Anand Mahindra praises Gandhi, warns against 'Taliban' tendencies

The chairman of Mahindra Group tweeted 'some things must remain sacred'

Anand Mahindra Twitter Anand Mahindra | Official Twitter handle

Even as some BJP leaders are facing flak for speaking in favour of Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, a prominent industrialist has warned of the dangers of such utterances.

Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, tweeted early on Friday morning about the importance of Mahatma Gandhi to modern India's history.

Mahindra wrote India had been “the land of the Mahatma, a beacon when the world lost its morality”. Mahindra declared Gandhi had inspired billions globally and “some things must remain sacred”. Mahindra referred to the destruction of Afghanistan's historic Bamiyan Buddha statues by the erstwhile Taliban regime in 2001 to warn against “destroying statues that sustain us.”

Mahindra's tweet read, “For 75 yrs,India’s been the land of the Mahatma;a beacon when the world lost its morality. We used to be pitied for being poor but we were always rich since Bapu inspired billions globally. Some things must remain sacred. Or we become the Taliban, destroying statues that sustain us.”

The debate about Godse erupted on Thursday after the BJP candidate for Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, declared Godse was a patriot. She was responding to a question from a reporter about actor-politician Kamal Haasan's claim that Godse was a Hindu terrorist. Pragya apologised for her comments following widespread criticism, including from the BJP.

Two MPs from Karnataka—Nalinkumar Kateel and Anantkumar Hegde—also tweeted about Godse, but deleted their posts subsequently. Kateel had tweeted, “Godse killed one, Kasab killed 72, Rajiv Gandhi killed 17,000” and asked people to judge who was was more cruel. Hegde welcomed the “debate” about Godse seven decades after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Hegde claimed his Twitter account had been hacked.

BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday declared the utterances by Pragya, Kateel and Hegde were in their “personal capacity”. He added the BJP had sought explanations from the trio within 10 days.