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New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has come out strongly against
being linked to Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in the
commemorative volume the Congress has brought out to mark its 125
years since formation, and said a "lie" was being perpetuated for
political ends.
The two-part book "Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation",
edited by senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee, says in a
chapter on the Nehru era that Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram
Godse, a member of the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS.
RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told IANS Thursday that the Congress had
done some soul searching in the book and it should do the same
about facts relating to Mahatma Gandhi's killing.
"It is a very old mischief that they (Congress) are indulging in.
It is a lie that they have been perpetuating for years for
political ends," Madhav said.
Madhav said that Godse left RSS in mid-1930s. "To say that he was
an RSS member is to only project a lie for political intentions,"
he said, adding that the organisation was being maligned
deliberately.
The RSS spokesman said that there were court judgments to prove
"that RSS had nothing to do with Gandhiji's murder."
Asked if the RSS would take legal recourse on the issue, Madhav
remained non-committal.
"We will see the publication and then decide," he said.
He said the RSS had filed a case against former union minister
Arjun Singh after he made a statement that Mahatma's murder was
the "only achievement of the RSS".
The chapter on the Nehru era in the book under sub-tilte
'Partition and Communal Challenge' says that with the
establishment of Pakistan, Hindu communal forces became strident
in their stance.
It says that the communal forces declared August 15 as a day of
mourning and launched an attack on the government for what they
saw as its policy of Muslim appeasement.
"The slander of national leaders, especially Gandhiji, became a
common feature. `Gandhi Murdabad' reverberated at the Hindu
Mahasabha meetings. When Gandhi asserted that the Pakistan
government be paid Rs.55 crore, its share of immovable assets,
despite its engagement in hostilities in Kashmir, the Hindu
communalists sharpened their attack on him."
The book says that Gandhi undertook an indefinite fast in Januray
1948 in Delhi to bring about communal peace and broke it after he
was assured by the government that communal harmony would be
maintained.
"A few days later, on January 30, 1948, as he came to his usual
prayer meeting, Gandhiji was shot dead by Nathuram Godse, a member
of Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, and a close associate of V.D. Savarkar,"
the book says.
It adds that the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha were subsequently
banned and the ban on the RSS was lifted only in July 1949 when it
gave an undertaking that it would function under severe
restrictions.
"The sacrifice of the Mahatma was not in vain. For at least a
decade, communal forces were pushed on to the backfoot and could
not raise their head," the book says.
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