య ప్రభుత్వాలు తీవ్రంగా నిందించాయి. అమాయకుల ఊచకోతలు జరుగుతున్నా మోదీ ఉదాసీనంగా వ్యహరించారని, అసలు ఆయనే ఆ హత్యాకాండను స్వయంగా పర్యవేక్షించారని కూడా ఆయన్ని విమర్శించాయి. భారతదేశపు కుబేరులు కొంతమంది సహాయ సహకారాలతో నరేంద్ర మోదీ ఈ కళంకం నుంచి బయటపడి 2014 సార్వత్రక ఎన్నికల నాటికి జాతీయ స్రవంతి రాజకీయాలలోకి ప్రవేశించారు. తన సభికులలో అత్యధికంగా ఉండే అణగారిన వర్గాల వారిలో తానూ ఒకడినని మోదీ మొదటి నుంచీ చెప్పేవారు. స్వయం శక్తితో ముఖ్యమంత్రి స్థాయికి ఎదిగానని, ఈ క్రమంలో వంచకులు అయిన ముస్లింలను బుజ్జగిస్తూ తన లాంటి ఉత్తమ హిందువులను అన్ని విధాల అణచివేసేందుకు ప్రయత్నించిన వారిని అధిగమించేందుకు తాను ఎలా కష్టపడిందీ మోదీ వివరించేవారు. భారత్‌ను ఒక గొప్ప అంతర్జాతీయ శక్తిగా తీర్చిదిద్ది, హిందువులను మళ్ళీ చరిత్ర పురోగమన ప్రస్థానంలో అగ్రగాములుగా నిలబెడతానని మోదీ వాగ్దానం చేసేవారు.

మోదీ ఐదేళ్ళ పాలనలో భారతీయ నెటిజన్ల సంఖ్య రెట్టింపయింది. నిరుపేద చేతిలోకూడా స్మార్ట్ ఫోన్ కన్పించడం సాధారణమై పోయింది. ఫేస్ బుక్, ట్విటర్, యూ ట్యూబ్, వాట్సాప్ మొదలైన అధునాతన కమ్యూనికేషన్ సదుపాయాలతో ఫేక్ న్యూస్ విస్తృత స్థాయిలో అత్యధికులకు చేరడమూ సాధారణమైపోయింది. ఈ పరిణామం విశేషంగా లబ్ధిని సమకూర్చింది. బాలాకోట్‌లోని ఉగ్రవాద శిబిరాలపై భారత వాయుసేన దాడుల్లో వందలాది పాకిస్థానీయులు హతమయ్యారన్న నకిలీ వార్త ఒకటి అసంఖ్యాక భారతీయ ఓటర్లను ప్రభావితం చేసి ఇటీవలి ఎన్నికలలో మోదీ విజయానికి ఎంతైనా తోడ్పడింది.

