On Martyrs’ Day on Friday, which marks Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by citing letters penned by former Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru and former Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, in which they criticised the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha.
In an X post, Ramesh also slammed former judge and BJP MP, Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s remarks on Gandhi and Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s killer.
In his letter to Mookerjee, Nehru had said the Hindu Mahasabha had held meetings in defiance of the ban order in Pune, Ahmednagar and Delhi. “Speeches were delivered that Mahatma Gandhi was an impediment and the sooner he died the better it would be for the country…. The RSS has behaved in an even worse way and we have collected a mass of information about its very objectionable activities...,” Nehru had noted in his letter.
“Two days before Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, Jawaharlal Nehru had written to Syama Prasad Mookerjee. A few months later, on July 18 1948, Sardar Patel had also written to Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Both are damning indictments of the self-declared custodians of nationalism. And to think that there is a Lok Sabha MP wedded to that ideology and who was blessed by the PM himself, who said that he could not choose between Gandhi and Godse. His mindset is revealing,” he wrote.
In 2024, Gangopadhyay had told a Bengali channel that he cannot ‘choose between Gandhi and Godse’. “As someone from the legal profession, I must try to understand the other side of the story. I must read his (Nathuram Godse) writings and understand what triggered him to kill Mahatma Gandhi. Until then, I cannot choose between Gandhi and Godse,” the jurist-turned-politician had said.
Along with the letters, the Congress MP also shared a link to Nehru’s address on All India Radio on the night of January 30, 1948.
Mahatma Gandhi was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in Gujarat, and went on to become a leading figure in India’s freedom movement. He was assassinated by Nathuram Godse while he was on his way to daily prayers on January 30, 1948.
On the occasion of his 78th death anniversary, the Centre held an all-religious prayer (Sarva-Dharma-Prarthana) and a Martyrs’ Day Ceremony, with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister and Rajghat Samadhi Committee Chairman Manohar Lal in attendance at the Rajghat in the national capital.
Also Read: ‘Swadeshi’ is pillar of self-reliant India: PM on Martyrs’ Day
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