Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha to build Nathuram Godse’s temple

LUCKNOW: The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha on Monday said it would build a temple to Mahatma Gandhi's assassin, Nathuram Godse, in Sitapur district. For this, it has bought land in Siddhauli's Para village, where it purports to begin construction on January 30, the day Gandhi was shot dead.

Hindu Mahasabha spokesman Sharad Gupta said Godse's urn, kept in Pune, would be brought to Sitapur through a "kalash yatra". The urn is with Godse's niece Himani Savarkar.

The land identified for the temple belongs to one Kamlesh Tiwari, who claims to be the working president of Hindu Mahasabha. Interestingly, the Mahasabha is mired in internal bickering, with many members claiming to be real office-bearers.

It's the same plot of land on which the Bharat Mata Temple was to be built, Gupta told TOI, adding that the Mahasabha had originally thought of approaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundation stone to the Bharat Mata temple.

"However, since the BJP is not showing much interest in the Hindu agenda like the Congress, the Hindu Mahasabha has decided to come up with a temple on Godse," Gupta said.

BJP MLA from Gorakhpur, Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, who's said to have contested his first assembly election on a Hindu Mahasabha ticket, told TOI that the organization could perform useful duties if its members kept aside their differences.

Along with Godse, the Mahasabha also plans to install statues of another "national" hero, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Savarkar was once president of Hindu Mahasabha and had advocated reconversion (or ghar wapsi) of converted Hindus.