Lets Kill Gandhi

by Gandhi, Tushar A.

  12D.58 The diary shows that the Sardar was saying that he must die and go to Gandhi.

  12D.62 On 2nd February, 1948 Sanjevi warned Sardar Patel that he should not go out for a walk in the mornings as there was danger to his life and that of Panditji.

  12D.63 On 3rd February, 1948 a man came with his daughter who was employed in the telephone office and she gave a number in Alwar and repeated what she had heard on the telephone. Sanjevi was called and asked to inquire into the matter at Alwar. (Unfortunately, nothing is mentioned about what she overheard.)

  12E.2 Evidently the Home secretary of the Central Government who has always been the recognised pivot of the administration concerning law and order and security was kept ignorant and there is nothing to show that the seriousness of the offence was indicated to him or he kept himself informed of the progress of the investigation or what the Delhi Police were doing or what information was coming in to the Home minister or his private secretariat.

  12E.6 Morarji Desai also said that the danger to Mahatma Gandhi was from the RSS and from the Hindu Mahasabha. He put the matter thus:

  'I could not say who the exact person were who would do harm to Mahatma Gandhi. But from the information I had I could say that they were likely to be either the refugees or the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, but not necessary from Poona. It was also possible that they could be Muslim Fanatics and this class of people was dispersed all over the country and they were more in the North than in Bombay.'

  12E.7 Khadilkar, witness No. 97, stated that danger to the Mahatma was from the Hindu Rashtra Dal. According to V. Shankar, Sardar Patel knew of the danger to Mahatma Gandhi from RSS.

  12E.8 V. Shankar, witness No. 10, has stated: 'My impression is that there was information of the existence of a hostile camp in Poona which was then known as the Kesari school of thought against Gandhiji and Dr. Savarkar was the inspirer of the school and as far as I know their activities were kept under watch by the Bombay Special Branch', showing there by that the Poona school was against Gandhiji and was a potential source of danger. According to J.N. Sahni, witness No. 95, there were two schools of thought in Delhi, one for banning communal organisation and the other against it. B.B.S. Jetley, witness No. 55, when recalled on 14 January 1969 stated that there was a list of 600 to 700 cases against the RSS in a couple of months after independence, the charge against them being of collecting arms, attacking villages and assaulting individual, and he recommended that the RSS should be banned. He actually went to see the C.I.D. Chief at Lucknow and also Govind Vallabh Pant who was then the premier of U.P. and Lal Bahadur Shastri who was the Home minister, and recommended to them that RSS be banned. They agreed with him but said that they will have to consult Sardar Patel. This organisation was banned, but after the murder. He also said that it was difficult to ban RSS because the Muslims were already against them and he did not want a section of the Hindus also to be against them.

  12E.9 Dr. Sushila Nayyar, witness No. 53, has given the reaction of Mahatma Gandhi regarding the RSS thus. When she praised before the Mahatma the work of RSS volunteers at Wah, (a refugee camp near Rawalpindi), he said that she did not know them. They are like the Black Shirts, like the Fascists and the Nazis'.

  12E.12 Rajaji in his book Gandhiji's Teachings and Philosophy published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at pages 20-22 has stated as follows: 'When on 30 January 1948, Gandhiji was assassinated by Godse, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel felt that the conspiracy to kill Gandhiji was due to Hindu anger against him on account of the advice of his to pay a huge sum of money to the Pakistan Government when it was organising and carrying out a wicked military campaign against us. Our folly in helping the enemy with fifty crores (Should be Rs. 55 crores) rupees at that juncture was thought to be inexcusable and the small militant anti-Gandhi Maharashtrian group felt this as a climax of Gandhiji's disservice to the nation and decided to put and end to this 'foolish saint' whom the nation could not otherwise get rid of. So great was his influence and so foolishly did the people venerate and obey him that these conspirators thought, according to the Sardar, that there was no way out other than assassination.'

  In the wake of the murder Patel continuously harped about the fact that the insistence of Gandhi to pay Pakistan was the main reason that he was murdered. Patel conveniently seemed to have forgotten that the agreement by which the joint capital of undivided India, was to be shared by India and Pakistan was signed by him and Nehru.

