From Godse to Jinnah: No end to tussle over statues, portraits
LUCKNOW: It was on October 2, 2016 – the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi – that a right wing organisation Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) unveiled a statue of his assassin Nathuram Godse at its office in Meerut.
The ABHM office-bearers had then said that Godse’s statue would motivate people to “fight for their motherland”.
Godse was hanged on November 15, 1949, for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Two years on, right wing activists are demanding removal of a portrait of Mohammad Ali Jinnah from the students’ union hall of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
Vice-president of ABHM Pt Ashok Sharma, who was present during the inaugural ceremony of Godse temple, on Wednesday said: “We don’t follow the principles of Mahatma Gandhi. He believed in surrendering ... we believe in fighting. Nathuramji believed the same and that is why we preach Godse not Gandhi.”
A social science expert and a professor of sociology at Bareilly College Ravindra Bansal, however,
We don’t follow the principles of Mahatma Gandhi. He believed in surrendering ... we believe in fighting. Nathuramji believed the same and that is why we preach Godse not Gandhi. PT ASHOK SHARMA, vice-president of ABHM
feels that dissent over statues and paintings is the opposite of what these statues stand for.
“The idea to erect a statue or display a portrait is linked to our need to have heroes. Different groups may have different heroes and as a society we must discuss these differences and search for a middle path. There is no end to tussle over these statues and we also cannot live without them,” Prof Bansal said.
“The government and the intelligentsia must come forward to resolve this issue. We will not get anywhere in future if we keep fighting over our past,” he said.
A similar protest had erupted at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) where portraits of right wing thinkers like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Pt Deendyal Upadhyay were put up at the political science overlooking leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Dr BR Ambedkar.
BHU students had opposed the move and accused the university administration of trying to influence them by a certain ideology before the election. The protest forced the BHU administration to include the portraits of other leaders too.