Why Recreating Gandhi Murder?

Ram Puniyani
February 8, 2019

This 30th January 2019, when the whole country was observing the 71st martyrdom day of ‘Father of the Nation’, Mahatma Gandhi, the members of Hindu Mahasabha recreated the murder of Gandhi in Aligarh. Led by Hindu Mahasabha Secretary Pooja Shakun Pandey, a group of saffron wearing workers assembled with preparation for video shooting. Pandey fired three shots on the effigy of Gandhi and blood started dripping from the balloon behind the effigy. The Assembled Hindu Mahasabha workers shouted slogans condemning Gandhi and hailing Godse, the murderer of Gandhi. They shouted Mahatma Nathuram Godse Amar Rahein (Long live Nathuram Godse). They declared that from this year on they will recreate Gandhi murder every year the way Ravan’s effigy is burned on Dusshera day.  The video went viral. Pandey’s facebook post also showed an earlier picture of hers’ with BJP leaders, ex MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Central BJP minister Uma Bharati. Police has filed criminal cases against some of those participating in the event.

The hailing of Nathurm Godse, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and attacking Gandhi has been the plank of Hindu Nationalists (Hindu Mahasabha and RSS). Few years ago in a public meeting Congress President Rahul Gandhi stated that RSS people killed Gandhi, a case was been filed against him, and RSS wants him to apologize as Rahul Gandhi holds on to his statement. A few years ago one leader of BJP, Gopal Krishnan, had said that Godse picked up the wrong target; he should have killed Nehru instead of Gandhi as Nehru was responsible for partition. Sakhshi Maharaj, the BJP MP stated that Godse was a patriot. Farmer RSS Sarsanghchalak Rajendra Singh had said that Godse had right intentions but his method was wrong.

None of these Hindu nationalists ever targeted Muslim League or Jinnah, who among others, had played a role in the partition of the country. During last few years those supporting Godse and Savarkar are becoming more assertive. There are few differences in the two branches of Hindu Nationalists, Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, still all those who oppose Indian nationalism and values of Indian Constitution have been covert or overt supporters of the ideology due to which Gandhi was murdered.

The plea given for Gandhi murder was that it’s due to Gandhi that Muslims became bolder, demanded Pakistan, and India had to give 55 corers to Pakistan. As a matter of fact the attempts to murder him had been on from 1934. The 30th January 1948 attack was the sixth in the sequence. Godse himself was involved in two earlier attacks. Nehru summed up the national mood when mourning the death of his mentor saying ‘light has gone and there is darkness around’. Teesta Setalvad in her compilation, ‘Beyond Doubt’ comprehensively deals with the issue. She quotes from Home ministry circulars, eminent books dealing with the issue (Jagan Phadnis –‘Mahtyamechi Akher’, Y.D. Phadke ‘Nathuramayan’ and Chunuibhai Vaidya’s book: ‘Spitting on the Sun’) and argues that the issue of partition and 55 Crores to the Pakistan were mere pretexts, as much before these issues came to surface, attempts on Gandhi’s life were made in 1934, 1940 and 1944. The real reason for attacks on the Mahatma was that he was a great Hindu and he was the greatest opponent of Hindu nationalism. Hindu nationalists saw him as the big obstacle to their agenda of Hindu nation. Surely Hindu nationalists’ major act of violence was to kill the greatest Hindu of our time, Gandhi.

Godse who succeeded in killing Gandhi was a trained Paracharak of RSS, who joined the Pune branch of Hindu Mahasabah in 1938 and edited a newspaper called Agrani subtitled Hindu Rashtra. In his journal a cartoon was carried with Gandhi as Ravan with ten heads (two heads being Patel and Netaji Bose) slayer being Savarkar. After the murder of Gandhi, RSS was banned by the then Home minster Sardar Patel, who in his letter to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee of Hindu Mahsabha stated that it was due to the hate spread by Hindu Mahasabha and RSS; due to which Nation had to lose its father. The main accused of Gandhi murder Godse had many accomplices one of whom was Savarkar. He was let off due to lack of any corroborative evidence. Jeevanlal Kapoor Commission, which went into the whole issue pointed out, “All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group.”

Also as far as Godse’s membership of RSS is concerned we should note that at that time RSS did not have a written Constitution and membership register. One of the conditions for lifting the ban on RSS was that it will have written Constitution. In Court Godse denied that he was member of RSS. RSS people also denied that Godse was part of RSS. In contrast Nathuram’s brother Gopal, who was a co accused with him, wrote, “The appeasement policy followed by him (Gandhi) and imposed on all Congress governments’ encouraged the Muslim separatist tendencies that eventually created Pakistan. Technically and theoretically he (Nathuram) was a member (of RSS), but he stopped workings for it later. His statement in the court that he had left the RSS was to protect the RSS workers; who would be imprisoned following the murder. On the understanding that they (RSS workers) would benefit from his dissociating himself from the RSS, he gladly did it.”

In RSS, Savarkar is given the high place for nationalism. The whole Nationalism as asserted by RSS-Hindu Mahasabha is sectarian Hindu Nationalism, the parallel and opposite of Muslim Nationalism propounded by Muslim League. It was Savarkar who had apologized to British to get released from Andmans., and later propounded ‘two nation (Hindu and Muslim) theory’. This was to opposes the Indian nationalism, which was surging under the leadership of Gandhi led Congress. The present recreation of the dastardly act is a symbol of rise in assertion of RSS-BJP during last few years in particular.

