At Godse function, niece seeks support for suspects

Nathuram Godse was hanged on November 15, 1949, for assassinating Mahatama Gandhi. For the past few years, on this day, family members of Nathuram Godse and their friends have been getting together in Pune under the banner of “Hutatma Nathuram Godse Icchapatra Nyaas” to perform their annual ritual of pledging to work for the cause of “Akhanda Bharat” — undivided India.

This year, too, a small gathering was organised at a narrow lane off Junglee Maharaj Road in Shivajinagar and Savarkar appealed to all the Hindus to stand firmly behind the Malegaon blast suspects and deposit money in the account of “Hindu Legal Aid Firm” at the Delhi branch of a private bank. “The money would be used for providing free legal aid to the Hindus who are meted out injustice by the police. Hindus arrested in connection with the Malegaon blasts should not be called terrorists,” she said.

Godse believed that one day his dream of “Akhanda Bharat” would come true and the Sindhu river, which became a part of Pakistan after Partition, would again be a part of India. Godse’s dying wish was to immerse his ashes in the Sindhu river when it comes under the Indian flag. Family members have said that they would pass on the ashes from generation to generation till that happens.

The ashes were kept in a pot in front of an “Akhand Bharat” image with Nathuram Godse’s picture in the middle of the gathering. Pictures of revolutionary Veer Savarkar, who had first started Abhinav Bharat in 1905 for raising an armed struggle against the British, and those of the other four conspirators of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination — Gopal Godse, Narayan Apte, Vishnu Karkare and Madanlal Pahwa — were also displayed at the gathering.

Singer Charudatta Aphale sung kirtans on India’s freedom movement and concluded with a Marathi song on Nathuram Godse — “Deshbhakti jar paap asel tar me paapi ghor bhayankar (If patriotism is a crime then I am a dangerous criminal).”

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