భారత్‌లోనూ, పాశ్చాత్య దేశాలలోను ఎంతో మంది నయా ఉదారవాద వ్యాఖ్యాతలు ఆశిస్తున్నట్టుగా అశేష భారతీయులలో తాను ఉత్పన్నం చేసిన భావోద్వేగాలను బ్రహ్మాండమైన ఆర్థిక పురోగతికి తోడ్పడేవిగా మోదీ మార్చడం లేదు. ఆగ్రహపూరితులైన మనుషుల గురించి జర్మన్ తాత్వికుడు నీషే అన్నట్టు గూడుకట్టుకుపోయిన అధోస్థాయి ప్రతీకార వాంఛ అడ్డూ ఆపూ లేకుండా బద్దలవడానికి మాత్రమే దోహదం చేస్తున్నారు. కరడుగట్టిన మితవాదుల లక్ష్యమే మోదీ ఔదలదాల్చిన లక్ష్యం: మైనారిటీ వర్గాలు, శరణార్ధులు, వామపక్షీయులు, ఉదారవాదులు మొదలైన ప్రగతిశీలురను బలిపశువులు చేస్తూ ఆగ్రహపూరితులైన ప్రజలను ఉత్సాహపరచడం, అదే సమయంలో పీక్కుతినే అధునాతన పెట్టుబడిదారీ విధానం సత్వర పురోగతికి తోడ్పడమూ, నిరుద్యోగులైన అసంఖ్యాక యువ భారతీయులకు అవసరమైన కొత్త ఉద్యోగాలను సృష్టించడంలో మోదీ విఫలమైనప్పటికీ ఆంగ్ల విద్యాధికులతో కఠోరంగా మాట్లాడేందుకు, సమాజంలో ఇప్పటికే ఉన్నత స్థితిలో ఉన్నవారిని తీవ్రంగా వ్యతిరేకించేందుకు అనుమతించారు. ఆంగ్ల విద్యాధికుల పట్ల మోదీలో ఉన్న తీవ్ర వ్యతిరేకత కూడా ఆయన్ని ఈ ధోరణికి పురిగొల్పిందని మరి చెప్పనవసరం లేదు. అశేష అణగారిన భారతీయులను నానా అన్యాయాలనుంచి విముక్తం చేయడానికి బదులుగా వారిలోని నిరాశామయ భావోద్వేగాలకు ఆయన విముక్తి కల్పించారు. మోసపూరిత పాకిస్థానీయులు, భారతీయ ముస్లింలు, ఈ ‘జాతి వ్యతిరేకులను’ బుజ్జగించే భారతీయులను ద్వేషించేందుకు తన మద్దతుదారులను మోదీ స్పష్టంగా పురిగొల్పారు.

ప్రతీకార ఉద్వేగాలు, వైభవోపేత అధికారం, ఆధిక్యతల స్వప్నాలతో ఓటర్లను మైమరిపించడం ద్వారా తన సహజ వివేకపు వినాశనాత్మక పర్యవసానాలు- ఇవి, మరే ఇతర రాజకీయవేత్తనైనా విధిగా పతనమొందించేవనడంలో సందేహం లేదు.- ప్రజల నిశిత పరిశీలనలోకి రాకుండా నరేంద్రమోదీ చాలా నేర్పుగా తప్పించుకోగలిగారు. నేడు పలు ప్రజాస్వామ్య వ్యవస్థలను బలహీనపరుస్తున్న విద్వేష రాజకీయాలకు 2014లో ఈ హిందూత్వ నేత పథ నిర్దేశం చేశారు. 2019లో సత్యానంతర యుగపు సంచలనాత్మక ఎన్నికల విజయాలలో ఒకదానికి ఆయన సారథ్యం వహించారు. అయితే మోదీ జయధ్వానం భారత ప్రజాస్వామ్య భవిష్యత్తు గురించి భయపడక తప్పని అగత్యాన్ని కల్పించింది.
 పంకజ్‌ మిశ్రా
(న్యూయార్క్ టైమ్స్) 

The BJP and Nathuram Godse

The BJP and Nathuram Godse
A.G. NOORANI
Print edition : February 08, 2013 T+ T-

The trial of the persons accused of participation and complicity in Mahatma Gandhi's assassination opened in the Special Court in Red Fort Delhi on May 27, 1948. (From left), Nathuram Vinayak Godse, Narayan Dattatraya Apte and Vishnu Ramkrishna Karkare. Photo: THE HINDU archives


FEBRUARY 26, 2003 - NEW DELHI : PRESIDENT A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM, VICE-PRESIDENT BHAIRON SINGH SHEKHAWAT, PRIME MINISTER A.B. VAJPAYEE, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER L.K. ADVANI, LOK SABHA SPEAKER MANOHAR JOSHI AND UNION HEALTH MINISTER SUSHMA SWARAJ IN FRONT OF THE PAINTING OF VEER SAVARKAR unveiled AT the CENTRAL HALL OF PARLIAMENT HOUSE IN NEW DELHI. Photo: PTI

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THE Bharatiya Janata Party and its ancestor, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, have always felt embarrassed and uneasy about Nathuram Godse. They very well knew that Gandhi’s assassin had strong links to their parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). As Gandhi’s Boswell, Pyarelal, records in his memoirs, “members of the RSS at some places had been instructed beforehand to tune in their radio sets on the fateful Friday for the ‘good news’, and sweets were distributed by the members at many places” ( Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase; page 750).

