Savarkar's Grandnephew Says Godse Was RSS Worker, Cong Seeks Sangh Clarity

Mumbai: Congress on Tuesday demanded that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) issue a clarification on a statement made in court by Satyaki Savarkar, V D Savarkar's grandnephew, that Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse was a member of the Sangh.

During the hearing of his defamation complaint against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday, Satyaki Savarkar stated, in reply to a question by the defence, that his maternal grandfather Nathuram Godse and his brother Gopal Godse were "active workers" of the RSS.

In post on X, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant claimed that since Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in January 1948, the RSS has maintained that the Godse brothers had no connection with the organisation.

"Now, after this revelation, the RSS must answer. Did the RSS lie to the people? It must provide an answer," Sawant said.

He also referred to a September 11, 1948 letter by then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to RSS chief M S Golwalkar.

In the letter, Patel had said that opposition to the RSS had intensified after its members "expressed joy and distributed sweets" following Gandhi's death, noted Sawant.

Satyaki Savarkar has dragged Rahul Gandhi to court for allegedly defaming Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, freedom-fighter and Hindutva ideologue, in a speech.

During the cross-examination on Monday, Gandhi's lawyer advocate Milind Pawar asked whether the Godse brothers were active workers of the RSS. Satyaki replied, "It is true that my grandfather Gopal Godse and Nathuram Godse were active workers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh."

Nathuram Godse was also a worker of the Hindu Mahasabha, he further said.

But he did not know whether Gopal Godse had given an interview to Frontline magazine on January 28, 1994, or whether Nathuram Godse was working as a "bauddhik karyavah" of the RSS in 1944, he stated.

Satyaki's counsel advocate Sangram Kolhatkar objected to the questions relating to the RSS and Gandhi's assassination, arguing that they were not connected to the case.

Satyaki Savarkar filed a complaint in 2023 before the magistrate alleging that Rahul Gandhi claimed in a speech in London that V D Savarkar had written in a book that he and his friends once beat up a Muslim man, and he (Savarkar) felt happy. V D Savarkar never wrote any such thing, the complaint said.