  In the wake of the inexcusable inefficiency of the police department under him Patel was forced to cloud the real issue by diverting attention by making baseless allegations. The final fast of Gandhi was not for the payment to Pakistan, if it were so he would not have continued his fast for four days more after the Indian Cabinet declared that it would pay the money. Gandhi fasted to bring about peace in the North-western parts of India and in Delhi.

  12E.16 Next witness No. 18, M.S. Randhawa, the deputy commissioner of Delhi at the time of the murder, was examined. He stated that from September 1947 to 20 January 1948 it never came to his knowledge that Gandhi's life was in danger. He had even taken him to a village to open a panchayat ghar without taking any special precautions.

  12E.18 Randhawa referred to his letter of explanation, Ex. 140(7) dated 7 February 1948 in which he explained the reason why he allowed Mehta Puran Chand, advocate, to interview Madanlal on 24 January 1948. He then said, 'I must mention a serious lapse on the part of Superintendent of Police, New Delhi that he did not keep me informed of the progress of investigation of this case and I did not receive a single report from him which could give me an indication that Madanlal accused was involved in a conspiracy to murder Mahatma Gandhi.' A special report regarding the bomb incident was cyclostyled on 26 January and a copy was sent to his office on 27 January. 'I was under the impression that Madanlal had exploded a cracker or a bomb simply as a protest against Mahatma Gandhi's views and was not involved in a conspiracy to murder case....' His explanation was not accepted by the Home Ministry and was characterised as 'obviously unsatisfactory'.

  Here is another interesting blunder. Madanlal, the only lead to the conspiracy to murder Gandhi, who was being interrogated by the Delhi Police was allowed to be interviewed, while in police custody, by an advocate. The man could have been a decoy and could have killed Madanlal to protect the others involved in the conspiracy. He could have also passed on instructions to Madanlal to enable him to feed misleading information to the police.

  12E.20 When asked what he would have done if he had known about the conspiracy, he said that he would have gone to the Home minister and would have called a meeting of the emergency committee to devise means for doing something appropriate. He was shown a copy of Ex. 84, Special Report of the Superintendent of Police, but he said that he could not remember whether he read it or not, nor whether it did reach him at all.

  12E.23 He added, 'I would have stopped the prayer meetings whether Mahatma Gandhi liked it or not because his life was very important and I personally had a great respect for him as a leader'..

  He added that he saved the life of M.A. Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders when they were attacked at the Imperial Hotel by Khaksars. It was probably in May 1946. Further he said, 'I would have controlled people who were coming to prayer meetings.'

  12F.1 Brij Krishan Chandiwala, witness No. 11, stated that the refugees were in an angry mood. Once to Gandhiji's face they called him names. On another occasion a procession came to Birla House shouting slogans, 'Khoon ka badla khoon se lenge.' (We shall avenge bloodshed by shedding blood, or murder by murder.) When Gandhiji broke his fast, the people's minds and 'hearts were not clean' and that is why 'a hand-grenade burst with a great sound on the 20 January 1948 after his finishing prayer and Gandhiji had a narrow escape. Arrests were made after this incident. About 2 or 3 persons were arrested. From that day we became very vigilant and took great care about Gandhiji. Three or four days later a police officer came to see me and informed that the incident of 20th was a conspiracy t
o murder Gandhiji and the names of 9 persons have come to our knowledge who were involved in it.... I thought that police will at once arrest those persons and there was no reason to fear left.' Gandhiji's opinion was also that it was a conspiracy to kill him. He added that he could not imagine that the police could be so careless that after knowing about the conspiracy Gandhiji would be murdered. 'After we came to know that the police was looking into the matter, we did not do anything.'

  12F.4 They never suspected that any kind of outrage would be committed by Poona people. They were suspecting other persons. Although Chandiwalal had come to know that Madanlal had thrown the bomb he never tried to find out who was behind the offence.

  12F.8 Dr. Sushila Nayyar, witness No.53, was questioned next. She stated that nobody in the ashram (Bapu's entourage) could imagine that anybody would do harm to Mahatma Gandhi. They took the fatalistic attitude that as long as God wanted the Mahatma to serve the country, he would. There were rumours that the Mahatma's life may be in danger and that is why security men in plain clothes were stationed in Birla House and the plain clothes policemen had to hide themselves behind bushes to keep themselves out of Mahatma's sight.