There was another reason besides. V.D. Savarkar’s acquittal notwithstanding, many were convinced that he was privy to the murder; most notably Bombay’s Home Minister Morarji Desai (vide the writer’s article “Savarkar and Gandhi’s murder”, Frontline, October 5, 2012). But Savarkar was also the BJP’s ideologue. He was the one who coined the term Hindutva and distinguished his theme of hate elaborately from the ancient and noble faith of Hinduism.

L.K. Advani began his bid for the Prime Minister’s office in 1990 with the cry of Hindutva which he developed in speech after speech. Fate willed otherwise, not least because of his opportunism, tactical blunders caused by an excess of zeal and, of course, an obscene exhibition of ambition which the country does not like. Advani has fallen by the wayside. To his dismay, a protégé has emerged to lay claim to that very office and on that very plank of Hindutva—Narendra Modi.

Advani’s palpably false denials in his autobiography, My Country, My Life, reflected the embarrassment. Two, in particular, need to be nailed to the counter: One is that “the RSS had some differences with Gandhiji regarding his approach to securing India’s freedom. But these were minor, which never detracted from the high regard the Sangh had for the Mahatma.”

The RSS’s bible is Bunch of Thoughts (1966), written by its longest-serving supremo, M.S. Golwalkar. He pours out his contempt for Gandhi and the Congress in shrill denunciations of both. Advani could not possibly have been unaware of the book. Here are those passages. There were, Golwalkar wrote, in the main “two types of movements against the British rule in our country”. One was the armed revolution by the revolutionaries.

“The other movement led by the Congress has had more disastrous and degrading effects on the country. Most of the tragedies and evils that have overtaken our country during the last few decades and are even today corroding our national life are its direct outcome.” That was the Congress led by Gandhi. A few pages later the reference becomes more pointed even though the name is avoided for tactical reasons. The references are to Gandhi’s plank of Hindu-Muslim unity and to his advocacy of non-violence: “Those who declared ‘No Swaraj without Hindu-Muslim unity’ have perpetrated the greatest treason on our society.” So much for Advani’s claim of “the high regard the Sangh had for the Mahatma”.



Imagined and ancient wrongs 

The attack on Gandhi becomes stronger when Golwalkar turns to non-violence. “They have committed the most heinous sin of killing the life-spirit of a great and ancient people. To preach impotency [ sic] to a society which gave rise to a Shivaji who, in the words of the great historian Jadunath Sarkar, ‘proved to the whole world that the Hindu has drunk the elixir of immortality’, and to break the self-confident and proud spirit of such a great and virile society has no parallel in the history of the world for sheer magnitude of its betrayal. …here, we had leaders who were, as if, pledged to sap all manliness from their own people. However, this is not a mere accident of history. This leadership only came as a bitter climax of the despicable tribe of so many of our ancestors who during the past twelve hundred years sold their national honour and freedom to foreigners, and joined hands with the inveterate enemies of our country and our religion in cutting the throats of their own kith and kin to gratify their personal egoism, selfishness and rivalry. No wonder nemesis overtook such a people in the form of such a self-destructive leadership.” The Sangh Parivar is haunted by imagined and ancient wrongs which it is sworn to correct by attacking Muslims and Christians.

What is meant by self-destruction? Two decades after the assassination, the RSS mouthpiece ( Organiser), then edited by K.R. Malkani, could remember Gandhi, on January 11, 1970, only in these terms in its editorial: “It was in support of Nehru’s pro-Pakistan stand that Gandhiji went on fast and, in the process, turned the people’s wrath on himself.” So, Nathuram Godse represented “the people” and he perpetrated the murder as an expression of “the people’s wrath”.

In 1961, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya said: “With all respect for Gandhiji, let us cease to call him ‘Father of the Nation’. If we understand the old basis of nationalism, then it will be clear that it is nothing but Hinduism.”

