Hindu Mahasabha leader shoots at Gandhi’s effigy, garlands Nathuram Godse’s statue
The national secretary of the Hindutva outfit distributed sweets after recreating the assassination of Gandhi.
The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh on Wednesday shot at an effigy of Mahatma Gandhi to mark his death anniversary and garlanded the statue of his assassin Nathuram Godse, reports said.
Puja Shakun Pandey, the national secretary of the Hindutva organisation, distributed sweets to commemorate the assassination. Godse had shot Gandhi dead in Delhi on January 30, 1948. The day is observed as Martyrs’ Day.
However, the organisation recreated Gandhi’s assassination and celebrated the day as “Shaurya Divas” (Bravery Day). In a video shared on social media, Pandey, dressed in saffron, is seen aiming a toy gun at the effigy of Gandhi. After she “shoots at” the effigy, a red-coloured liquid is seen flowing from the effigy.
Pandey said she had started a new tradition to recreate the assassination on January 30, The Times of India reported. She said this is what is done on the Dussehra festival by burning Ravana in effigy. Ravana was a demon king in the Hindu epic Ramayana.
The Hindutva outfit has held Gandhi responsible for India’s partition. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were executed on November 15, 1949.
