BJP leader’s remark on Godse triggers row

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has triggered a row after he said during a television debate that he was not opposed to Nathuram Godse, even as former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar criticised him for the remarks.

During the debate, which was aired on India Today on Friday, BJP leader Amitabh Sinha and Kumar, who is a member of the Communist Party of India’s (CPI) national executive council, exchanged barbs on a mob attack at the JNU campus on Sunday.

During the debate, when the show’s host Rajdeep Sardesai asked Sinha whether he was “anti-Hitler”, he said: “I am a patriot”. Following this, Kumar exhorted Sinha to say whether he was “anti-Godse”. “No, we are not,” Sinha responded.

Reacting to Sinha’s remarks, BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said: “Nathuram Godse shot and killed Mahatma Gandhi. No statement by anyone can change this indisputable fact.”

The BJP has previously condemned its MP Pragya Thakur’s remarks on the assassin of Gandhi. “The BJP never supports such ideology,” BJP working president JP Nadda said. The Opposition attacked Thakur for calling Godse a patriot, but she denied making the remark.