The Times of India editorially noted on October 17, 1989: “Mr Advani, while holding forth on ‘Bharat Mata’, now goes so far as to deny that Mahatma Gandhi was the Father of the Nation.”

On October 5, 1997, Organiser published an advertisement by a Delhi publisher for six “Readable Attractive New Books”, two of them by Gopal Godse: Qutub Minar is Vishnu Dhwaja and Gandhiji’s Murder and After. The third book advertised was May it Please Your Honour, the assassin’s statement in court. Another was by the judge who ordered the locks of the gate to the Babri Masjid opened on February 1, 1986, in flagrant breach of the law. Organiser is hardly likely to accept advertisements for books critical of the RSS.

On Nathuram Godse, Advani asserts that Godse had “severed links with RSS in 1933… had begun to bitterly criticise the RSS”. This was flatly contradicted by none other than Godse’s brother Gopal, who was also an accused at the trial for conspiracy to murder. He published his book Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in December 1993. Speaking in New Delhi on the occasion of the release of his book, Gopal Godse revealed what many had suspected—they had both been active members of the RSS ( The Statesman; December 24, 1993).

Soon thereafter, in an interview to Frontline (January 28, 1994), he provided the details and angrily scotched Advani’s attempts to disown them: “All the brothers were in the RSS. Nathuram, Dattatreya, myself and Govind. You can say we grew up in the RSS rather than in our home. It was like a family to us. Nathuram had become a baudhik karyavah [intellectual worker] in the RSS. He has said in his statement that he left the RSS. He said it because Golwalkar and the RSS were in a lot of trouble after the murder of Gandhi. But he did not leave the RSS.”

Asked about Advani’s claim that Nathuram had nothing to do with the RSS, Gopal Godse replied: “I have countered him, saying it is cowardice to say that. You can say that RSS did not pass a resolution, saying, ‘go and assassinate Gandhi’. But you do not disown him [Nathuram]. The Hindu Mahasabha did not disown him. In 1944, Nathuram started doing Hindu Mahasabha work when he had been a baudhik karyavah in the RSS.”

It was a foolish attempt by Advani to whitewash a sordid record. A similar attempt was made by Ram Jethmalani, on April 13, 1981, at Kochi. Godse and Gandhi “shared the same political philosophy [sic] of a United India” ( The Times of India; April 14, 1981). He was then vice-president of the BJP. Not surprisingly, he is now a staunch supporter of Narendra Modi’s ambition to become Prime Minister.



Whitewashing a sordid record 

Now, a stronger attempt has been mounted by that very Delhi publisher who specialises in books by this tribe ( Gandhi and Godse by Koenraad Elst; Voice of India; 183 pages, Rs.250). The back cover lists books by Elst and others attacking Islam and Christianity. The book’s aim is not concealed. Gautam Sen’s foreword makes it clear beyond doubt. Gandhi’s assassination was a “ political offence” committed in justified indignation by a thoughtful man. “Godse’s lengthy speech to the court highlights the profoundly political nature of his murder of Gandhi. Nathuram Godse surveys the history of India’s independence struggle and the role of Mahatma Gandhi and judges it an unmitigated disaster in order to justify Gandhi’s assassination. …The impressive achievement of Dr Elst’s elegant monograph is to highlight the actual ideological and political cleavages that prompted Mahatma Gandhi’s tragic murder by Godse. A refusal to understand its political rationale lends unsustainable credence to the idea that his assassin was motivated by religious fanaticism and little else besides. On the contrary, Nathuram Godse was a secular nationalist, sharing many of the convictions and prejudices of the dominant independence movement, led by the Congress party. He was steadfastly opposed to religious obscurantism and caste privilege and sought social and political equality for all Indians in the mould advocated by his mentor, Veer Savarkar.”

Sen adds: “Quite clearly, Gandhi’s assassin was not the raving Hindu lunatic popularly depicted in India, but a thoughtful and intelligent man who was prepared to commit murder.”

Elst laments the consequences of Godse’s deed: “The enormous harm done to the Hindutva movement itself and to larger Hindu interests”. His book seeks to mitigate the damage by whitewashing the foul crime.

