It is an irony. The number of followers and admirers of Nathuram Godse, the killer of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, is on the rise. A murderer is finding venerators in the land of non-violence. Intriguingly, it is not the ordinary mortals alone who flock to shower petals of praise on Godse. The motley crowd includes law-makers, political leaders, sadhvis, sants, teachers and more. They are creating a halo around him, making a hero out of someone who pumped bullets into Gandhiji. The whole effort seems to be the work of ‘pseudo nationalists’ who have a grudge against Gandhiji for his conciliatory work to establish peace between the Hindus and the Muslims who were at each other’s throat during the partition days. 

The increasing hatred towards the Father of the Nation by leaps and bounds is a recent origin; the uncorking of animosity towards Gandhiji and his ideals has gained momentum in the last few years; it picked up speed after Modi-led government assumed power. It was Pragya Singh Thakur (now a Member of Parliament) who gave further boost to the memory of Godse. As is the wont of right-wing leaders, while campaigning during the Lok Sabha elections, Pragya Singh tried to electrify her voters by calling Godse a ‘patriot’ in an apparent effort to polarize the polls. At a time when teenagers were jailed for innocuous Facebook posts, this Hindutva leader escaped with a mere apology. 

Following the footsteps of Pragya Singh, many more right-wing leaders came out eulogizing Godse and denigrating the Father of the Nation. One of the most bizarre incidents happened a couple of years back in Aligarh where Hindu Mahasabha leader Pooja Shakun Pandey shot at the effigy of Mahatma Gandhi. After the most vulgar performance, she had the tenacity to say that she would have shot Gandhi if she was born before Godse. Though she was arrested in the case, she was out on bail within a few days. Immediately the Hindu Mahasabha activists stooped to the level of honouring her at a public function for enacting the most outrageous act. The latest in the series of such outlandish acts came from nowhere else but Gujarat, Gandhiji’s birth place, where one of the subjects given to a speech competition for students of classes 5 to 8 was “Nathuram Godse: My ideal or hero” and the student who spoke on this topic got the first prize. 

The glorification of Godse has found many other ways to express itself. A few years back, a Swami in Karnataka had announced his plans to install statues of Godse across six districts in the State. A couple of years back, the Hindu Mahasabha opened a study centre named after Godse in Gwalior, though it was closed by the intervention of the district administration. Across the country, several statues the Gandhi killer have been erected, thumbing the nose at the law-enforcing agencies. Of late, even Hindu temples have been converted into Godse temples in some places. In the Hindi-heartland, proposals are pending to change name of cities into Godse City. In recent months, vandals, seemingly with right-wing links, have defaced, demolished or decapitated Gandhi statues in some places. If the trend continues, Godse statues might replace that of Gandhiji. The nation got to see a trailer of it when a Karnataka Minister said that saffron flag might replace Tricolour in the future.