Taking a potshot at the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Ayodhya case, Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi on Saturday said Nathuram Godse would have been called a patriot if Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination case was retried by the top court today.
The Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the Centre to hand over the disputed Ayodhya site within three months to a trust that will oversee the construction of a Ram temple there. The top court also ruled that a separate five-acre plot be allotted to the Sunni Waqf Board in Ayodhya for the construction of a new mosque as relief for the “unlawful destruction” of the Babri Masjid in 1992. The bench also observed that the demolition was a serious violation of the rule of law and “must be remedied”.
“If the Gandhi murder case was retried by the Supreme Court today, the verdict would have been Nathuram Godse is a murderer but he is also a desh bhakt,” Tushar Gandhi said in a tweet.
He, however, added that the verdict has to be accepted and abided by “even when one does not respect it”. He said a new category called “Crime of Belief” has been added to the justice system. He said justice would have prevailed if the Supreme Court had appointed one body to build both a temple and a mosque in Ayodhya. “Please all is not justice,” he wrote. “Please all is politics”.
Before the verdict, Tushar Gandhi had asked people to revert to the “real issues that plague our nation”.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!