The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha isplanning to build a temple dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district, says a report in Times of India.The report adds the group plans to keep Godse’s ashes, which are in a urn in Pune with his niece Himani Savarkar, in the temple and will start construction on the temple on 30 January. 30 January is a day of national mourning in India as it was marks Gandhiji’s death anniversary.
The group has bought land in Siddhauli’s Para village and according to Hindu Mahasabha’s spokesman Sharad Gupta initially a Bharat Mata temple was supposed to be built on this plot.Meanwhile this report has put the Uttar Pradesh government in a tizzy which has sought legal opinion on the same.
According to an Asian Age report, a senior official in the chief ministers secretariat said that “if the temple construction begins, it would lead to massive social unrest since the issue is directly related to the assassin of the Father of the Nation. We cannot directly impose a ban since the temple is to be constructed on private land… We are consulting legal experts to see what can be done in this case.
“In the recent weeks, Godse has managed to hit the national discourse with Hindu right-wing leaders praising him. Early this month, BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj from Unnao said, “Godse was an aggrieved person. He may have done something by mistake but was no an anti-national. He was a patriot.”However, when opposition backlash started against Maharaj’s remarks, he retracted saying, “I do not consider him a rashtra bhakta (patriot). I might have said something by mistake.