Kerala Assembly berates Gandhi shooting'

Thiruvananthapuram: The state Assembly on Friday condemned the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha’s symbolic assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in Aligarh on Martyrs’ Day on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who agreed to Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala’s demand that the House should condemn the incident, said that the incident was cruel and barbaric. He lambasted the Hindu Mahasabha for glorifying Godse and defaming Gandhi. Those who indulged in such an act should be framed under sedition charge, he said.

The UP police arrested five activists of Mahasabha for the act. Puja Shakun Pandey, national secretary of the organisation, had shot at the effigy of Gandhiji with an airgun and distributed sweets to commemorate the assassination outside the Mahasaba office on Wednesday. She also garlanded the statue of Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. Puja and her husband, ABHM spokesperson Ashok Pandy, were absconding.

The website of the Mahasabha was hacked by a group called ‘Kerala Cyber Warriors’ on Thursday. It also posted ‘Hindu Mahasabha Murdabad’ on the home page of the website  along with a message which read: “Gandhiji has remained an inspiration for people globally to follow the right path, the path of non- violence in all their actions.”