Godse should not be glorified or vilified: Author

Anup Sardesai, whose controversial book "Nathuram Godse - The Story of an Assassin" kicked up a political storm in Goa on its release on the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi, says Gandhi's killer should neither be glorified nor vilified.
"As far as murder is concerned, the killing should never be justified. I must confess that while writing the book I was neither condemning the murder nor glorifying it. My personal opinion is that Nathuram Godse should not be vilified nor glorified," Sardesai told PTI.
"If we understand his (Godse's) psyche, such murders can be prevented in future. In India even today, a common man has no voice...This is why violence goes to the extreme," the 44-year-old author said.

Sardesai said while writing the book he had spent a considerable time with Godse's family in Pune.
"I met Godse's family in Pune. They are well off, but even today they are called as the family of Gandhi's killers. There was a Facebook post by Vaidehi Godse on Gandhi Jayanti. She said even today we respect Gandhi," Sardesai said, adding "don't glorify him as an assassin but don't vilify the family."
About the book, Sardesai said it was launched in mid- October last year online on Flipkart and Amazon.

"I was waiting for the official launch of the book to see the response from the people. It was sold online and people accepted it. No one sought a ban on it," he said referring to the controversy raised by the newly formed party Goa Forward and Independent legislator Vijai Sardesai during the book launch.

On January 29, the BJP-led government in Goa had disallowed use of its premises for the scheduled release of the book on January 30 (Mahatma's death anniversary) amid protests and to possibly avoid a potential controversy.
Goa Forward, launched by former State Election Commissioner Prabhkar Timble recently, opposed letting out of the government premises for the release of the book which it termed as an "unpatriotic cause".
Sardesai said the book has four chapters. The first
chapter deals with childhood, youth and professional life of Godse, how he met Savarkar, how he started a newspaper, right up to India's partition.

"The second chapter is the assassination. That is the modus operandi, how he and his friends went to Delhi. Their January 20 attempt was unsuccessful...After that they came back. Then Godse took it upon himself to kill Mahatma on 30th.
"Of these two chapters, 90 per cent is in public domain, only thing is that newspaper articles which Godse wrote for 'Agrani' (newspaper) were not in any books," he said.
The writer claims the third chapter touches upon something entirely new which the Indians are unaware of.
"After Mahatma was killed there were riots from February 1 onwards. Government record says only 25-30 people died but the toll actually was over 300-400. VD Savarkar's younger brother was killed. Nathuram's sister-in-law along with two children were thrown on to roads,their house was burnt," he claimed.

Sardesai says he thought of writing this book after reading "The Man who Killed Gandhi" by Manohar Mulgaonkar and "Let's Kill Gandhi" by Tushar Gandhi.