Tension prevails over Nathuram Godse play

Lucknow: “Mujhe garv tha main Hindu hoon. Gandhi ahimsa se hinsa karne lage, Mussalmano ka saath diya, nahi dekha gaya, socha Gandhi ko jaana hoga”, said the protagonist and the audience cheered lustily.

A play celebrating Nathuram Godse, the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, was recently staged at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) as part of the recent three day cultural festival ‘Sanskriti 2018’.

After a video clip of the controversial play Maine Gandhi Ko Kyon Mara went viral on the social media, a group of students from the university have filed a complaint with the university authorities and the district administration seeking action against those who “depicted Godse as a hero and justified Gandhi’s assassination”.

 Vikas Singh, state president, NSUI, said, “Nathuram Godse is celebrated as a hero on the BHU campus, which is very unfortunate.” In their letter, the students have said that the play was part of a conspiracy to tarnish Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and needed to be probed. They also pointed out that that the Banaras Hindu University also had a link with Mahatma Gandhi as in 1916, the foundation of the university was laid by Gandhi in a speech.

“He laid the foundation for the idea of Satyagrah and enjoyed a warm rapport with the founder of BHU Pandit  Madan Mohan Malviya. That Gandhi was insulted in BHU while Godse was eulogized, amounts to sedition”, the letter pointed out.