  12F.12 Pyarelal, witness No.54 said, 'when the Mahatma learnt about the bomb he at once said that there was a conspiracy to murder him'. Previous to that he had thought that it was just a military practice.

  12F.14 He knew that Madanlal had been arrested and Gandhiji had said that he (Madanlal) should not be harassed.

  12F.15 Mahatmaji was convinced that there was a conspiracy but he did not know its extent or its nature. The witness had never been able to reconcile himself to the failure of the police to trace the people mentioned by Madanlal in time. Either it was inefficiency or there was a lack of will.

  These three testimonies of persons very close to Gandhi reveal yet another lapse that facilitated his murderer. This time it was the turn of the most trusted to let him down. As per the testimony of the persons living with Gandhi or in charge of the arrangements, whenever he went to attend the prayer meeting he would be ringed by a chain of volunteers. The sturdier Ashramites and volunteers would walk ahead of him clearing a path, the rest would form a impenetrable ring around him so that the crowds in their eagerness to touch him and receive his blessings would not hinder his progress or trip him. Inexplicably after the bomb attack the Ashramites and volunteers scaled down this arrangements till only Chandiwala and Gurdayal Singh would walk in front of Gandhiji clearing a path. On the fateful day, both Chandiwala and Gurdayal Singh were not even doing this. Nathuram Godse could, without a hitch, get close to Bapu and shoot him from less then three feet away. There was never a satisfactory answer as to why a practice which had not even been objected too by the Mahatma himself was suddenly discontinued.

  The next witness was Manuben Gandhi, granddaughter of Gandhiji's brother. Manuben was one of the girls who had come to be known as Gandhiji's 'walking sticks', and was one of the persons nearest to Mahatma Gandhi at the time of his murder. There is an interesting tale. When the Kapur Commission summoned Manuben, Morarji Desai called her and told her—'Manu youmust only tell the Commission that you were very young at the time of Gandhiji's murder and too much time has passed since, so you do not remember anything.' Manuben replied, 'I am Gandhiji's daughter and I have been taught to tell the truth and I will only tell the truth.' This incident was narrated to me (the author) recently by a person who was present in the room when Morarji Desai spoke to Manuben.

  12F.16 Manuben Gandhi, witness No. 99, stated that they had no knowledge of danger to the Mahatma's life till after the bomb attack.

  12F.17 The members of the Mahatma's party did feel that there was danger for about two or three days after the bomb incident but after that everybody thought it was alright. Mahatma did not agree to special protection and he only allowed guards to be put there to satisfy the Sardar. He believed in the protection of God. She also said that Mahatmaji's reaction to search of visitors was that he would have rather died than allowed it.

  12F. 18 This evidence does not show that the inmates of the Birla House and those who were round about the Mahatma were quite alive to the danger to his life so much so that one of them even did not know whether Madanlal had been arrested or not, or whether it was one man who was arrested or more than one man, and they never found out if he had made any statement or what statement he had made. As far as they were concerned, they took no precautions of any kind to protect the Mahatma.

  12F.22 Assuming though not deciding that the police was negligent, extremely negligent, even inefficient, this simple precaution (of four to five people flanking him) should in any case have been taken if for nothing else then to prevent the people who were over-zealous. It is still more surprising that even the Congress volunteers (Seva Dal) were told that it was no longer necessary for them to look after the safety of the Mahatma which in the opinion of the Commission was a serious lapse.

  12F.38 Witness No. 11 Brij Krishan Chandiwala said that once a young man came to him in an agitated mood and he said he wanted to see Mahatmaji and if he was not allowed to do so the witness would be sorry for it. He (Chandiwala) could not say who he (the young man) was; it might be that the man wanted to tell Gandhiji that his life was in danger or he might have become a murderer himself. The witness reiterated that he could not imagine that the police would become so careless as not to protect Gandhiji.

