Following criticism of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party by the Congress and the Left, the Sangh and its Malayalam mouthpiece, Kesari , sought on Saturday to dissociate themselves from an article suggesting Nathuram Godse should have targeted Jawaharlal Nehru and not Mahatma Gandhi for causing the partition of the country.
RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya issued a statement “strongly” condemning the article and dissociating the Sangh from it, saying the views expressed in it were “exclusively of the writer.”
“We, as a movement, not only disassociate ourselves from such views but also deplore them. The RSS has always condemned any kind of violence in thought or action in the strongest possible words.”
The article, “Those who stabbed Gandhi from behind,” had been written by B. Gopalakrishnan, who was BJP candidate for the Chalakudy Lok Sabha constituency in the recent general election.
In a statement, the publication’s editor, J. Nandakumar, issued a separate statement saying: “The author’s opinion, expressed in the article, is his own and the Kesari weekly does not subscribe to his views.”
