Netaji's great-granddaughter blames Nehru govt for Gandhi's death, performs pooja of Godse

Rajyashree says Godse is their ideal and they have a right to worship him

A file photo of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel | via Commons A file photo of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel | via Commons

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's great-granddaughter and national president of Hindu Mahasabha Rajyashree Chaudhuri stirred up a new controversy on Tuesday as she blamed the erstwhile Jawaharlal Nehru government for the death of Mahatma Gandhi.

Chaudhuri also performed pooja and aarti of the portrait of Gandhi assassin Nathuram Godse at the Gwalior office of the Hindu Mahasabha during a programme organised to mark the birth anniversary of Rani Laxmibai. Earlier in the morning, she visited Laxmibai's memorial in Gwalior and paid homage to her.

Speaking to local media, Chaudhuri said Gandhi was responsible for partition of India. The Hindu Mahasabha chief alleged that the Congress leaders failed to take him for proper medical care in time and Gandhi continued to suffer for 40 minutes after being shot. She also alleged that the then government did not allow postmortem of Gandhi's body and therefore the investigations were affected. Nehru government was responsible for Gandhi's death, she said.

Her controversial statements and pooja come within days of the Hindu Mahasabha members organising pooja of Godse on occasion of his death anniversary on November 15 and distributing objectionable pamphlets a day earlier.

An FIR was registered by the Gwalior police on November 16 on complaints regarding the pamphlets which allegedly carried objectionable remarks on Mahatma Gandhi and eulogisation of Godse.

Chaudhuri demanded that the FIR be withdrawn. She said Godse was their ideal and they had a right to worship him. The “fake” FIR was registered against Mahasabha members on the direction of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, she alleged, and warned that the Mahasabha would gherao the Parliament unless the FIR was withdrawn.

During the November 15 programme, the local Mahasabha leaders had submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Kamal Nath for inclusion of the statements of Godse during assassination trial in school syllabus.