  112F.41 The statement of this witness does not show that the inmates of Gandhiji's camp realised the danger to Mahatma Gandhi's life. It also appears that they were not getting correct information which is shown by the witness saying that two or three persons were arrested on the 20th and that later on a policeman had told them that names of nine persons had been ascertained and they were being traced.

  12F.56 Pyarelal Nayar, witness No. 54, said, Sardar Patel did say thai Muslims could stay in India and they will get protection but they must not have divided loyalties. Mahatma Gandhi exhorted the Muslims to condemn the abduction of Hindu women and that those Hindu women should be restored and asked the Muslims to make a public statement that those women should be restored to their families but no organised Muslim society issued any such appeal as far as the witness could remember, but individuals might have done so. Mahatma Gandhi said he would not be surprised if in spite of all the homage paid to him by leaders, they would say one day 'We have had enough of this old man: why does not he leave us alone?' This was in connection with the general fall of standards which had come in Congress ranks and growing corruption which Mahatma Gandhi found in Congressmen and their deviation from the path of non-violence.

  12F.77 Witness No. 3 Vishwanath Shah, deposing before Pande said—A woman in Birla House told him that some people used tc roam about the Birla House whom she suspected. She was the wife of a driver, most probably Sulochana Devi, an important eyewitness who identified Madanlal as the bomber and also saw his accomplices. The witness told the police about this. The woman identified Madanlal Pahwa and said that he and his companions used to roam about Birla House.

  12F.79 Manuben Gandhi, Witness No. 99 told the commission: When we mentioned to the Mahatma about the danger to his life, he just laughed and said 'If God wishes that I should live, I shall live and if he does not wish me to live then He would take me away'. After the bomb was thrown Lady Mountbatten came to congratulate the Mahatma. The Mahatma said to Lady Mountbatten, 'On this occasion I have shown no bravery. If somebody fired at me point-blank and I faced his bullet with a smile, repeating the name of Rama in my heart, I shall indeed be deserving of congratulations.'

  12F.82 The most important part of this witness's statement is her deposition about the visit of Nathuram Godse on 30 January 1948. Manuben claimed that, at about noon Nathuram Godse came to Birla House. Nobody stopped him because people used to come like that 'and we did not think that it was anybody special who had come'. He must have come by the back door; quite a number of people used to do so. The Mahatma, at the time when Nathuram came, was sleepin
g outside in the sun and if he wanted he could have shot him there. She was certain it was Nathuram Godse who came because when he fired the fatal shots she was present and she recognised him to be the same person who had come on that day. Her feeling was that when he came at noon he was overawed by the very presence of the Mahatma.

  12F.85 She was asked whether the Mahatma was miserable about what was happening around him, her answer was 'Yes'. When asked whether Mahatma was unhappy because of what was happening in the country or because of the consequences of the partition, her answer was 'because of both; both these affected him.' She was asked whether Mahatma was unhappy because the Government misbehaved or the people were misbehaving or both were misbehaving. Her answer again was: 'because of both.'

  12F.88 She was asked if Mahatma used to receive threatening letters in January 1948, her reply was in the affirmative.

  12F.89 She stated that she was surprised, rather annoyed to see the same man stopping the Mahatma because he had been there in the morning, but she did not think there was any danger from the man because he had folded both his hands and she thought he was going to pay respects to the Mahatma. Nathuram Godse in his statement in court had stated he had his revolver in his folded hands. If that is so, it is surprising why nobody spotted it in the audience not even those leading the procession. (Nathuram's claim seems doubtful, I (the writer) have handled the Beretta semi-automatic pistol used by Nathuram. There is no way a person could hide the pistol in folded palms, it is too big and too heavy to be held that way. The likely scenario is that Nathuram first folded his palms, then lashed out at Manuben and in the same action pulled out the gun from his pocket and shot Gandhi.)

  12F.91 Manuben is rather an important witness. She was closely related to the Mahatma and was closely associated with him. She was one of the two girls who used to conduct him to prayer meetings and was slightly ahead of the Mahatma at the time of the murder. And when she makes a statement, no doubt after 21 years, that Nathuram came to Birla House unchecked and was shown the places where Mahatma slept, worked and had his meals and actually saw him sleeping in the grounds, the commission should be reluctant to disregard it.