
Several leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including Union ministers, have made statements in the past calling Nathuram Godse, the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in the winter of 1948, a ‘good son’ of India and a ‘patriot'. But the statement by Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai, former BJP president of Kerala, on Sunday, September 3, was in sharp contrast.
Sreedharan Pillai called Godse a curse of this land. His remark came during the launch event of a book titled Gandhi Vs Godse, written by criminal lawyer Veliyam Rajeev. The book was launched in Kollam district of Kerala on Sunday, September 3.
Pillai, an author of more than 120 books, has served as president of the BJP in Kerala twice, first in 2003-2006 period and later in 2018-2019 when protests over Sabarimala happened. He was booked at least twice during his tenure as president, once for making controversial remarks about the court verdict which allowed women in the menstruating age entry to Sabarimala temple, and another time, for a problematic statement about Muslims.
It is rare for people associated with the Right Wing to criticise Godse, who was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent body of the BJP. The BJP leader Pragya Thakur, a Member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh, an accused in the 2008 terror attack in Malegaon, had gone to the extent of calling Godse a patriot in 2019. The RSS has however distanced itself from Godse, who claimed in court that he had left the RSS and joined the Hindu Mahasabha before he plotted to kill Gandhi.
Sreedharan Pillai kept his speech mostly to Gandhian thoughts and how they provided for a principled way of life, but touched on Godse towards the end when he called him a curse to the land. However, he added that the Kapur commission report of 1977 had ruled out the RSS’ role in Gandhi’s assassination and that it was tabled in Parliament during Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s term.