Elst nails his colour to the mast in the very first paragraph of his preface. “One of our findings is that while Godse’s act was by definition extremist [ sic], his criticism of Gandhi was in fact shared by many.” Use of the word “extremist” to characterise a dastardly murder reveals Elst’s stripes. He goes on to add: “This way Godse exacted ‘punishment’ for Gandhi’s alleged pro-Muslim policies…. The next morning, the very last issue of the Hindu Rasthra (a Pune-based Marathi daily edited by Godse) carried the news of Gandhiji’s death on the cover in jubilant language.”

Elst has no patience with Advani’s cant, whether on the links with the RSS or with Savarkar:

“The Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteer Corps, or simply ‘the Sangh’), of which Godse had been a member, was banned and forced to comply with government demands, especially the drafting of a written Constitution to remove the impression of its being a secret society. Only after complying was it unbanned and its leadership released from prison. The subsequent RSS habit of paying insistent lip service to the dominant ideologies and institutions is partly due to this humiliating episode, which invested the organisation with a permanent inferiority complex vis-a-vis the dominant secularists in the mould of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

“The total lack of support from politicians in other parties during this ordeal convinced the RSS rank and file of the need to start a party of their own. This way, Gandhi’s death was a factor in the foundation of the Jan Sangh (1951-77), later refounded as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People’s Party, 1980), that ruled India in 1998-2004.”

Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Savarkar’s acolyte, founded the Jan Sangh to revive the defeated movement and thus overcome the setback caused by the assassination of Gandhi.

Detailed defence 

The book is essentially a detailed defence, para wise, of the points made by Godse in his statement at the trial on November 8, 1948.

“Nathuram Godse keeps on emphasising the democratic and reasonable character of his own political position.” With friends like Elst, the Sangh Parivar needs no enemies. He lets loose some candid admissions: “During Partition, some Sangh workers were active in taking revenge on Muslims inside India (as eyewitnesses have told me), doing some bullying of their own. That similar martial RSS feats took place in the far more dangerous circumstances of the territory allotted to Pakistan has been disputed by the movement’s habitual critics.” Thus, the RSS also performed inside Pakistan.

Quoting approvingly from Godse’s statement, Elst explains that Godse “thought that Gandhi had become an obstacle to the well-being of the nation to which both of them were devoted. In that case, the interests of the nation had to be put before the lives of its servants.”

On Godse’s disassociation with the RSS, we are told “Nathuram contrived to create the impression that the RSS had little to do with him, simply to avoid creating more trouble for the RSS in the difficult post-assassination months”. Gopal explains: “He has said in his statement that he left the RSS. He said it because Golwalkar and the RSS were in a lot of trouble after the murder of Gandhi. But he did not leave the RSS.”

There is really no controversy here. Nathuram Godse never rejected the RSS, but he was not functioning within the RSS structure in the years before the murder. He had chosen to do political work, whereas the RSS scrupulously stayed out of party politics. Ideologically, he still was an RSS man.

As for Savarkar, “Godse was an ardent follower” of his. After a thorough probe a former judge of the Supreme Court, Justice J.L. Kapur, held that “all these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group”.

The Sessions Court did not hear the testimony of Savarkar’s bodyguard Appa Ramachandra Kasar and his secretary Gajanan Vishnu Damle in the trial proceedings in 1948-49. The omission is inexplicable. Both, however, testified after Savarkar’s death to the Kapur Commission in 1965-66; crucially on Godse and [Narayan] Apte’s visit to Savarkar on January 23, 1948. Ambiguity on their earlier visits on January 14 and 17 led to Savarkar’s acquittal. Both “sat with him in the garden” and he had blessed them on January 17, “ Yashasvi houn ya” (Be successful and come).

On February 26, 2003, the BJP regime had Savarkar’s portrait installed in Parliament House where Gandhi’s portrait had stood for years. It was out to redefine India’s polity. Whitewashing Savarkar and Godse is part of that sordid game. Would you shake hands with an assassin of any of your kin who is acquitted by the court in circumstances like these? Would the leaders of the BJP or the RSS? Yet they want the nation to accept him as a hero because he articulated their credo of communal hate. This represents their true character, their false apologies notwithstanding.

