Tushar Gandhi
Dr Phadnis says data from British archives in 2012 indicates ambassadors of East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia told Vijayalakshmi Pandit that Mahatma Gandhi’s murder was planned by the British. He alleges that a British secret agency, Force 136, was behind it.
There are no evidences to support these claims. All the embassies in the world had prepared condolence messages for Bapu’s death, before he died. And on two occasions the British feared that he was near death. So, they even prepared for his cremation in Aga Khan Palace. And on those two occasions the British foreign office had sent out a format to all their high commissions all over the world, instructing what should be released as the obituary in case he died. S. Radhakrishnan, who was then travelling in China, was shown this at Shanghai.
So these people coming out with new theories have taken these things and twisted them into out-of-context allegations. Their basic point is to create enough confusion about the murder so that the spotlight shifts from Savarkar’s involvement and the RSS’s involvement. That is their basic objective and for that they are coming out with all sorts of fantastic theories.
About the British secret agency Force 136’s involvement they are alleging, if the British wanted to kill Bapu, it would have been easy for them to do it, before independence. After independence, it does not make any sense. The British never went back to the colonies which they surrendered to take revenge on independence movement leaders. There was no reason for them to seek such vendetta, post-independence, to kill Bapu.
Phadnis has picked all these things that can be taken out of context and then created a web around it. But if somebody looks at each of them individually, there is absolutely no link.
Phadnis says he has no connection with the BJP or RSS.
Nobody ever has a connection with the RSS! But whatever everybody does has some link or benefit to the RSS. Does the RSS have a membership log? Does the RSS issue identity cards to its members? Is there a process of becoming a member and then renewing the membership? As a matter of fact, recently it was found that, the RSS is not even a registered organisation. So, how can anyone say that they are part or not part of the RSS from a legal point of view? The point is, there is a whole spectrum of that ideology which are connected to each other by ideology. And, they feed on each other and strengthen each other.
Phadnis alleges that the Kapur Commission report was incomplete. His petition seeks the appointment of a new commission to re-investigate.
The Kapur Commission report is the only thing that established the clear-cut link between all these organisations and murderers. And, that is what hurts them the most. That is why they wanted to discredit the report and get it permanently disposed of. And, that is why all these fantastic theories are being propounded. I have no objection to investigations being done again if the truth is going to be revealed. But, what is going to be re-investigated? The evidence that was checked at the time of the murder and before the trial, and again at the Kapur Commission report—only these exist. There are no witnesses, there are no new accusations, there is no new proof. So, what are they going to investigate? The documents that were already investigated by the Kapur Commission? So, the objective is to say that the Kapur Commission had all these evidences and yet, purposely or by mistake, it arrived at the wrong conclusion.
Phadnis claims there was a fourth bullet.
There was no fourth bullet. There was no fourth entry wound in Bapu’s body. There were only three entry wounds and two exit wounds. And yet, one of the three bullets is being magically reproduced to become the fourth.
What would happen if a new commission is appointed?
The motivation is to discredit all the investigations done until now. If a commission or committee is appointed, they will be forced to listen to these kind of fantastic theories. And these will be presented as evidences which were always there, but ignored for political reasons. So it will open that window for creating complete confusion about the murder.
