PUNE:” Let them go ahead and file whatever charges they intend to. They cannot prosecute me again for the same offence for which I have already served a life term.” This is how Gopal Godse, coconspirator in the Gandhi murder trial, reacted to the Bombay police filing sedition charges against him for his allegedly inflammatory speeches on his elder brother, Nathuram Godse’s 44th death anniversary observed in Bombay on Noy.18.
Gopal Godse, author of Gandhi hatya aani me (Gandhi’s assassination and I), is currently in Delhi to compile evidence against some. of the major Muslim landmarks such as the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and the Qutab Minar, which, according to him, were built on existing Hindu structures, In a telephone conversation from Delhi with this correspondent, Godse welcomed the move to file sedition charges against him and some of his associates, “Let them come before me, I will deal with them with the help of my lawyers. They have in a way only indirectly helped to promote our cause, We could not have carred out our propaganda with the limited resources at our disposal,” he said. Mrs.Sindhutai Joshi, regarding the charge filed against her husband, Gopal! Godse, said: “The so called sedition charge against us of inciting Hindu Muslim hatred is baseless. Wear firmly convinced that what my brother-in-law (Nathuram) did was a historical necessity and we stand by what we did.”
“The state government, by filing a sedition charge against my husband, has walked into our tap. This will help us to expose the Himalayan blunder committed by Gandhiji as also his sins. On our part we welcome the move. This has provided us with the right opportunity which we did not get after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, The people, who regard Nathuram Godse as a Hindu fanatic and those who subscribe to our thinking, can now view the course of events in their proper perspective.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 3, 1993