"Will Never Forgive Pragya Thakur For Insulting Bapu": PM On Godse Remark

"Will Never Forgive Pragya Thakur For Insulting Bapu": PM On Godse Remark
தமிழில் படிக்க हिंदी में पढ़ें
General Elections 2019: Pragya Thakur, contesting the election from Bhopal, had been earlier received strong endorsement from PM Modi against opposition attacks for fielding the Malegaon blast accused as a candidate. All India | Reported by Akhilesh Sharma, Edited by Deepshikha Ghosh | Updated: May 17, 2019 15:51 IST
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'Will Never Forgive Pragya Thakur For Insulting Bapu': PM On Godse Remark
Election 2019: PM Modi had earlier defended Pragya Thakur's candidature.


NEW DELHI: 
HIGHLIGHTS
PM Modi said Pragya Thakur's remarks were "not fit for civilised society"
"Those who say such things should think 100 times," he said
BJP's Pragya Thakur had said Mahatma Gandhi's assassin was a patriot
In the huge controversy over comments by BJP leaders glorifying Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse, including by Pragya Singh Thakur who called him a "deshbhakt (patriot)", Prime Minister Narendra Modi told television channel News24 today: "I will never be able to forgive them for insulting Bapu."
On Thursday, Pragya Thakur had said: "Nathuram Godse was a deshbhakt (patriot), is a 'deshbhakt' and will remain a 'deshbhakt'. People calling him a terrorist should instead look within, such people will be given a fitting reply in the election." This was followed by more comments from three more leaders, Anant Kumar Hegde, Nalin Kumar Kateel and Anil Saumitra.

The BJP tweeted PM Modi as saying in an interview to the channel: "The comments on Gandhi and Godse are deplorable, disgusting and are not language fit for civilised society. Those who say such things should think 100 times. It is a different issue that they have apologized, but I will not be able to forgive them from my heart."

Pragya Thakur, contesting the national election from Bhopal, had earlier received strong endorsement from PM Modi when the opposition had attacked the BJP for fielding the Malegaon blast accused. Her candidature was "a symbolic answer to all those who falsely labelled the rich Hindu civilization as terrorist", he had said last month.

saadhvi pragya
Pragya Thakur is in the eye of a raging controversy over her statements on Nathuram Godse.

Despite her party disowning her comments yesterday, Pragya Thakur had remained defiant and stopped short of an apology twice. "The party's line is my line," she said at first. Then she said the comment was her personal view and expressed regret for hurting sentiment. She finally tweeted a clear apology late last night: "I apologise to the people of the country for my statements on Nathuram Godse. My statement was absolutely wrong. I have huge respect for the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi."

Pragya Thakur, Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde and lawmaker Nalin Kumar Kateel have also been asked for an explanation within 10 days, BJP president Amit Shah said in a series of tweets.

Nalin Kateel compared Godse with former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who has been a chief target of the ruling party in the national election campaign nearly 30 years after his assassination. Mr Hegde had tweeted that "seven decades later, the condemned were being heard". Both the tweets vanished from their Twitter timelines. Anant Kumar Hegde put out a message claiming his account had been breached.

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Another leader, Anil Saumitra, has been suspended after he tweeted that Mahatma Gandhi was the "father of Pakistan" and "crores of people were born in India like Gandhi, though some were useful and others useless".

BJP suspends MP media cell head for calling Mahatma Gandhi father of Pakistan

BJP suspends MP media cell head for calling Mahatma Gandhi father of Pakistan
BJP has suspended its Madhya Pradesh media cell head Anil Saumitra from primary membership over the controversial remark on Mahatma Gandhi.
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India Today Web Desk
New Delhi
May 17, 2019UPDATED: May 17, 2019 21:05 IST
Anil Saumitra 
BJP suspends leader Anil Saumitra. (Photo:Facebook/ Anil Saumitra)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday suspended its Madhya Pradesh media cell head Anil Saumitra from primary membership over the controversial remark on Mahatma Gandhi.

