CONTROVERSY

Gandhi murder reprobe an attempt to rewrite narratives

India Nobel What Were They Thinking (FILE) Mahatma Gandhi addresses a crowd in India | AP

70 years is a long time. But that did not stop Mumbai-based Pankaj Kumudchandra Phadnis, a consultant in IT-enabled education to petition the Supreme Court of India pleading that the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948, be re-investigated to reveal the larger conspiracy that led to the murder. It took even the court by surprise as there was seemingly no solid reason to investigate what had already been done. But, it ignited curiosity and was on the front pages of newspapers.

Incidentally, Phadnis is a researcher and follower of Abhinav Bharat, a right wing organisation formed by Lt Col Shrikant Purohit. He is also a follower of Veer Savarkar, who was also one of those who were suspected to plot the assassination.

Phadnis’s plea had questioned how the trial had relied on the three bullet theory to convict accused Nathuram Vinayak Godse who was closely aligned to the Hindu Mahasabha and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Godse was sentenced to death by hanging along with Narayan Apte. Phadnis argued in his plea that there was a possibility of a third assassin. He also wanted an investigation into the possibility of the how the Office of Strategic Services that was an intelligence outfit of the United States during World War II before the CIA was formed, had tried to protect Gandhi.

When Justice S.A. Bobde specifically asked him if a third assassin was involved in the assassination, Phadnis said there could have been an organisation. When asked to name the organisation, Phadnis said it was a successor of Force 136 which was a secret British Special Intelligence Unit.

Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was surprised that the court did not dismiss such a blatantly frivolous plea. On the petitioner’s contention that Gandhi died because of the fourth bullet fired by somebody other than the three bullets fired by Godse, Tushar says that the fourth bullet was not recovered as it never existed!

Phadnis told the court that a telegram sent from the US Embassy on January 30, 1948, indicated that disbursing officer, Herbert Tom Reiner, was within five feet of Gandhi when he was shot. With the help of Indian guards, he had apprehended the assassin, he said. Though Reiner was not alive, the fact was that his de-briefing proceedings to the US Embassy was available, he said.

In fact, the bench comprising Justices Bobde and L. Nageshwara Rao asked Phadnis why he was raking it up now when it had already been investigated with the matter being affirmed by a trial court and subsequently by the high court. The bench appointed Amarendra Sharan, former additional solicitor general as amicus curiae in the case who will now assist the court to decide whether it should proceed with the petition. The bench told him that it did not know what to tell the petitioner as it found it difficult to tell him that nothing can be done on the issue.

Phadnis said that he needed time to produce the required documents to back his claim. He claimed the documents were there in the National Archives and Research Administration, Maryland, United States, and were not yet declassified. He told the court that his plea for the documents was pending before the US authorities. Nachiketa Desai whose father Narayan Desai had written four volumes of a biography on Gandhi, says that what must be investigated is the role of Veer Savarkar in the assassination case.

When the bench asked Phadnis what it could do at this stage as it was already decided by the court, he said that the Supreme Court had not heard the case as it was not formed at that time. The East Punjab High Court had dismissed the appeals filed by the convicts way back in 1949.

Celebrated film maker Anand Patwardhan told THE WEEK: "I am amazed that the Supreme Court is entertaining a petition on the Gandhi murder after almost 70 years ! In fact I do believe the Gandhi murder should be re-visited, if for no other reason than to take the Kapur Commission Report on board and fix responsibility on the probable mastermind of the plot, V.D. Savarkar. Notice that I do not call him Veer because not only did this gentleman file 5 mercy petitions before the British, promising eternal gratitude, he then went on to spew venom against Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest foe of the British. In court as an accused conspirator at the Red Fort in 1948, Savarkar sat quietly in the back row while Godse protected him by taking sole blame for Gandhi's murder. But it is recorded history that Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte who were both hung, were proteges of Savarkar. Badge, the approver in the case, was categorical that Savarkar was the mastermind, yet Savarkar escaped conviction and today his portrait hangs in Parliament alongside Gandhiji, the man Savarkar passionately hated and probably killed through his accomplices. This is the re-trial I would like to see. Another man who inexplicably got away was Parchure, an RSS pracharak who supplied the murder weapon to the killers."

Earlier, Phadnis had filed a PIL pleading for the re-investigation of the assassination in the Bombay High Court, But, it was dismissed on the grounds that a court had already ruled on it and that there was also the Justice J.L. Kapur Commission of Inquiry set up to examine it.

Sudarshan Iyengar, former Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad, and a staunch Gandhian, told THE WEEK: “Right from his South African days, Gandhiji was clear that he would not nurse any grievance against anyone who physically attacked him as the attack was not personal; it was only for what he stood for and believed in. Gandhiji arrived at this decision on the night in 1893 when he was pushed out of the train in Maritizberg. He said that the attack on him was aimed not at him, but for his principled stand or position he took. He was assaulted thrice in South Africa. But despite white men agreeing to depose in court as witnesses to the assault, he refused. He has even written in his autobiography that he did not carry any ill will for those who beat him in Natal as they were angry that he had written against Britishers and Europeans. When he was shot in 1948, all he uttered was ‘Hey Ram’. I am sure if he was alive, he would never have wanted any action taken against his attackers. There is absolutely no need to open up the assassination case as it would go against Gandhiji’s spirit. It would go against the spirit of India and would not be in the interest of the country. It will deepen the schism further between sects and communities and create another round of disturbances and hatred.”

It is highly unlikely that anything substantial will come out of the case. Observers say that it is just another ploy of right-wing forces to whitewash the RSS involvement in the assassination as the BJP now invokes Gandhi all the time to push its agenda and propaganda machine. Tushar Gandhi has said that the fakers have successfully trivialised ancient history and are now trying to trivialise and discredit contemporary history and replace it with a narrative more suitable to their needs. Gopal Krishna Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and former Governor of West Bengal, told THE WEEK that he completely agreed with what Tushar had said.

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Topics : #Mahatma Gandhi

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