GUWAHATI, Oct 24 - A schoolteacher of Karimganj and a university teacher here have triggered a controversy with their comments on Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.
The schoolteacher, in a Facebook post, said that Nathuram �committed a grave mistake� by leaving Nehru alive, while killing the Mahatma.
The Karimganj school teacher is known as a staunch supporter of the State�s ruling dispensation. His post has perhaps made the above desire of a section in the saffron camp public, which has so far remained implicit.
Things would not have assumed so much importance, if a Guwahati-based university teacher had not rated this controversial post of the schoolteacher as �the best comment of the year�.
Unfortunate though, this university teacher is related to Cotton University.
The above post of the Karimganj school teacher is considered by some circles here as the test-fire by the saffron camp with the intent to build a high podium for Nathuram Godse in the popular psyche of Assam too.
For the purpose, the first cannon was test-fired from Barak Valley, as it is considered to be the safe haven of this camp because the Citizenship (Amendment) Act has provided the saffron camp a wider support base among the Hindu Bengalis there.
As part of the plan, the first salvo has been endorsed by none other than a teacher of a leading university of the Brahmaputra Valley, like Cotton, with which the sentiment of the State�s people is deeply
associated.
Commenting on this development, noted social scientist and former professor of the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Apurba Kumar Baruah said India, inherited by the BJP rulers and their ideologues, is essentially the creation of the leaders like the Mahatma, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and BR Ambedkar. The Hindus of Assam have big differences with the Hindus of the northern and western parts of India in terms of cultural and religious practices. Assam�s concept of Hinduism is inclusive, unlike the Hinduism practised in northern and western India. The Hinduism practised in the Northern and Western parts of India has now been developed as the core of the Hindutva ideology of the saffron camp, said Prof Baruah.
He made an appeal to the indigenous communities of Assam to be on guard, saying that the Hindutva ideology is not only an instrument of political hegemony, but also a powerful tool for subjugation of the smaller ethnic identities.
Commenting on the above assertion made on Nathuram by the Karimganj school teacher and the support extended to him by a Cotton University teacher, noted educationist and writer Jyotirmoy Jana described the proponents of Nathuram as �ministers of darkness� like the witches portrayed by Shakespeare in the first scene of the first act of Macbeth. The witches in this scene shrieked in chorus � �Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air�.
All that is good to others is evil to them (Nathuram�s supporters) and all that is foul to others is good to them, said Jana.