Diving into Nathuram Godse controversy, Anil Saumitra had called Mahatma Gandhi "father of Pakistan". "Pakistan was born with the blessings of Bapu, therefore Mahatma Gandhi can be the father of Pakistan but not of India," Anil Saumitra had said on a Facebook post.

Hours later, Saumitra put out another post defending his statement and said his remark was not wrong. "No scholar can prove me wrong. I will not delete my post," Anil Saumitra said.

The BJP suspended Anil Saumitra over this post and has sought a reply within seven days.

The decision comes minutes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarified his stand over Nathuram Godse controversy.

Speaking about BJP leader Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Narendra Modi said that though she has apologised for calling Gandhi assassinator a patriot, he himself would never be able to forgive her for insulting Bapu.

Earlier in the day, BJP chief Amit Shah also distanced the party from the pro-Godse remarks. "They have withdrawn their statements and apologised. BJP has taken their statements seriously and sent these statements to the disciplinary committee," Amit Shah said.

The Mahatma Gandhi-Nathuram Godse controversy started with Kamal Hassan who said that 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mRjFgLUX_M

"Terrorists Abound In All Religions": Kamal Haasan Defends Godse Comment

"Terrorists Abound In All Religions": Kamal Haasan Defends Godse Comment
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Kamal Haasan to NDTV on his remarks on Nathuram Godse: "Not intimidated by reactions, terrorists abound in all religions"
All India | Edited by Shylaja Varma | Updated: May 17, 2019 11:00 IST
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'Terrorists Abound In All Religions': Kamal Haasan Defends Godse Comment
Kamal Haasan said the "quality of politics has gone down" after reactions on Nathuram Godse remarks


CHENNAI: Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan today said he was "not intimidated" by the backlash over his comment that Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse, "independent India's first extremist", was a Hindu. "Terrorists abound in all religions. Around history, you can list many people from many religions. I was talking in that term. I said every religion has their own terrorist. You cannot claim that we are sanctimonious," Kamal Haasan told NDTV, appearing to defend his remarks that even led to slippers being thrown at him and a police complaint against him.
"History shows you all religions have their extremists," he said.

Earlier this week, slippers were thrown at Kamal Haasan during his campaign in Madurai. A Tamil Nadu minister, KT Rajenthra Bhalaji, controversially said his tongue should be cut off.

Kamal Haasan, whose new party Makkal Needhi Mayyam is debuting in this national election, told NDTV: "I don't feel intimidated by slipper and stone hurling."

He sought to clarify that his comment was "about harmony" and he would reach out to the Muslim, Christian and Hindu communities.

The veteran actor made the comment on Sunday while campaigning for the by-election in the town of Aravakurichi in Tamil Nadu's Karur district.

"I am not saying this because this is a Muslim-dominated area, but I am saying this before a statue of Gandhi. Independent India's first extremist (theevravaadi) was a Hindu, his name is Nathuram Godse. There it starts," Kamal Haasan said on the man who killed Gandhi in 1948.

Speaking from the sunroof of a vehicle, Mr Haasan, 64, also said he is the Mahatma's "great-grandson in spirit" and that he came there to question the his assassination.

The BJP condemned the Makkal Needhi Maiam chief's remarks. "We strongly condemn Kamal Haasan for talking about Hindu extremism in his poll campaign. He is triggering communal violence in a place where there are a lot of minorities. The Election Commission must take stringent action against Kamal Haasan for this speech," Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan tweeted in Tamil.

A police complaint was also filed against the actor-politician on Tuesday over his comments. He requested the Madras High Court for protection from arrest. The court, however, has not set any date for the order.

Saying that he doesn't fear being arrested for his remark, the actor said "tension will increase" if he is arrested.

Meanwhile, the police in Coimbatore district denied permission to the actor on Friday to campaign for the Sulur by-election on May 19. "Denying me permission to campaign in Sulur is not justifiable. If the situation is not conducive, they should postpone the Sulur polls," he said.

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The actor launched his party in February last year and fielded candidates in all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.