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News Network
December 4,2025

Udupi: A 40-year-old NRI from Udupi has reportedly lost more than Rs 12.25 lakh in an online investment scam operated through Telegram.

According to a complaint filed at the CEN police station, Leo Jerome Mendonsa, who has been working in Dubai for the past 15 years in computer accessories sales, maintains NRI accounts in Karkala and Nitte.

On November 12, 2025, Mendonsa was added to a Telegram group called Instaflow Earnings by unknown individuals. Users identified as Priya and Dipannita persuaded him to invest in “Revenue Tasks.” Initially, Mendonsa transferred Rs 1,100 multiple times and received the promised returns, encouraging him to continue.

On November 14, another user, Nishmitha Shetty, directed him to register on a website, digitvisionuoce.cc, and invest Rs 4 lakh in various shares. Over the next few days, he made multiple transfers totaling Rs 12,25,000, including Rs 50,000 via Google Pay, believing the scheme was legitimate.

After receiving the money, the alleged handlers stopped responding, and neither the invested amount nor the promised profits were returned.

The CEN police have registered a case under Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the IT Act and Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and investigations are ongoing.

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News Network
November 24,2025

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Israeli forces have pushed over the Syrian frontier, erecting a checkpoint and stopping vehicles in the southwestern city of Quneitra, in yet another breach of the Arab country’s sovereignty.

The violation took place on Sunday, when the troops made their way across the border, setting up the outpost near the Ain al-Bayda junction in northern Quneitra, Syrian outlets reported.

According to the al-Ikhbariya paper, an Israeli detachment positioned itself at the junction, halting cars and conducting searches.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that three Israeli military vehicles then moved further into the northern countryside, deploying between the town of Jubata al-Khashab and the villages of Ofaniya and Ain al-Bayda. The agency added that a separate Israeli unit mounted a new incursion in the central region, approaching the villages of Umm Batina and al-Ajraf.

Residents said such activities have surged in recent months, pointing to Israeli advances onto farmland, leveling of extensive forested areas, arrests, and spread of mobile checkpoints.

The Israeli regime began markedly increasing its military aggression against Syria last year.

The escalation coincided with increasingly ferocious onslaughts throughout the country by the so-called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Takfiri terrorist group, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad had confined to northwestern Syria. The HTS, however, managed to overthrow the government as the Israeli attacks would pummel the country’s civilian and defensive infrastructure.

Various reports have shown that, during the escalation, the regime conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes on the Syrian territory and over 400 ground raids into the south.

Following the collapse of the Assad government, Tel Aviv also widened its grip over the occupied Golan Heights by taking control of a demilitarized buffer zone, in defiance of a 1974 Disengagement Agreement. Earlier this month, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the buffer zone, prompting expressions of alarm on the part of the United Nations.

The United States, the regime’s biggest ally, has, meanwhile, been fraternizing the HTS head Abu Mohammed al-Jolani amid the widely reported prospect of rapprochement with Tel Aviv.

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News Network
November 24,2025

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Israel has launched a new act of aggression on a residential neighborhood in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, killing and injuring about two dozen civilians.

The Israeli regime's military said in a statement that its forces carried out a so-called precise strike in a residential apartment in Dahiyeh in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday.

The aggression targeted residential areas, killing at least five people and injuring more than 28 people, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. 

Hezbollah announced the martyrdom of senior Hezbollah commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai and four resistance fighters.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun condemned the airstrike, calling it a clear demonstration of Tel Aviv’s disregard for repeated international calls to halt violations on Lebanese soil.

“Israel refuses to implement international resolutions and all efforts aimed at ending the escalation and restoring stability,” Aoun said, urging the international community to take action to prevent further aggression.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement also condemned the attack, holding the international community accountable. 

“The international community bears responsibility and continues to provide cover for these attacks as long as it does not restrain the occupiers,” said Ali Abu Shahin, a member of the group’s political bureau.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the Israeli army carried out a strike “in the heart of Beirut."

Netanyahu reportedly approved the operation following recommendations from top Israeli security officials.

Two senior US officials commented on the Israeli strike.

The first official said that Israel did not notify Americans in advance about the attack. "We were informed immediately after the strike was carried out."

The second senior official said that the "US knew for several days that Israel was planning to escalate its strikes in Lebanon, but did not know in advance the timing, location, or target of the strike."

Speaking from the site of the Israeli strike, Lebanese MP Ali Ammar condemned the attack as part of a broader campaign of aggression that has targeted "all of Lebanon since the Washington-sponsored ceasefire."

He stated that "any attack on Lebanon is a violation of red lines; this aggression is part and parcel of the entity that targets Lebanon's dignity, sovereignty, and security of citizens."

Ammar went on to say the resistance is responding with "utmost wisdom, patience, and will confront the enemy at the appropriate time."

"Unfortunately, the enemy is emboldened to commit its aggression by voices within Lebanon that have turned themselves into tools that support its aggression," he added.

The Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital is the latest blatant violation of the ceasefire Israel signed with Hezbollah in November 2024, which was intended to end hostilities that had escalated into full-scale war.

An Israeli strike on the Ain al-Hilweh camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon late Tuesday killed at least 14 people. It wounded several others, including young students, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The military claimed the attack targeted “a Hamas training compound” used to plan and carry out attacks against the regime -- a claim that has frequently been made without evidence.

Hamas rejected the allegations as “a blatant lie aimed at justifying the massacre,” stating it had “no military installations in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon” and that the targeted site was merely “an open sports field.”

According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 4,000 people and displaced more than 1.2 million residents across the country since October 2023.

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